Dante and the Dynamics of Textual Exchange: Authorship, Manuscript Culture, and the Making of the 'Vita Nova'(Dante's World: Historicizing Literary Cultures of the Due and Trecento)

Dante and the Dynamics of Textual Exchange is the first book-length study to explore the question of poetry and genre in Dante's Vita Nova (ca. 1292–1294). In paying particular attention to complex and multifaceted interactions between different cultures in Italy in the thirteenth century, this study illuminates the multicultural and plurilinguistic society transitioning from the feudal court to the modern city-state, advanced by the rising mercantile class. Working at the intersection of textual, material, and cultural elements, this study complements the current state of scholarship by providing information and answers informed by an in-depth analysis of the manuscript culture and its role in the birth and development of European vernacular traditions. Furthermore, Dante and the Dynamics of Textual Exchange expands the literature's understanding of the dynamics between a text and its material support by looking at this relationship within a broader framework of intercultural exchange, which suggests an increased dynamics and fluidity between cultures.

About the Author :
Jelena Todorović is Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Review :
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.-----Michael Papio, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 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.-----Fabian Alfie, University of Arizona