Dante’s first known work, Vita Nova or New Life, heavily centers around the relationship, or lack thereof, between Dante and Beatrice. As I mentioned in a previous post, my first academic encounter with Dante was Vita Nova. I was, and still am, fascinated by the one-sided relationship Dante seems to have with Beatrice in Vita Nova which seems to expand into more of a reciprocal relationship in Purgatorio. I say this because in Vita Nova Dante and Beatrice only have a few interactions of little to no consequence other than in Dante’s mind. I remember wondering last year if Beatrice would have even known who Dante was or just vaguely recognized his face if they passed by each other on the street.

When Beatrice finally comes to Dante’s side for the first time in La Commedia, I immediately found my copy of Vita Nova* to see what comparisons I could find. I decided not to immediately read the Purgatorio footnotes for Canto 30 since I wanted to see what I could come up with organically, almost like a small test of my analyzing skills.

Both times Dante sees Beatrice for the “first” time (the true first time on Earth and the first time during his journey outside the earthly realm) he almost immediately describes her clothing. After three very long sentences in Vita Nova, amounting to about half a page, where Dante uses astrological terms to explain how old he and Beatrice are at the time of this first sighting, in the fourth he writes:

“She appeared, dressed in a very stately color, a subdued and dignified crimson, girdled and adorned in a manner that was fitting for her young age” (page 3).

In Purgatorio, Dante again immediately describes her clothing before he talks about her effect on him, writing:

“her white veil girt with olive, a lady appeared to me, clothed, beneath a green mantle, in the color of living flame” (lines 31-33).

Both times Dante sees Beatrice she is clothed in red. I have a note handwritten in my copy of Vita Nova that I am almost sure was information Professor Van Peteghem told us in class explaining that crimson was linked to grief after death during Dante’s time. If that is true, it juxtaposes the two shades of red perfectly. The first is linked to death and the other to the living flame.

The second time Dante sees Beatrice in Vita Nova he once again describes her clothing, writing that the “marvelous lady appeared to me dressed in pure white, between two gracious women, both of whom were older than she” (page 4). This white is again seen in the description of her veil in Purgatory. The two gracious women that Dante sees Beatrice accompanied by in this quote sparked my interest as well. In Canto 2 of Inferno, I had found it very odd that it took two intermediaries, St Mary and St Lucy, to intercede with Beatrice on Dante’s behalf so that she would ask Virgil to help him. It is a possibility in both cases that Dante has the total be three women due to the holiness of the number three, however, I am curious if there might be a link between the two women Dante sees Beatrice with in Vita Nova and the two women that are intermediaries to Beatrice in Inferno.

Unfortunately, I could not find any mention of the color green in Vita Nova which makes this comparison fall just a little short. I went as far as to find a digital copy and keyword search everything I could think of, including mentions of olives and leaves, which was to no avail. Never the less, I am still satisfied with the comparisons I did find between Vita Nova and Purgatorio.

*All quotations from Vita Nova are from the Andrew Frisardi edition published in 2012.

Paper Idea: I would like to examine the similarities and differences between any women represented by both Dante and Christine de Pizan if you think it is a good idea for a paper.