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quotations from nine poems, canzoni and sestine. In addition to these there is a collection of between ninety and a hundred lyrical poems attributed to Dante, some of which are almost certainly not his. 3 Such of the poems of the
Canzoniere
as do not belong to the
Vita Nuova
and
Convivio
appear to have been composed at various times as independent pieces, though attempts have been made to distinguish one or more definite groups. Both Villani and Boccaccio make mention of Dante’s lyrical poems. The former says: 4 “When he was in exile he wrote about twenty very excellent canzoni, both moral and on the subject of love”. Boccaccio says: 5 “He composed numerous lengthy canzoni, and sonnets, and sundry ballate, both amorous and moral, besides those which are included in the
Vita
Nuova
”. 6 The earliest printed collection of Dante’s lyrical poems is that included in
Sonetti e Canzoni di diversi antichi Autori Toscani in dieci libri raccolte
(Florence, 1527), the first four books of which contain forty-five sonnets, nineteen canzoni, eleven ballate, and one sestina, attributed to Dante. A few, however, of the canzoni and madrigali (as they are described) had been printed at Venice in 1518, and reprinted at Milan in the same year, in a collection entitled
Canzoni di Dante
.
Madrigali del detto
.
Madrigali di M
.
Cino et di M
.
Girardo Novello
. Fifteen canzoni of Dante are printed at the end of the
editio princeps
of the
Vita Nuova
(Florence, 1576).
    Â Â Â Â 
Vita Nuova
.—Dante’s
Vita Nuova
or
New Life
(i.e. according to some, his “young life,” but more probably his “life made new” by his love for Beatrice), the first autobiographical work in modern literature, as it has been described, was written probably between 1292 and 1295, when Dante was under thirty, and some seven or eight years before his exile from Florence. The poems were obviously written before the prose text, which was necessarily composed later than the death of Beatrice in 1290.
    Â Â Â Â  The following positive dates are supplied by Dante in the course of the narrative of the
Vita Nuova
, viz. that he first saw Beatrice in the spring of 1274, when he had nearly completed his ninth year (§ 2, 11. 1-5, 15), and shewas at the beginning of her ninth year (§ 2, 11.9-15); that Beatrice saluted him for the first time nine years later, in the spring of 1283 (§ 3, 11. 1-15), when he wrote the sonnet, “A ciascun’ alma presa e gentil core’ (
Son
. i.), his earliest known composition; that Beatrice died on the evening of 8 June, 1290 7 (§ 30, 11. 1-13); that on the first anniversary of her death (8 June, 1291) he wrote the sonnet, “Era venuta nella mente mia” (
Son
. xviii.), in commemoration of her (§ 35, 11. 1-20); that not long after (i.e. probably as appears from
Convivio
, ii. 2, 11. 1-10, in September, 1291), 8 he saw for the first time the “donna gentile” (whom some have identified with Gemma Donati) 9 (§ 36, 11. 1-13). To these, if the identity of Beatrice with Beatrice Portinari be accepted, may be added the date of the death of Folco Portinari, 10 viz. 31 December, 1289 (§ 22, 11. 1-7).
    Â Â Â Â  Boccaccio, who asserts that in later life Dante was ashamed of this work of his youth, 11 gives the following account of the
Vita Nuova
:—
    Â Â Â Â  “This glorious poet composed several works in his time, of which I think it fitting to make mention in order, lest any work of his be claimed by another, or the works of others be perchance attributed to him.
    Â Â Â Â  “He, first of all, while his tears for the death of Beatrice were yet fresh, when he was nigh upon his twenty-sixthyear, collected together in a little volume, to which he gave the title of
Vita Nuova
, certain small works, such as sonnets and canzoni, composed by him in rime at divers times before, and of marvellous beauty. Above each of these,