SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
Wolter Ss this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.]
Dante Studies. By Paget Toynbee. (Clarendon Press.. 16s. net.)—The sexcentenary of Dante's death fell on Wed- nesday. Dr. Toynbee, whose reputation for Dante studies is world-wide, has marked the occasion by collecting a fresh volume of his scattered articles and papers. Some are technical, like the ingenious argument for the authenticity of the Quaestio de Aqua at Terra based on its observance of the rhythmical " cursus " used by good Latin prose-writers of the middle ages, but abandoned at the Renaissance. Others deal with textual problems. There is a good paper on Boccaccio's Dante lectureship, founded in 1373 by the city of Florence, which had, seventy years before, expelled tho poet and threatened to burn him if he ever returned. In another paper it is shown that the Roman Church not only put the De Monarohia on the Index and censored the first edition of the Vita Nuova, but also, in Portugal, required the Divine Comedy to be expurgated, in regard to doctrine. A large part of the volume is devoted to an account of English editions, trans- lations, and illustrations of the great Italian poet.
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