La Vita Nuova: an Italian graded reader at level B2
Dante Alighieri · adapted by Alessio Insegnante · CEFR level B2
Dante Alighieri's classic (~1294), rewritten for learners of Italian at level B2: calibrated sentences, footnotes, a final glossary and comprehension questions in every chapter.
In production · soon in 6×9 paperback and on Kindle
Look inside: the first page
CAPITOLO 1
Il libro della memoria
The Book of Memory
Nel libro della mia memoria, nella parte prima della quale poco si potrebbe leggere, si trova una rubrica che dice: Incipit vita nova, comincia la vita nuova.1 Sotto quella rubrica stanno scritte le parole che ora voglio copiare in questo quaderno: se non tutte, almeno il loro significato.
Non è un racconto come gli altri. È la copia di ciò che la vita ha scritto dentro di me, e io ho scelto le pagine che valeva la pena di trascrivere. Chi legge deve sapere questo: tutto quello che segue è successo davvero, nel mondo, o nell'anima, che per me è lo stesso.
memoria = memory · quaderno = notebook · anima = soul
1 Il latino Incipit vita nova («comincia la vita nuova») dà il titolo all'opera. Nei manoscritti medievali le «rubriche» erano i titoli scritti in rosso: ruber, in latino. Dante immagina la propria memoria come un codice miniato: la vita, per lui, è già un libro prima di essere scritta.
Chapter 1 · CEFR B2 · 34 words of the real text
The plot of La Vita Nuova
Florence. Dante is nine years old when he first sees Beatrice, and from that day (he writes) «Love rules my soul». A denied greeting, a terrible dream, sonnets sent to his poet friends: the Vita Nuova weaves prose and verse to tell, chapter by chapter, how a love is born and transformed.
When Beatrice dies, grief becomes the hardest test and the poetry changes nature. The book closes with a promise worth all of Italian literature: to say of her «what has never been said of any woman», the promise that would become the Divine Comedy.
Why read La Vita Nuova to learn Italian
Prose and poetry explain each other: Dante tells you the occasion, then shows the sonnet born from it, the most natural way to approach Italian poetry without fear. And you meet the father of the language in his most intimate, readable book.
Inside the glossary
Glossary
- amore · love ((sin. passione, affetto))
- Il sentimento intenso che lega una persona a un'altra.
- The deep feeling that binds one person to another.
- In this book Love has a capital letter and walks: a lord who appears in dreams, speaks Latin and gives orders. The book tells how that external master slowly becomes one and the same with the heart that hosts him.
- anima · soul ((sin. spirito, interiorità))
- La parte spirituale e immortale dell'essere umano, sede dei sentimenti.
- The spiritual, immortal part of a human being.
- At nine, seeing Beatrice, the spirit of Dante's life trembles and says: here is a god stronger than I. From that moment the book's soul has a mistress: and when the mistress dies, the book tells what is left to a soul on its own.
- beatitudine · beatitude, bliss ((sin. felicità perfetta, estasi))
- La felicità piena e perfetta, senza mancanza e senza paura.
- A complete and perfect happiness, like that of the blessed in heaven.
- Dante uses this word for one thing only: Beatrice's greeting. Not a pleasure, not a joy: beatitude, the word reserved for saints. It measures how much he has invested in a gesture that isn't his to command, and how much he stands to lose.
- canzone · canzone, song ((sin. componimento lirico, poema breve))
- Componimento poetico lungo, in più stanze, di argomento elevato.
- A long lyric poem in stanzas, the noblest form of medieval poetry.
- If the sonnet is a letter, the canzone is a solemn address. «Ladies who have intellect of love» inaugurates the new style of praise: to speak of Beatrice the short measure is no longer enough, the long breath of the canzone is needed.
- consolazione · consolation ((sin. conforto, sollievo))
- Il sollievo che si dà o si riceve in un dolore.
- The relief given to someone who suffers.
- The book is a small treatise on consolation: the true kind (the women weeping together, Beatrice's brother, the verses) and the false kind, which consoles too well and makes one forget. Telling them apart is the task of the final part.
- cortesia · courtesy ((sin. gentilezza, garbo))
- L'insieme dei modi nobili e gentili verso gli altri; nel mondo antico, la virtù delle corti.
- The noble code of kind and honourable behaviour.
- Not good manners: a code of honour. Beatrice greets out of «ineffable courtesy», and the gossip runs «beyond the bounds of courtesy»: the word measures everything that in this book is given or violated.
The glossary contains 40 entries in all
Inside this reader
CEFR adaptation
The text is fully rewritten for level B2, with controlled vocabulary and syntax, while staying faithful to the original plot.
Footnotes and glossary
Footnotes on difficult words and a final glossary, so you can read independently without a dictionary.
Comprehension questions
Every chapter ends with questions to check understanding, just like in class.
Paperback and ebook
6×9 paperback on cream paper, or Kindle ebook. The same text also lives in the ti app.
Language focus: what you practise
In this level-B2 edition you mainly practise the imperfect and past subjunctive, hypothetical clauses of possibility, the passive and indirect speech. The vocabulary revolves around love, poetry and dreams: the key words, with translations, are in the glossary below and recur throughout the text, so you learn them in context.
About the author: Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), from Florence, is the father of the Italian language. The Vita Nuova, written in his youth, is the laboratory of love and poetry from which, years later, the Divine Comedy would be born.
Details and difficulty level
B2 is upper-intermediate Italian: complex syntax, subjunctive and conditional structures, shades of register. This reader suits learners who already read in Italian and want to tackle the great classics with structured support. Format: 6×9 paperback on cream paper or Kindle ebook; 20 chapters with footnotes, a final glossary and comprehension questions. All level B2 books →︎
Essential glossary (Italian · English · Dutch)
| Italian | English | Dutch |
|---|---|---|
| il saluto | greeting | de groet |
| il sonetto | sonnet | het sonnet |
| il cuore | heart | het hart |
| il sogno | dream | de droom |
| la lode | praise | de lof |
| la morte | death | de dood |
| la visione | vision | het visioen |
| l'amore | love | de liefde |
Frequently asked questions
What level of Italian do I need to read La Vita Nuova?
This edition of La Vita Nuova is rewritten for CEFR level B2. B2 is upper-intermediate Italian: complex syntax, subjunctive and conditional structures, shades of register. This reader suits learners who already read in Italian and want to tackle the great classics with structured support.
Is this Dante Alighieri's original text?
No, it is an adaptation: the plot and spirit of Dante Alighieri's original remain, but vocabulary and syntax are rewritten for level B2, with footnotes, a final glossary and comprehension questions at the end of every chapter.
When is it coming out?
The book is in production and will be on Amazon soon, in paperback and as a Kindle ebook. The same text already lives in the 
amo Italian app.
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La Vita Nuova also lives inside the ti app, with tap-to-translate vocabulary in 17 languages and animated scenes. On the site you'll also find 700+ free Italian exercises and the blog for Italian learners.
