Cino da Pistoia. “Sonnet (to Dante Alighieri). He answers the foregoing Sonnet [Dante's Sonnet. To Cino Da Pistoia. Written in Exile], and prays him, in the name of Beatrice, to continue his great Poem.”

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, 728-729

◦ Foster and Boyd, Dante's Lyric Poetry, I.196-197 (II. 318-321) .

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

Cino's sonnet is a response to a sonnet of Dante's written in exile. DGR's note to the last line argues that Cino is referring to the Commedia, but that is by no means certain.

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 112).

Textual History: Composition

Probably an early translation, 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: 192d-1861.raw.xml