This book deals with Dante's Florentine years, particularly those of his early intellectual formation between the '80s and early '90s of the 13th century, and presents them as a crucible of great importance. Focusing on the Vita Nuova and two canzoni that Dante later commented on in the Convivio, the volume evaluates the continuity (and discontinuity) Dante establishes between his early work and the two poems, and identifies a few of the archetypes that the young poet takes from the ancient-medieval tradition and reshapes in order to pave the way for his own early work.