La Vita Nuova: Love Poems (Macmillan Collector's Library)

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

In La Vita Nuova, Dante describes how his passionate love for Beatrice grows from their very first childhood encounter.

This edition is the English translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which was first published in The Early Italian Poets in 1861 and was met with great critical acclaim.

Through poems, sonnets and prose Dante recalls each meeting with Beatrice, endures her rejection and even her untimely death. He vows to honour her and to express his devotion and love for her through his poetry. Set in 13th century Florence, this is Dante’s first major work. This short book is at once a heartfelt account of youthful love and a religious allegory. La Vita Nuova serves as an important precursor to Dante’s masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.