[Andrew Frisardi]

There are a number of factual errors in the review. I sent a letter to the editor at The New Republic about a couple of them (working within the 200-word limit), and for the record I’ll also print that letter here:

Dear Editor:

I write to correct two of the errors in Helen Vendler’s review of Dante’s Vita Nova, a book I translated, introduced, and annotated.

One error involves why I spelled the title Vita Nova rather than the better-known Vita Nuova.In Italy, where I’ve been living for thirteen years, recent editions of the Vita Nova are spelled as mine is. The reason for this is not, as Vendler claims, only to reproduce the Latin vita nova (new life) that opens Dante’s story. As my preface explains, in Dante’s time orthography wasn’t standardized, so “new” could be written novo or nuovo. Dante uses both, more often novo. My title’s spelling, then, reflects the archaic, nonacademic flavor of Dante’s Italian, not merely the Latin phrase.

Vendler writes that Dante in the Vita Nova values “the binding of one sound-syllable to another” in his poems far more than the “semantic articulation” in them—i.e., that meanings are overwhelmed by sound patterns. However, many poems in the Vita Nova are well known (to Dante aficionados) for their urgent, dense theological, philosophical, and mystical themes, later developed in the Divine Comedy. My notes section explains this in some detail.

Andrew Frisardi
Orvieto, Italy