Cino da Pistoia. “Sonnet. He condemns Dante for not naming, in the Commedia, his friend Onesto di Boncima, and his Lady Selvaggia.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1849?; 1861
Rhyme: abbaabbacdecde
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

“Introduction to Part II” (in The Early Italian Poets), 206-211

◦ Marti ed., Poeti del dolce stil nuovo, 922-923

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the Early Italian Poets text..

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

Cino's sonnet is marked by some genial ironies that DGR's translation does not render. It is difficult not to believe that the translation was included in DGR's collection for programmatic reasons, i.e., in order to suggest that Dante's work defines not a completed ideal world, but a model for idealized pursuits and commitments.

See also the commentary for the source text, which was Sebastiano Ciampi's edition of the Vita e Poesie di Messer Cino da Pistoia (page 110). DGR has a general note to the sonnet, as well as some specific glosses.

Textual History: Composition

Probably an early work, late 1840s.

Printing History

The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 188d-1861.raw.xml