La Vita Nuova

La Vita Nuova ("The New Life") is a literary piece written in a prosimetrum style, alternating between prose and poetry, by Dante in 1295. It is the story of the life-changing love of Dante for a young woman named Beatrice Portinari; a character who also figured prominently in his Divine Comedy.

Kathryn Janeway was reading a translation of that book in 2375 while helping The Doctor cope with an ethical conflict. (VOY: "Latent Image")

Background

The quotation that The Doctor reads at the end of "Latent Image" is paraphrased from Dante's La Vita Nuova. The Doctor reads:

"In that book which is my memory,
On the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you,
Appear the words, 'Here begins a new life'."

The original Italian is more literally translated by D.G. Rossetti in 1861:

"In that part of the book of my memory,
Before which is little that can be read,
There is a rubric, saying, 'Incipit Vita Nova'. (Here beginneth the new life.)"

External links

• La Vita Nuova at Wikipedia
• La Vita Nuova at Project Gutenberg