| De Vulgari Eloquentia |
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The first book deals with the relationship between Latin and Vernacular , and the searching of an ''illustrious vernacular'' in the Italian area, while the second is an analysis of the structure of the Song , a very important and noble Literary Genre . Latin essays were very popular in the of vernacular, because, in his opinion, this language was not something static, but something that Evolves and needed an Historical contextualisation. STRUCTURE Dante interrupted his work at the fourteenth chapter of the second book, and though historians have tried to find a reason for this, it is still not known why Dante so abruptly aborted his essay. Indeed it is an unfinished project, and so information about its intended structure are limited. Though at some point, Dante mentions a fourth book in which he planned to deal with the Comic Genre , the mediocre one, nothing at all is known about the third book. It is thought, however, that the first book was meant to be a sort of preface to the following three books, and so shorter than the other ones. CONTENT In the beginning, Dante faced the historical evolution of the , Oïl Language and Sì Language . He then discussed the Grammar , which is a static language consisting of unchanging rules, needed to make up for the Natural Language s. In the chapters ten to fifteen of the first book, Dante writes about his research for the Illustrious Vernacular , among the fourteen varieties he claims to have found in the Italian region. In the second book, Dante deals with literary genres, specifying which are the ones that suit the vernacular. MODELS Dante takes inspiration from Rhetoric essays in Latin, Occitan and Italian , and from philosophical readings. The main classic rhetoric text from which he draw informations were the '' Ars Poetica '' by Orazio, the '' Rhetorica Ad Herennium '' by an anonymous author, and '' De Inventione '' by Cicero . About the philosophical works, it's important to know that Dante read not only first hand texts, but also summaries that sometimes weren't of the original work, but of an intermediary one. Directly or indirectly, Dante came to read Saint Augustine 's works, the '' De Consolatione Philosophiae '' by Boëthius , Saint Thomas Aquinas 's works and some Encyclopedic Dictionaries like the '' Etymologiae '' by Isidore Of Seville and the '' Tresor '' by Brunetto Latini . He takes also inspiration from Aristotelian philosophy, and in Dante's work are traceable some references to texts by representatives of what is sometimes referred to as Radical Aristotelianism . SEE ALSO Other works by Dante:
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