Books

Colophon: Impresso in Firenze per ser Francesco Bonaccorsi Nel anno mille quattrocento nouanta Adi. xx. di septembre (20 September 1490). 4to. A-k8-l10. 90 ll., 38 lines. Types: 112 R., text; 79 R., commentary. Ivory vellum, flat spine with handwritten title, blue edges. 18th century Italian binding. 204 x 138 mm. First edition of one of Dante's masterpieces. Hain 5954. Written in Italian during his exile between 1304 and 1307, the Convivio - The Feast - is probably the most direct work in which Dante sets forth the general philosophic problematic that drives him. This treatise was aimed to contain all human knowledge. Indeed, it contains questions of politics, philosophy and love. Dante was the first to defend the use of the vernacular language, which he considered superior to Latin in terms of beauty and nobility of language. "The first extended piece of original expository prose in the Italian vernacular" (Lansing, Dante, encyclopedia, pp. 224-232). The three fundamental themes…

Convivio (The Banquet) is a work by Dante Alighieri that serves as a commentary on several of his own songs. It was intended to provide Dante's views on ethics, logic, and natural philosophy.