UAL REPORT ANTE SOCIETY 1903 ACCOMPANYING PAPERS THE WORKS PniiiQPoriiyor-i.ovK OP 'Grtno CAVATXAMT lalifornia gional BOSTON GIXN & COMPANY 1904 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES FROM THE LIBRARY OF ELI SOBEL THE CONCORDANCE TO DANTE'S MINOR ITALIAN WORKS At the meeting of the Dante Society in May, 1902, it was reported that the cards for the Concordance intended to cover all the Italian works of Dante except the Divina Commedia were at last practically complete, and accordingly the question of editing and publishing the work came up. After some discussion a committee, consisting of Professor Grandgent, Mr. L. E. Taylor, and the undersigned as chairman, was appointed to take charge of this matter. The committee first endeavored to secure an editor or editors to prepare the cards for the printer. The result was that the chairman undertook this task with the assistance of Mr. Alain C. White, whose interest in Dante studies is sufficiently indicated by his work on the Quacstio de Aqua et Terra published in the Twenty-First Report. Although he had made other plans Mr. White kindly consented to devote considerable time to the Concordance, and it may be said here that his assistance has been of great value, his work being marked by a high degree of rapidity combined with conscientious thoroughness. The details of the editing were settled partly by conference in Cambridge and joint work on the first few pages of the Convirio in September, 1902, and partly by correspondence and occasional meetings in Cambridge after the work had been Well begun. The printed Rules used by the many different persons who had written the cards were followed in general, but it was found expedient to make a few changes in them and to provide for some additional matters. For instance, a change in punctuation was made which involved alteration of every card, the resulting gain in clearness seeming to make it desirable. This change consisted in restricting the use of commas in the references to separating different line num- bers in the same poem or chapter, a period being used instead of a 2 THE CONCORDANCE TO DANTE'S comma to separate the chapter number from the line number; as, V. N. 36. 13 (instead of 36, 13) ; C. iv. i. 74, 87 (instead of i, 74, 87). In the references to the poems in the Vita Nuova it seemed best to give the number of the line in the poem as well as its number in the chapter of which the poem is a part. Thus, for invidia occurs the reference V. N. 27. 18 (Son. xvi. 6). When the same passage occurred in different places with some slight difference and these occurrences were put on the same card, brackets were used to show the difference ; the words enclosed in brackets do not occur in all the passages referred to. Variant readings are in parentheses. A number of additions were made to the list of words for which refer- ences only, without quotation of the context, are given. A very few additions were made to the list of words omitted altogether, and that list now comprises avere'and essere in all their verbal forms (but their infinitives when used as nouns are entered without quotations), fi, che (in all senses) and che, c/ii, cut, e, ma, ne, ne, non, o (conj.), questo, quello (but the singular forms questi, quegli, etc., are included, as are costui, colui, costei, colei, costoro, coloro, but without quotations), se (conj.), se, si, vi; further, the articles, prepositions of one syllable, whether with or without the article in combination, and all regular forms of the personal pronouns and possessive adjectives (under this rule egli, e', ei were omitted except when they occur as plural forms). The exceptional forms to be entered were put in their proper alpha- betical places, but in general the words are, as was directed in the Rules, entered as they would naturally be in dictionaries ; verbs, for example, stand under the infinitive form. The omission of certain words not included in the list just given was not finally determined on until a comparatively late day. Dante's vocabulary, as seen in his works, comprises not only Italian words in the ordinary sense but also some specimens of different Italian dialects contained in the De Vulgari Eloquentia, a few Greek words, spelt as they might be expected to be spelt in his time, a number of Latin words, and also some Provenal words. Of these the words contained in the De Vulgari Eloquentia were not at first included, but such of them as are in quotations from Dante's own Italian writings have now been entered. Quotations from other Italian poets, whether in that Latin work or in Dante's Italian works, have MINOR ITALIAN WORKS 3 been omitted. The same rule has been applied to Latin words, those occurring in obvious quotations not being listed. So, too, the final Latin words in the Vita Nuova have been omitted. But when the Latin words found in the Italian works appear to be Dante's own, especially when they are an integral part of an Italian sentence, it seems best to include them, and this has been done. (They might also appear in a Concordance to Dante's Latin works, and this double entry, since their number is small and they are likely to be looked for in either work, can hardly be thought improper.) This applies, for instance, to the Latin words in that poem (Catiz. xxi) which is written in three languages, Italian, Latin, and Provencal. But the Provencal words in that poem have not been included. The reason for this inconsistency is the unsatisfactory state of the text. Since everybody knows where to find the lines the omission can do no great harm. No one will object to the inclusion of the few Greek words, whatever opinion may be held about Dante's knowl- edge of Greek. After the first few days of working in Cambridge it was found possible to arrange a plan which could be followed until the revision was completed. A first revision was made in New York by Mr. White, who went over the whole of the cards with the text before him, supplying omissions, rejecting cards which were for any reason unsuitable, rewriting whenever necessary, and scrutinizing every card which was retained. The cards thus revised were from time to time sent to Cambridge for a second revision, in which, as in the first, nothing was taken for granted. They were sent to New York again, a few thousand at a time, where the prose and the verse cards were arranged in alphabetical order. The constant interest of the President of the Society was often and actively shown, and the arrangement of the material to men- tion a single feature of the work is due in great part to his wise counsel. He attached much importance to a separation of the prose and the verse parts of the Concordance, and in order to combine this desirable object with ease of comparison of the prose usage and the verse usage of the poet it was finally decided that the best plan would be to print the verse and the prose so that the one should occupy the upper part of the page and the other the lower part. 4 THE CONCORDANCE TO DANTE'S Messrs. Ginn & Company kindly printed for us three specimen pages without charge, and these, together with comparisons of prose and verse words in many different places, make this plan of arranging the material appear quite feasible. Its obvious advantages recom- mend it strongly. The preparation of the cards for printing was practically finished before the end of the calendar year 1903, though the cards were afterward numbered by Mr. White and a few changes were made in the present year. Through Professor Norton and Dr. Moore, the editor of the Oxford Dante, the plan was brought to the notice of the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, and in a letter to Professor Norton was expressed their willingness to print the Concordance. The manuscript was sent to Oxford about the end of March and notice of its receipt came before the end of April. The terms sug- gested for the publication by the Clarendon Press are very satis- factory, being much more liberal than it had appeared possible to obtain in this country. A member of the Society had already gen- erously offered to be responsible for the money needed for the publication. Some further information about the Concordance, including some approximate figures, may be in place here. i. Size of the Book. By the omissions mentioned above and by keeping the mention of variant readings within very narrow limits it has been made possible, it is believed, to prevent the whole from occupying much more space than is taken by Professor Fay's corre- sponding work for the Divina Commedia. All the Italian verse in the Oxford Dante other than the Divina Commedia is included (with the few exceptions noted above), as well as some additional sonnets expected to appear in the third edition of that book. The total number of cards is 44,495 (the additional sonnets will cause an increase of 163, making in all 44,658), but a certain number of these contain more than the equivalent of one printed line each, while on the other hand sometimes one card may be combined with one or more others to make a single line. Allowance must also be made for a number of cross references. It is thought that the whole, inclusive of the necessary prefatory explanations, will not exceed *<* hundred pages of the size seen in Professor Fay's Concordance. MINOR ITALIAN WORKS 5 It is intended to insert in the preface a comparative table exhibiting the differences in arrangement of the poems of the Canzoniere in other editions. 2. Arrangement of Quotations and References. The Canzoni come first in the verse, and among them those in the Vita Nuova take the first place, followed by those in the Convivio, the other Canzoni coming last in this group. Next come the Sestine, then the Ballatc (beginning with the one in the Vita Nuova), then the Sonetti (those in the Vita Nuova preceding the others), then the Sette Salmi Peni- tenziali, and finally the Professione di Fede. For the prose the quota- tions from the Vita Nuova precede those from the Convivio. Within these various divisions the quotations are arranged in the order of the text except when a passage is anticipated because it is nearly or quite identical with one occurring earlier and is combined with that on one card. 3. Variant Readings and Doubtful Questions. Only a few variant readings have been admitted, the general principle being to admit such only when the text of the Oxford edition seemed so difficult if not even impossible that it was necessary to do so. In some cases where the question was one of punctuation the passage quoted (as in that edition) was yet so given as at least to suggest the possibility of a different punctuation and interpretation (cf. Cam. x. 150). In some more or less difficult passages a decision had to be made before a certain word could be entered according to the general plan followed. It is believed that everything can be easily found, though it is not to be expected that every one will agree with the decision made in this or that case. Thus, intunto in V. N. 19. 94 is entered as a noun, not as a participle, and the following word, trattato, is taken as a participle and put under trattare, not as a noun. The word altri is sometimes a singular pronoun, but in some cases it may also be taken as the plural of altro. The references for altro must be supplemented, in order to cover all doubtful cases, by consulting also altri, and vice versa. So, too, those for do are not absolutely complete without inclusion of doe, condofossccosache, etc., and a similar thing may be said of secondo (prep.) and. secondoche, avvenire and avvegnache. It is not always easy to say at once whether uno is the indefinite article (which is not included) or the numeral. Under 6 THE CONCORDANCE TO DANTE'S bene the adverb and the noun are not distinguished and the same is true of male ; and under solo no distinction is made between the use as adjective and that as adverb. In many cases Professor Grand- gent's opinion was asked and it was freely given whenever asked, though the demands thus made on his time alone were not incon- siderable. But he is not to be held responsible for any decisions taken. 4. Cross References These have been introduced to a consider- able extent. The many different forms of words, as core and cuore, virtu, virtude, and virtute, frode and fraude, it seemed necessary to enter separately, and where the forms were -not consecutive a cross reference was desirable. Where the difference was insignificant, for example, where it would not affect metre or rhyme, the general prin- ciple was to put all the passages quoted under one heading, but the other spelling was of course given \vith a reference to the one pre- ferred. Where, on the other hand, the difference seemed more significant, each form was entered with its quotations, and reference was made from each one to the other or others. But of the two possible spellings in such words as sforzare, isforzare the second has been ignored, all such cases being entered only under the one with- out the initial /, that is, under s ; and for verbs compounded with dis there is no reference to corresponding forms having s only as the prefix, and -vice versa. Some real or apparent inconsistencies will, it is hoped, be pardoned. 5. Comparison of Prose and Verse Of the total number of cards 33,094 (now 33,096, for two of the cards for the lately added sonnets are cross-reference cards for words occurring in prose only) are for the prose and 11,401 (now 11,562) are for the verse. From this it appears that the entries for prose are almost three times as many as those for verse. It is true that the number of cards is not the same as the number of occurrences of all the words entered, but this proportion is nearly enough correct for the relation of prose to verse as it would appear on the average on the printed pages. Individual pages will, however, vary considerably from this average. The number of words and word forms entered as headings is not in this proportion when we compare verse and prose. Here a word of caution is necessary. None of the following figures can be taken MINOR ITALIAN WORKS 7 as absolutely exact ; they are for the most part only approximations, the result of a rough count. The numerous variant forms make an exact count somewhat difficult ; yet the numbers here given, inexact as they are, are not without interest. For the prose the total number of words and word forms entered is probably somewhat under 4000 ; for the verse the corresponding number is over 2300 ; that is, more than half as many as in the prose. It would seem also that for each word of the prose there are on the average between eight and nine occurrences, while for each word of the verse the average number of occurrences is about five. This is not surprising when we remember how much less verse there is than prose to be compared. The divergence from the average numbers just given for the occurrences of the words in prose and verse respectively is often very great. In the (approximately) 4000 entries for the prose the number of cards (here pretty accurately known) for individual words varies from i up to 402 (for cosa), and the word parte has 358 cards. For the verse the variations are not so great, but they are still consider- able, a minimum of i contrasting with such figures as 175 (for aniore), 135 (for cuore). Let us compare prose and verse for these and a few other words where the figures can be given pretty exactly. Against the 402 cards for cosa in prose we find 44 for the same word in verse, and the 358 in prose for parte contrast even more strongly with 28 in verse ; cuore has in prose 46, in verse 130 (this case is remarkable as showing a much higher number for verse than for prose); cominciare has in prose 136, in verse 8; ragione has in prose 212, in verse 17; while anwre shows nearly equal numbers, - 185 in prose, 175 in verse. But the most surprising results are seen when the words repre- sented by a single card, and therefore in most cases occurring only once in prose or only once in verse, are counted. In the rough count made some time ago proper names, Latin words, and the less important variant forms of words were omitted. The number of prose words with only one card each appeared to be between noo and 1200, or, to put it in different language, more than a fourth of the prose words seem to occur only once each in prose. For the one-card words in the verse a similar result was found. Of these there are about 900 (the new sonnets previously not counted adding 8 THE CONCORDANCE TO DANTE'S WORKS some 40 to the old list and causing a certain number of others to disappear). A comparison with the prose vocabulary indicates that over 550 of these considerably more than half do not occur at all in the prose. This suggested another count, made with the same omissions, from which it appeared that of the verse words with more than one card each there are only about 220 which do not occur at all in the prose ; that is, the proportion of such words is much smaller than in the case of the one-card words. The two lists of words in verse which are not found in the prose contain a certain number of unusual words or forms, but it would be a mistake to suppose that most of them are unusual ; a large number are common enough words, and the nonappearance of these 770 or more words in the prose is due in great part to the nature of the subjects treated by Dante in his prose ; he simply had no occasion to use them. It is obvious that further comparisons could be made in which the vocabulary of the Divina Commedia should receive its proper share of attention. One might also, for instance, examine the words which occur more or less frequently in the prose but are entirely absent from the verse. E. S. SHELDON. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. University Southei Librar