Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was a poet and philosopher. Dante is largely remembered for his poem The Divine Comedy (usually referred to as Inferno, the first book of the poem).
Life[]
Born in the city of Florence in May of 1265, Dante's exact birthdate is unknown. His time of birth is largely gleamed from context clues from The Divine Comedy (such as the work saying that Dante is "midway upon the journey of [his] life", meaning 35 in these times). Dante was (possibly, for the only source was himself) born to a family that could trace their roots to ancient Rome. His father was a Guelph moneylender while his mother was (possibly) a member of the Florentine nobility. Dante's mother died while Dante was only ten years old and his father quickly took another lover (possibly marrying her, though possibly not) and fathered two more children with her.
When Dante was nine, he met a young girl named Beatrice and fell in love with her at "first sight". Despite this love, Dante was married off to the daughter of a powerful family at age twelve. It is likely that Dante never loved his wife Gemma, as he frequently wrote about his love for Beatrice but never about his love for Gemma. Little is known about Dante's education, though it is likely that he was taught at home or in a charter school. His studies coincided with his relationship with Beatrice and possibly with his involvement with the Battle of Campaldino for the Guelphs.
Dante's education led to him discovering the works of various Sicilian poets (dubbed the Sicilian Students, with one named Guido Guinizelli having a particularly strong influence on Dante) along with the works of Provençal troubadors and Cicero, Ovid, and Virgil. During this time, Dante wrote various love poems for his beloved Beatrice, which were largely part of the dolce stil nuovo that Dante was a part of alongside some of his friends - such as Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia, and Brunetto Latini. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante was absolutely devastated by it and buried himself in studying Latin works - most notably Boethius' Consolation and Cicero's De Amicitia, as described by Dante himself in his Convivio - and philosophical studies in various religious schools. It was here that Dante took part in debates between Franciscans and Dominicans.
In 1295, Dante joined a Florentine group called the Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries to further his political career after the Battle of Campaldino. This was during a time that the Guelphs were split between two factions - the White Guelphs (which Dante was a member of) and the Black Guelphs - over the role of the Pope in the politics of Florence. Though the White Guelphs were initially able to defeat their Black Guelph enemies and expel them from the city, the Black Guelphs (with the help of Pope Boniface and Charles of Valois, the brother of King Philip IV of France) were able to reclaim the city of Florence. Dante was exiled from the city, initially for two years but later perpetually as Dante refused to repay a fine to the Black Guelph government that had been levied against him. Though Dante and his White Guelphs allies tried to reclaim Florence numerous times, all failed due to infighting. This led Dante to turn against his White Guelph allies and become a completely independent party. Dante travelled across Europe in these times - staying in Verona as a guest of one of its Scaliger lords and the Ligurian town of Sarzana along with supposedly staying in the city of Lucca, Paris, and Oxford. During this time, Dante became extremely involved in the politics and culture of his land.
In 1310, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg marched into Italy with an army of 5,000. Believing that the Emperor would liberate Florence from the Black Guelphs and allow him to reenter into its confines, Dante fully supported the Emperor - writing a political treatise known as De Monarchia due to this. Despite this, Dante was not involved in Henry VII's assault on the city of Florence and its liberation. This is possibly because he had also angered the White Guelphs, though also because he had changed his mind on the Emperor and viewed him as an alien force attacking his homeland. When Emperor Henry VII died a year after liberating Florence, Dante's hopes to return to his city were dashed. As such, he returned to Verona. Two years later, Florence fell under the control of a Ghibelline military commander who forced the city to grant amnesty to the various exiles of the Black Guelph government. Unfortunately for Dante, this came with the payment of a high fine and public penance. Dante refused to pay this and, even after the government allowed Dante to return to Florence on house arrest, he refused to do this.
The earliest mention of Dante's Divine Comedy comes from a didactic work on virtue (Documenti d'amore) written by a notary named Francesco da Barberino, which shows that it was being written in 1314/1315. By 1317, Dante's Inferno (the first third of his Divine Comedy) was published, with quotes from it being placed into records from Bologna. One year later, Dante was invited to the city of Ravenna by one of its princes. This was Dante spent his last years and possibly where he worked on the other two parts of the Divine Comedy. While on a diplomatic mission to the Republic of Venice in 1321, Dante contracted malaria and died on September 14th after returning to Ravenna.
Writing style[]
to be added
Notable works[]
- La Vita Nuova (or The New Life) - a prosimetrum, combination of prose and verse
- De vulgari eloquentia (or On the Eloquence of the Vernacular) - an unfinished essay
- Convivio (or The Banquet) - a vernacular encyclopedia
- Monarchia (or Monarchy) - a treatise on political power
- Comedìa (or The Divine Comedy) - a poem on Dante's voyages through the three metaphysical kingdoms
- Eclogues - two bucolic poems
- Le Rime (or The Rhymes) - a collection of lyrical poems
See also[]
- Giovanni Boccaccio
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Petrarch
- Luís Vaz de Camões
- John Milton
- Virgil
- T.S. Eliot
Sources[]
- Wikipedia