Literature in the Vernacular

1304–07; Concerning Vernacular Eloquence], a companion piece, presumably written in coordination with Book I, is primarily a practical treatise in the art of poetry based upon an elevated poetic language.) Dante became the great advocate of its use, and in the final sentence of Book I…

Literature in the Vernacular), written about the same time but in Latin, contains the first theoretical discussion and definition of the Italian literary language. Both these works remained unfinished. In a later doctrinal work, also in Latin, De monarchia (written c. 1313; On Monarchy), Dante…

…despite the fact that in De vulgari eloquentia (“Of Eloquence in the Vulgar Tongue”) Dante calls him the best Italian love poet, a judgment not held by later critics. Some of his poems are biographical, such as his canzoni to Dante on the death of Beatrice. Most of them, however,…