STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS.

Prize fund in the hands of the Treasurer

of Harvard University, May 19, 1896.. $100 00

BY-LAWS.

1. THIS Society shall be called the DANTE SOCIETY. Its object shall be the encouragement of the study of the Life and Works

of Dante.

2. Any person desirous to become a member of this Society may do so by signifying his or her wish in writing to the Secretary, and by the payment of an annual fee of five dollars.

3. An Annual Meeting for the election of officers shall be held at Cambridge on the third Tuesday of May, of which due notice shall be given to the members by the Secretary.

4. Special meetings may be held at any time appointed by vote of the members at the Annual Meeting, or by call from the President and Secretary.

5. The officers shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary and Treasurer, and a Librarian, who, together with three members thereto chosen, shall form the Council of the Society. All these officers shall be chosen at the Annual Meeting, and their term of service shall be for one year, or until their successors are elected. Vacancies in the Council shall be filled for the remainder of the year by the Council.

6. The President, or, in his absence, the Vice-President, or, in the absence of both, any member of the Council, shall preside at all meetings of the Society and of the Council.

7. The Secretary and Treasurer shall keep a record of the meetings of the Society and of the Council, shall collect and receive all dues, and keep accounts of the income and expenditure of the Society, shall give notice of meetings, and shall perform all other duties appropriate to his office.

8. The Council shall hold meetings at such times as it may appoint, shall determine on the use to be made of the income of the Society, shall endeavor to promote the special objects of the Society in such ways as may seem most appropriate, and shall make an annual report of their proceedings, including a full statement of accounts, at each Annual Meeting. This report shall be made in print for distribution to the members.

9. No officer of the Society shall be competent to contract debts in the name of the Society, and no expenditure shall be made without a vote of the Council.

10. A majority of the Council shall form a quorum for the transaction of business.

11. Any person distinguished for his interest in the purposes of the Society, or who has rendered it valuable service, may be chosen an Honorary Member at any regular meeting of the Society, and shall be entitled to all its privileges without annual assessment. The number of Honorary Members, however, shall not at any time exceed six.

12. The preceding rules may be changed at any time by unanimous vote of the Council.

THE DANTE PRIZE.

IN MEMORIAM CHARLES STERRETT LATHAM.

THE prize offered for 1889-90 was awarded to Mr. C. S. LATHAM, of the class of 1884, A. B. Harv. 1888, for a translation of the Letters of Dante with a historical and critical comment. Mr. Latham died on July 21, 1890. He did not live to learn the award of the prize.

In accordance with the desire of his mother, the prize adjudged to him of one hundred dollars is now offered again to be competed for. The competition is open not only to the students in any department of Harvard University, and to Harvard graduates of not more than three years' standing, but also to students and graduates, of similar standing, of any college or university in the United States.

The annual prize of one hundred dollars offered by a member of the Dante Society for the best essay by a student in any department of Harvard University, or by a graduate of not more than three years' standing, on a subject connected with the Life or Works of Dante, is withdrawn for the present, but the offer will be renewed after the award of the Latham Prize.

For the year 1897-98 the subjects proposed are as follows:

1. The philological value of Dante's observations on the dialects of Italy in the De Vulgari Eloquentia.

2. Dante's obligations to the De Consolatione Philosophiae of Boethius. 3. The history of the speculations in regard to the personality of Beatrice from the fourteenth century to the present day.

Essays must be deposited with the Dean of Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., on or before the first day of May, 1898.

For the year 1898-99 the subjects proposed are as follows:

1. A translation of the Quaestio de Aqua et Terra, and a discussion of its authenticity.

2. The scientific attainments of Dante, measured and illustrated by those of Roger Bacon, as shown in his Opus Majus (ed. Bridges, 1897).

3. A translation into verse of the Canzoni of the Convito.

Essays must be deposited with the Dean of Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., on or before the first day of May, 1899.

Essayists are at liberty to write on any one of the subjects which have been proposed for the nine years during which the Dante Prize has been offered.

On the title-page must be written an assumed name and a statement of the writer's standing, i.e., whether he is a graduate or an undergraduate (and of what college or university); if he is an undergraduate, to what class he belongs, and to what department of the college or university. Under cover with the essay must be sent a sealed letter, containing the true name and address of the writer, and superscribed with his assumed name.

The essays must be written upon letter paper, of good quality, of the quarto size, with a margin of not less than one inch at the top, at the bottom, and on each side, so that they may be bound up. without injury to the writing. The sheets on which the essay is written must be securely stitched together.

The judges of the essays are a committee of the Dante Society.

In case the judges decide that no essay submitted to them deserves the full prize, they are at liberty to award one or two prizes of fifty dollars, or to award no prize.

The Dante Society has the privilege of retaining and depositing in the Dante Collection of the Harvard College Library any or all essays offered in competition for the Dante Prize, whether

successful or not.

Since its establishment, the Dante Prize has been awarded to the following persons: