beath's Modern Language Series DANTE ALIGHIERI LA DIVINA COMMEDIA EDITED AND ANNOTATED BY C. H. GRANDGENT PROFESSOR OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES IN VOL. I INFERNO BOSTON, U.S.A. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS PREFACE THIS work, the first annotated edition of the Italian text of the Divine Comedy published in America, is intended primarily for the general literary public, though adapted also to academic use. I have aimed to make it so complete that readers will need, for the comprehension of the poem, no other book save their dictionary; but to those (may they be many!) who may be led to push their inquiry further, a great abundance of bibliographical suggestion has been offered. Remembering how often the Commedia is read and enjoyed by persons whose Italian equipment is scanty, I have explained in the notes many words and forms that present no difficulty to the experienced student. On the other hand, I have endeavored, by discarding a vast accumulation of interesting but unnecessary erudition, so to curtail the annotation that the reader's attention shall not be constantly distracted from the text. This alleviation has been facilitated by the relegation of all lengthy discussions and involved explanations to the arguments that precede the several cantos. In my interpretation I have tried to give the 'allegorical and true meaning,' as Dante calls it, the place it deserves, but seldom receives, beside the literal. The text here printed is based on the latest edition of Moore's Oxford Dante; I have, however, not neglected the recent investigations of other scholars. The punctuation has been made to conform, as far as possible, to modern English standards. I am under obligations to all the authorities cited in the following pages. For many notes I owe a particular debt to Torraca's edition and to Norton's translation of the poem. It gives me pleasure to acknowledge also the special benefit I have derived from the works of Moore, Toynbee, Gardner, Del Lungo, Novati, D' Ovidio, Zingarelli, Flamini, and Vossler. CAMBRIDGE, October 1, 1908. C. H. GRANDGENT. |