"The Banquet (Il Convito)" by Dante Alighieri is an unfinished work which consists of four books, or, "tratatti": a prefatory one, plus three books that each include a canzone and a prose allegorical interpretation or commentary of the poem. The Convivio is a kind of vernacular encyclopedia of the knowledge of Dante's time; it touches on many areas of learning, not only philosophy but also politics, linguistics, science, astronomy, and history. The treatise begins with the prefatory book, or proem, which explains why a book like the Convivio is needed and why Dante is writing it in the vernacular instead of Latin. It is one of Dante's early defenses of the vernacular

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1887 Edition.

Dante has been called "the Father of the Italian language". In Italy, Dante is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta ("the Supreme Poet") and il Poeta; he, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also called "the three fountains" or "the three crowns". Let those come to us -- whosoever they be -- who, pressed by the management of civil and domestic life, have felt the human hunger for True Knowledge . . . and let all of us sit together at one table -- for the Banquet! Written in his final days, after the completion of his masterful Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri's The Banquet presents many of his most compelling thoughts as to how a life of maturity and civility should be conducted.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1889 Edition.

Dante's Convivio, written 1304-07, is the first major prose document in the Italian language. This new translation is based on the recent Italian critical edition of Maria Simonelli and includes as well the text of the three Italian canzoni. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR