Dante and the Dynamics of Textual Exchange

With this study, Todorovic makes a valuable contribution to scholarship on Dante’s Vita Nova. She situates Dante’s libello in the broader culture of book production of the Middle Ages, exploring the confluence of forces that shaped his composition of the prosimetrum. Through her ground-breaking analysis, Todorovic demonstrates how Dante hybridized the philosophical work of Boethius, the Latin commentaries of accessus ad auctores, and the vernacular tradition of vidas and razos in an early example of his literary experimentalism. For years to come, Dante criticism will need to take account of the insights Todorovic presents here.

Todorovic's excellent study reconstructs for us the young Dante’s understanding of authorship based upon his readings of Boethius, medieval and classical Latin, Old Occitan, and the vernacular tradition. Her attention to detail, and her admirable familiarity with the often complicated source material, make this volume useful to anyone interested in Dante and, indeed, one that will find a place on any serious scholar's bookshelf.