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Primary sourceBook1300

Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare

Dante Alighieri · 1300

A sonnet by Dante from the Vita Nuova, praising his beloved Beatrice in the style of the 'sweet new style' poets.

Dante composed this sonnet himself as part of his autobiographical love poetry collection, the Vita Nuova.

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Source: Wikisource

About this source

What it is

This sonnet appears in Dante's Vita Nuova, a prosimetrum work mixing poetry and prose about his love for Beatrice. It is considered his best-known lyric poem from that collection.

Why it matters

The poem is a model example of the stilnovist style, which idealised the beloved woman as almost divine. It shows how Dante, as a young poet, shaped a new way of writing about love in Italian that influenced later poets.

Look closer

  • What words does the poet use to describe Beatrice's effect on others?
  • Why might Dante compare her to something that comes from heaven?
  • How does this poem differ in tone from the darker cantos of the Divine Comedy?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Dante Alighieri on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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