The Banquet

1304–07; The Banquet). In this piece, generally considered one of the first sustained works of literary criticism in the modern manner, the poet analyzes the four levels of meaning contained in his own poems.

1304–07; The Banquet).

1304–07; The Banquet), revealing his detailed knowledge of Scholastic philosophy, is, though incomplete, the first great example of a treatise in vernacular prose; its language avoids the ingenuousness of popular writers and the artificiality of the translators from Latin. De vulgari eloquentia (c. 1304–07; “Concerning Vernacular…