1840 Dante Alighieri Divine Comedy Divina Commedia INFERNO Purgatory Paradise

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1840 Dante Alighieri Divine Comedy Divina Commedia INFERNO Purgatory Paradise:
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1840 Dante Alighieri Divine ComedyDivina Commedia INFERNO Purgatory Paradise

Durante degli Alighieri (c. 1265 – 1321),was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originallycalled Comedìa (modern Italian: Commedia) and later christened Divina byBoccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in theItalian language and a masterpiece of world literature.

The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written byDante Alighieri between c. 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely consideredthe preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatestworks of world literature.

Main author: DanteAlighieri; Pier-Angelo Fiorentino

Title: La DivineComedie de Dante Alighieri

Published: Paris, Librairiede Charles Gosselin, 1840.

Language: French

Notes & contents:

·Inferno,Purgatory, Paradise

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Publisher:Paris, Librairie de Charles Gosselin, 1840.

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Durante degli Alighieri(Italian: [duˈrante deʎʎ aliˈɡjɛːri]), simply called Dante (Italian: [ˈdante],UK /ˈdænti/, US /ˈdɑːnteɪ/; c. 1265 – 1321), was a major Italian poet of theLate Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa (modern Italian:Commedia) and later christened Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatestliterary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of worldliterature.[1]

In the late Middle Ages, theoverwhelming majority of poetry was written in Latin, and therefore accessibleonly to affluent and educated audiences. In De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquencein the Vernacular), however, Dante defended use of the vernacular inliterature. He himself would even write in the Tuscan dialect for works such asThe New Life (1295) and the aforementioned Divine Comedy; this choice, althoughhighly unorthodox, set a hugely important precedent that later Italian writerssuch as Petrarch and Boccaccio would follow. As a result, Dante played aninstrumental role in establishing the national language of Italy. Dante\'ssignificance also extends past his home country; his depictions of Hell,Purgatory, and Heaven have provided inspiration for a large body of Westernart, and are cited as an influence on the works of John Milton, GeoffreyChaucer and Lord Alfred Tennyson, among many others. In addition, the first useof the interlocking three-line rhyme scheme, or the terza rima, is attributedto him.

Dante has been called\"the Father of the Italian language\" and the second greatest Westernauthor after William Shakespeare.[2] In Italy, Dante is often referred to as ilSommo Poeta (\"the Supreme Poet\") and il Poeta; he, Petrarch, andBoccaccio are also called \"the three fountains\" or \"the threecrowns\".

Contents [hide]

1 Life

1.1 Early life

1.2 Education and poetry

1.3 Florence and politics

1.4 Exile and death

1.5 Legacy

2 Works

3 Notes

4 References

5 External links

Life[edit]

Early life[edit]

Dante was born in Florence,Republic of Florence, present-day Italy. The exact date of his birth isunknown, although it is generally believed to be around 1265. This can bededuced from autobiographic allusions in the Divine Comedy. Its first section,the Inferno, begins, \"Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita\"(\"Midway upon the journey of our life\"), implying that Dante wasaround 35 years old, since the average lifespan according to the Bible (Psalm89:10, Vulgate) is 70 years; and since his imaginary travel to the nether worldtook place in 1300, he was most probably born around 1265. Some verses of theParadiso section of the Divine Comedy also provide a possible clue that he wasborn under the sign of Gemini: \"As I revolved with the eternal twins, Isaw revealed, from hills to river outlets, the threshing-floor that makes us soferocious\" (XXII 151–154). In 1265, the sun was in Gemini between approximatelyMay 11 and June 11.[3]

Portrait of Dante, from afresco in the Palazzo dei Giudici, Florence

Dante claimed that his familydescended from the ancient Romans (Inferno, XV, 76), but the earliest relativehe could mention by name was Cacciaguida degli Elisei (Paradiso, XV, 135), bornno earlier than about 1100. Dante\'s father, Alaghiero[4] or Alighiero diBellincione, was a White Guelph who suffered no reprisals after the Ghibellineswon the Battle of Montaperti in the middle of the 13th century. This suggeststhat Alighiero or his family may have enjoyed some protective prestige andstatus, although some suggest that the politically inactive Alighiero was ofsuch low standing that he was not considered worth exiling.[5]

Dante\'s family had loyaltiesto the Guelphs, a political alliance that supported the Papacy and which wasinvolved in complex opposition to the Ghibellines, who were backed by the HolyRoman Emperor. The poet\'s mother was Bella, likely a member of the Abatifamily.[4] She died when Dante was not yet ten years old, and Alighiero soonmarried again, to Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi. It is uncertain whether hereally married her, since widowers were socially limited in such matters, butthis woman definitely bore him two children, Dante\'s half-brother Francesco andhalf-sister Tana (Gaetana). When Dante was 12, he was promised in marriage toGemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati, member of the powerfulDonati family.[4] Contracting marriages at this early age was quite common andinvolved a formal ceremony, including contracts signed before a notary. But bythis time Dante had fallen in love with another, Beatrice Portinari (known alsoas Bice), whom he first met when he was only nine. Years after his marriage toGemma he claims to have met Beatrice again; he wrote several sonnets toBeatrice but never mentioned Gemma in any of his poems. The exact date of hismarriage is not known: the only certain information is that, before his exilein 1301, he had three children (Pietro, Jacopo and Antonia).[4]

Dante in Verona, by AntonioCotti

Dante fought with the Guelphcavalry at the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289).[6] This victory broughtabout a reformation of the Florentine constitution. To take any part in publiclife, one had to enroll in one of the city\'s many commercial or artisan guilds,so Dante entered the Physicians\' and Apothecaries\' Guild. In the followingyears, his name is occasionally recorded as speaking or voting in the variouscouncils of the republic. A substantial portion of minutes from such meetingsin the years 1298–1300 was lost during World War II, however, so the trueextent of Dante\'s participation in the city\'s councils is uncertain.

Gemma bore Dante severalchildren. Although several others subsequently claimed to be his offspring, itis likely that only Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia were his actualchildren. Antonia later became a nun, taking the name Sister Beatrice.

Education and poetry[edit]

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Not much is known aboutDante\'s education; he presumably studied at home or in a chapter schoolattached to a church or monastery in Florence. It is known that he studiedTuscan poetry and that he admired the compositions of the Bolognese poet GuidoGuinizelli—whom in Purgatorio XXVI he characterized as his \"father\"—ata time when the Sicilian school (Scuola poetica Siciliana), a cultural groupfrom Sicily, was becoming known in Tuscany. His interests brought him todiscover the Provençal poetry of the troubadours, such as Arnaut Daniel, andthe Latin writers of classical antiquity, including Cicero, Ovid and especiallyVirgil.

Statue of Dante at theUffizi, Florence

Dante said he first metBeatrice Portinari, daughter of Folco Portinari, at age nine, and claimed tohave fallen in love with her \"at first sight\", apparently withouteven talking with her. He saw her frequently after age 18, often exchanginggreetings in the street, but never knew her well. In effect, he set an exampleof so-called courtly love, a phenomenon developed in French and Provençalpoetry of prior centuries. Dante\'s experience of such love was typical, but hisexpression of it was unique. It was in the name of this love that Dante lefthis imprint on the dolce stil novo (sweet new style, a term which Dante himselfcoined), and he would join other contemporary poets and writers in exploringnever-before-emphasized aspects of love (Amore). Love for Beatrice (as Petrarchwould show for Laura somewhat differently) would be his reason for poetry andfor living, together with political passions. In many of his poems, she isdepicted as semi-divine, watching over him constantly and providing spiritualinstruction, sometimes harshly. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante sought refugein Latin literature. The Convivio chronicles his having read Boethius\'s De consolationephilosophiae and Cicero\'s De Amicitia. He then dedicated himself tophilosophical studies at religious schools like the Dominican one in SantaMaria Novella. He took part in the disputes that the two principal mendicantorders (Franciscan and Dominican) publicly or indirectly held in Florence, theformer explaining the doctrines of the mystics and of St. Bonaventure, thelatter expounding on the theories of St. Thomas Aquinas.

At 18, Dante met GuidoCavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia and soon after Brunetto Latini;together they became the leaders of the dolce stil novo. Brunetto laterreceived special mention in the Divine Comedy (Inferno, XV, 28) for what he hadtaught Dante: Nor speaking less on that account I go With Ser Brunetto, and Iask who are his most known and most eminent companions. Some fifty poeticalcommentaries by Dante are known (the so-called Rime, rhymes), others beingincluded in the later Vita Nuova and Convivio. Other studies are reported, ordeduced from Vita Nuova or the Comedy, regarding painting and music.

Illustration for Purgatory(Purgatorio) by Doré

Illustration for Paradiso (ofThe Divine Comedy) by Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré

Florence and politics[edit]

Further information: Guelphsand Ghibellines

Dante, like most Florentinesof his day, was embroiled in the Guelph–Ghibelline conflict. He fought in theBattle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289), with the Florentine Guelphs againstArezzo Ghibellines;[6][7] then in 1294 he was among the escorts of CharlesMartel of Anjou (grandson of Charles I of Naples, more commonly called Charlesof Anjou) while he was in Florence. To further his political career, he becamea pharmacist. He did not intend to practice as one, but a law issued in 1295required nobles aspiring to public office to be enrolled in one of theCorporazioni delle Arti e dei Mestieri, so Dante obtained admission to theApothecaries\' Guild. This profession was not inappropriate, since at that timebooks were sold from apothecaries\' shops. As a politician he accomplishedlittle, but held various offices over some years in a city rife with politicalunrest.

Dante Alighieri, detail fromLuca Signorelli\'s fresco, Chapel of San Brizio, Orvieto Cathedral

After defeating theGhibellines, the Guelphs divided into two factions: the White Guelphs (GuelfiBianchi)—Dante\'s party, led by Vieri dei Cerchi—and the Black Guelphs (GuelfiNeri), led by Corso Donati. Although the split was along family lines at first,ideological differences arose based on opposing views of the papal role inFlorentine affairs, with the Blacks supporting the Pope and the Whites wantingmore freedom from Rome. The Whites took power first and expelled the Blacks. Inresponse, Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of Florence. In1301, Charles of Valois, brother of King Philip IV of France, was expected tovisit Florence because the Pope had appointed him peacemaker for Tuscany. Butthe city\'s government had treated the Pope\'s ambassadors badly a few weeksbefore, seeking independence from papal influence. It was believed that Charleshad received other unofficial instructions, so the council sent a delegation toRome to ascertain the Pope\'s intentions. Dante was one of the delegates.

Exile and death[edit]

Pope Boniface quicklydismissed the other delegates and asked Dante alone to remain in Rome. At thesame time (November 1, 1301), Charles of Valois entered Florence with the BlackGuelphs, who in the next six days destroyed much of the city and killed many oftheir enemies. A new Black Guelph government was installed, and Cante de\'Gabrielli da Gubbio was appointed podestà of the city. In March 1302, Dante, aWhite Guelph by affiliation, along with the Gherardini family, was condemned toexile for two years and ordered to pay a large fine.[8] Dante was accused ofcorruption and financial wrongdoing by the Black Guelphs for the time thatDante was serving as city prior (Florence\'s highest position) for two months in1300.[9] The poet was still in Rome in 1302 where the Pope, who had backed theBlack Guelphs, had \"suggested\" that Dante stay. Florence under theBlack Guelphs therefore considered Dante an absconder.[10] Dante did not paythe fine, in part because he believed he was not guilty and in part because allhis assets in Florence had been seized by the Black Guelphs. He was condemnedto perpetual exile; if he returned to Florence without paying the fine, hecould have been burned at the stake. (In June 2008, nearly seven centuriesafter his death, the city council of Florence passed a motion rescindingDante\'s sentence.)[11]

A recreated death mask ofDante Alighieri in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

He took part in severalattempts by the White Guelphs to regain power, but these failed due totreachery. Dante, bitter at the treatment he received from his enemies, alsogrew disgusted with the infighting and ineffectiveness of his erstwhile alliesand vowed to become a party of one. He went to Verona as a guest of BartolomeoI della Scala, then moved to Sarzana in Liguria. Later he is supposed to havelived in Lucca with a woman called Gentucca, who made his stay comfortable (andwas later gratefully mentioned in Purgatorio, XXIV, 37). Some speculativesources claim he visited Paris between 1308 and 1310, and other sources evenless trustworthy took him to Oxford: these claims, first occurring inBoccaccio\'s book on Dante several decades after his death, seem inspired byreaders who were impressed with the poet\'s wide learning and erudition.Evidently, Dante\'s command of philosophy and his literary interests deepened inexile and when he was no longer busy with the day-to-day business of Florentinedomestic politics, and this is evidenced in his prose writings in this period,but there is no real evidence that he ever left Italy. Dante\'s Immensa Deidilectione testante to Henry VII of Luxembourg confirms his residence\"beneath the springs of Arno, near Tuscany\" in March 1311.

In 1310, Holy Roman EmperorHenry VII of Luxembourg marched into Italy at the head of 5,000 troops. Dantesaw in him a new Charlemagne who would restore the office of the Holy RomanEmperor to its former glory and also retake Florence from the Black Guelphs. Hewrote to Henry and several Italian princes, demanding that they destroy theBlack Guelphs. Mixing religion and private concerns in his writings, he invokedthe worst anger of God against his city and suggested several particulartargets that were also his personal enemies. It was during this time that hewrote De Monarchia, proposing a universal monarchy under Henry VII.

Statue of Dante in the Piazzadi Santa Croce in Florence, Enrico Pazzi, 1865

At some point during hisexile, he conceived of the Comedy, but the date is uncertain. The work is muchmore assured and on a larger scale than anything he had produced in Florence;it is likely he would have undertaken such a work only after he realized hispolitical ambitions, which had been central to him up to his banishment, hadbeen halted for some time, possibly forever. It is also noticeable thatBeatrice has returned to his imagination with renewed force and with a widermeaning than in the Vita Nuova; in Convivio (written c.1304–07) he had declaredthat the memory of this youthful romance belonged to the past.

An early outside indicationthat the poem was under way is a notice by Francesco da Barberino, tucked intohis Documenti d\'Amore (Lessons of Love), written probably in 1314 or early1315. Speaking of Virgil, Francesco notes in appreciative words that Dantefollowed the Roman classic in a poem called \"Comedy\" and that thesetting of this poem (or part of it) was the underworld; i.e., hell.[12] Thebrief note gives no incontestable indication that he himself had seen or read eventhe Inferno or that this part had been published at the time, but it indicatescomposition was well under way and that the sketching of the poem might havebegun some years before. (It has been suggested that a knowledge of Dante\'swork also underlies some of the illuminations in Francesco da Barberino\'searlier Officiolum [c. 1305–08], a manuscript that came to light only in2003.[13]) We know that the Inferno had been published by 1317; this isestablished by quoted lines interspersed in the margins of contemporary datedrecords from Bologna, but there is no certainty as to whether the three partsof the poem were each published in full or, rather, a few cantos at a time.Paradiso seems to have been published posthumously.

In Florence, Baldod\'Aguglione pardoned most of the White Guelphs in exile and allowed them toreturn. However, Dante had gone too far in his violent letters to Arrigo (HenryVII) and his sentence was not revoked.

In 1312 Henry assaultedFlorence and defeated the Black Guelphs, but there is no evidence that Dantewas involved. Some say he refused to participate in the assault on his city bya foreigner; others suggest that he had become unpopular with the WhiteGuelphs, too, and that any trace of his passage had carefully been removed.Henry VII died (from a fever) in 1313, and with him any hope for Dante to seeFlorence again. He returned to Verona, where Cangrande I della Scala allowedhim to live in certain security and, presumably, in a fair degree ofprosperity. Cangrande was admitted to Dante\'s Paradise (Paradiso, XVII, 76).

In 1315, Florence was forcedby Uguccione della Faggiuola (the military officer controlling the town) togrant an amnesty to those in exile, including Dante. But for this, Florencerequired public penance in addition to a heavy fine. Dante refused, preferringto remain in exile. When Uguccione defeated Florence, Dante\'s death sentencewas commuted to house arrest on condition that he go to Florence to swear hewould never enter the town again. He refused to go, and his death sentence wasconfirmed and extended to his sons. He still hoped late in life that he mightbe invited back to Florence on honorable terms. For Dante, exile was nearly aform of death, stripping him of much of his identity and his heritage. Headdressed the pain of exile in Paradiso, XVII (55–60), where Cacciaguida, hisgreat-great-grandfather, warns him what to expect:

Mural of Dante in the UffiziGallery, by Andrea del Castagno, c. 1450

... Tu lascerai ogne cosadiletta ... You shall leaveeverything you love most:

più caramente; e questo èquello strale this is the arrowthat the bow of exile

che l\'arco de lo essilio priasaetta. shoots first. You are to knowthe bitter taste

Tu proverai sì come sa disale of others\' bread, how saltyit is, and know

lo pane altrui, e come è durocalle how hard a path it is for one whogoes

lo scendere e \'l salir perl\'altrui scale ... ascending anddescending others\' stairs ...

As for the hope of returningto Florence, he describes it as if he had already accepted its impossibility(in Paradiso, XXV, 1–9):

Se mai continga che \'l poemasacro If it ever comes to pass that thesacred poem

al quale ha posto mano ecielo e terra, to which bothheaven and earth have set their hand

sì che m\'ha fatto per moltianni macro, so as to have mademe lean for many years

vinca la crudeltà che fuor miserra should overcome the cruelty thatbars me

del bello ovile ov\'io dormi\'agnello, from the fair sheepfold where Islept as a lamb,

nimico ai lupi che li dannoguerra; an enemy to the wolves that makewar on it,

con altra voce omai, conaltro vello with another voice now andother fleece

ritornerò poeta, e in sulfonte I shall return a poet andat the font

del mio battesmo prenderò \'lcappello ... of my baptism takethe laurel crown ...

Alighieri accepted PrinceGuido Novello da Polenta\'s invitation to Ravenna in 1318. He finished Paradiso,and died in 1321 (aged 56) while returning to Ravenna from a diplomatic missionto Venice, possibly of malaria contracted there. He was buried in Ravenna atthe Church of San Pier Maggiore (later called San Francesco). Bernardo Bembo,praetor of Venice, erected a tomb for him in 1483.