Messrs Duckworth & Co!s New Books. 



WITTE, DR KARL. 



WITTE'S ESSAYS ON DANTE. Selected, translated 

 and edited, with Introduction, Notes and Appendices by 

 C. Mabel Lawrence, B.A., and. Philip H. Wicksteed, 

 M.A. With a Plan of Florence. Pp. xxiv + 448. 

 Large crown 8vo, buckram cloth. 7s. 6d. 



During the whole of the central portion of this century Dr Karl Witte was actively 

 engaged in Dante studies, and his translations, editions, and essays constitute a more 

 important contribution to the revived and deepened study of Dante than any other 

 single scholar can boast to have made. He is the acknowledged master of Scartazzini, 

 Giuliani, and others ; and in especial, his conception of Dante's Trilogy (that is to say, 

 his idea as to the mutual relations of the Vita Nuova, the Convito, and the Comedy) 

 underlies all subsequent work on the inner meaning and articulation of Dante's writ- 

 ings. Dr Witte collected the essays in which this and many subsidiary points are 

 elaborated in two volumes. They are published at the high price of ;^i, 8s., which 

 makes them out of the reach of many even of those Dante students to whom the 

 languages in which they are written (German for the most part, but occasionally 

 Italian) offer no difficulties. Some of them are of little interest to the general circle 

 of Dante students, dealing as they do with German translations of the Comedy or 

 German works on Dante ; but the remaining essays constitute an invaluable body of 

 investigations, of great variety of interest, ranging from a general survey of Dante's 

 mental development or a presentation of his conception of the Universe, to the discus- 

 sion of biographical details or the identification of the authors and relative antiquities 

 of ancient commentaries. The above translation includes all of Dr Witte's essays that 

 have any general interest. 



In an introduction, and in special notes in the several essays, the Editor gives the 

 student the means of checking Dr Witte's results in doubtful or speculative matters by 

 reference to the original sources, or to essays written from another point of view, but he 

 carefully abstains from fretting the reader by a running commentary of criticism 

 interrupting the essays themselves. 



Daily Telegraph.—" No higher testimony can be borne to the value of Dr Karl 

 Witte's ' Essays on Dante' now presented to the English reader than to say that they 

 will prove of immense service to Dante's innumerable admirers to whom they were, in 

 their original German, a sealed book. After a careful perusal of the volume, the reader 

 finds himself abreast of the latest Dantesque scholarship, presented in a dispassionate 

 and judicial manner. We repeat that Dr Witte's * Essays' are deeply interesting and 

 deserve cordial recognition from all who follow an interesting and fascinating study." 



Scotsman.— " English students of Dante owe a welcome to the volume. The 

 translation has been executed with a scholarship and literary piety seldom exemplified 

 except in connection with the classical authors of ancient Greece and Rome. The book, 

 as a whole, forms a valuable addition to the English books available to students of 

 Dante, and reflects a high credit both on the skill and on the erudition of its translators." 



Echo. — "Invaluable studies. We desire most cordially to commend these essays to 

 the notice of all who know, however slightly, the great medieval poet's work." 



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