Dante's Latin Essays

Not macronized. The Latin is printed without long marks.

Dante’s literary career included a series of detailed studies. Two of his essays are included in this volume, in Dante’s original Latin. De Vulgari Eloquentia (On Vernacular Eloquence) is a study of the linguistic landscape of medieval Italy and a defense of the literary use of the vernacular. De Monarchia (On Monarchy) is a work of political philosophy, condemned by the Church after Dante’s death, that takes up the most controversial political question of the period: whether temporal or spiritual authority should rule human affairs.

Includes an essay on the historical setting by Arthur John Butler, and illustrations from the first printings of both works and of the people and places Dante discusses.

Nos autem, cui mundus est patria velut piscibus equor …
But we, whose homeland is the world as the sea is for fish …

Second edition, 2026. This edition follows the critical text of the Società Dantesca Italiana (1921), edited by Pio Rajna and Enrico Rostagno.

Paperback, 6 × 9 inches, 134 pages. ISBN 978-1-961822-99-3.