Covering the centuries of 1100, 1200 and 1300 in the original metres together with Dante's Vita Nuova.
 
In this collection, Dante Gabriel Rossetti brings the early Italian poets to an English-speaking audience. Beginning with the Sicilian poets of the court of Frederick II in the 13th century, Rossetti traces the development of Italian poetry leading up to Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The book provides translations of sonnets, canzones, and ballads from famous poets like Guido Cavalcanti and Cino da Pistoia, as well as lesser known figures. Rossetti not only translates their poems into lyrical English, but provides context about the poets’ lives and literary movements. Though the early Italian poets are less familiar to English readers compared to Dante, Rossetti shows how they helped shape Dante’s masterpiece through their philosophical ideas and poetic forms like the sonnet. This volume illuminates the foundations of Italian poetic tradition.