Convivio

thumb|1521 edition of Convivio, retitled to Lo amoroso Convivio di Dante Convivio (;) ("The Banquet") is an unfinished work written by Dante Alighieri roughly between 1304 and 1307. It consists of four books, or "tratatti": a prefatory one, plus three books that each include a canzone (long lyrical poem) and a prose allegorical interpretation or commentary of the poem that goes off in multiple thematic directions.

== Summary == The Convivio is a kind of vernacular encyclopedia of the knowledge of Dante's time; it touches on many areas of learning, not only philosophy but also politics, linguistics, science, astronomy, and history. The treatise begins with the prefatory book, or proem, which explains why a book like the Convivio is needed and why Dante is writing it in the vernacular (Tuscan language) instead of Latin. It is one of Dante's early defenses of the vernacular, expressed in greater detail in his (slightly earlier) linguistic treatise De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular).