12 questions · Literature
Dante Alighieri, born in Florence in 1265, met a girl named Beatrice when he was nine and that barely real encounter became the poetic power source of his life. Beatrice died young, but in Dante's poetry she ascends to heavenly guide. Young Dante was also a citizen body and soul: he fought in battle, sat on the city council, became a prior of Florence. Then party politics between Guelph factions crushed him: in 1302 he was condemned in absentia and banished from Florence: return would have meant death by fire. He never saw his native city again. In exile (now knowing 'how salty tastes another's bread') Dante wrote the work that made him immortal: the 'Divine Comedy' (Divina Commedia). In one hundred cantos the poet himself journeys through the three realms of the afterlife: 'Inferno', 'Purgatorio', 'Paradiso': down through the nine circles of Hell with punishments graded by sin, up the mountain of Purgatory, until Beatrice leads him through Paradise to the vision of God. Through Hell and Purgatory his guide is his revered Virgil. Over the gate of Hell stands the work's most famous line: 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!' Revolutionary was the language: Dante wrote not in Latin but in Tuscan Italian and thereby made the dialect the foundation of the Italian literary language. Italians call him simply 'il Sommo Poeta', the supreme poet, and the three-line stanza of the work, the terza rima, is his invention. Dante died in 1321 in Ravenna, where he lies buried to this day: Florence has begged for centuries, in vain, for his bones. Did you know that 'comedy' merely means the story ends well? The epithet 'divine' was added by posterity: reputedly by Boccaccio.
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The Divine Comedy
One hundred cantos: 'Inferno', 'Purgatorio', 'Paradiso'.
💡 Did you know? The „Divine Comedy“ (a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise) is regarded as the greatest work of Italian literature.
Virgil
The revered pagan may not enter Paradise: there Beatrice takes over.
💡 Did you know? Dante chose the pagan Roman Virgil, of all people, as his guide through the underworld, as a symbol of human reason.
Beatrice
Nine-year-old Dante met her in Florence: in the poem she becomes his heavenly guide.
💡 Did you know? Beatrice, Dante's real, early-dead youthful love, leads him through Paradise: in real life he had seen her only a few times.
nine
Graded by gravity of sin: at the very bottom Lucifer is stuck in eternal ice.
💡 Did you know? Dante's Hell is a funnel-shaped abyss of nine circles: the deeper, the graver the sin and the crueller the punishment.
Abandon all hope
'Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate': the work's most quoted verse.
💡 Did you know? „Abandon all hope, ye who enter here“: the inscription over Dante's gate of Hell is one of the most famous quotations in literature.
Italian
Tuscan thus became the foundation of literary Italian: Dante counts as its father.
💡 Did you know? Dante wrote his work not in Latin but in Italian (Tuscan) and thereby founded the Italian literary language.
Florence
Condemned in absentia: return would have meant death by fire. He never saw his home again.
💡 Did you know? Amid political turmoil, Dante was exiled from Florence in 1302: forbidden to return on pain of death; he wrote the work in exile.
terza rima
Chain rhyme aba (bcb) cdc…: the number three runs through the whole work in honour of the Trinity.
💡 Did you know? For the Comedy Dante invented the „terza rima“: three-line stanzas with an artfully interlocking rhyme scheme.
il Sommo Poeta
His portrait graced Italy's two-euro coin and, earlier, the lira banknote.
💡 Did you know? Italians still reverently call Dante „il Sommo Poeta“: „the supreme poet“.
because it ends well
The epithet 'divine' was added by posterity: reputedly by Boccaccio.
💡 Did you know? Boccaccio also gave the first public Dante lectures in Florence.
Ravenna
Florence has begged for centuries for his bones: Ravenna will not give them up.
💡 Did you know? Dante died in exile in Ravenna in 1321: Florence still asks in vain for the return of his remains.
Foto: Giotto · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri was an Italian medieval poet whose „Divine Comedy“ is regarded as a pinnacle of world literature.
💡 Did you know? He wrote his masterpiece in Italian rather than Latin and thereby founded the Italian literary language.
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