Dante And his world

The Early Years… Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, then a virtual city-state and perhaps the wealthiest mercantile center in the world.

The Early Years… After the death of his exalted Beatrice (Beatrice Portinari, ), he plunged into the study of philosophy and Provençal poetry. Dante included her as a character symbolic of God’s message of faith and love in his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice Oil on canvas. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK.

The Early Years… Dante began his career as a love poet, one of a group who developed a "new sweet style" (dolce stil nuovo) for the Tuscan language by following the example of the Provencal troubadours in poems on the mysteries and ecstasies of courtly love.

Dante’s house in Florence

The Middle Years… By 1295, however, Dante had entered into a political career, rising to become one of the city's leaders, only to find himself banished from Florence under sentence of death in 1302 when a rival faction rose to power.

On the next slide you see held in Dante's hand, as you hold in your hand, Dante's Commedia, which he wrote while he sees God hold in His hand the entire Cosmos of the Creation, the Bible.

The Later Years… The remainder of Dante's life was spent in exile, as an honored guest in various Italian courts and palaces. In this period he wrote important prose works on politics and the Italian language, and composed the Divine Comedy, publishing the first part, Inferno, in The remaining two parts of this work, Purgatorio and Paradiso, were published after Dante's death in 1321.

The Work… The Divine Comedy, a vernacular poem in 100 cantos (more than 14,000 lines), was composed in exile. It is a magnificent synthesis of the medieval outlook, picturing a changeless universe ordered by God.

The Work… This is the first work written in Italian Vulgare rather that Latin which helped to establish a national language (like Canterbury tales did in England). Written in Terza Rima = aba bcb cdc ded……. This is a very difficult scheme.

Dante’s The Divine Comedy printed by Johann Neumeister in 1472.

The Work… The piece is an allegory. God’s gradual revelation to an unsuspecting and unprepared pilgrim. Through this we see a rational human soul choosing salvation of his own free will. It is called a comedy because it ends happily.

The Work… Dante uses real life characters and autobiographical moments as well as eschatological (the body of religious doctrines concerning the human soul in its relation to death, judgment, heaven, and hell) detail. The journey is a metaphor. The pilgrim, Dante, is Everyman.

The Work… Contrapasso – In Dante’s Inferno there is a logical punishment for every offence.

After Reformation, Medieval Whitewashed Wall Painting of Last Judgment Stratford Guild Chapel

INFERNO Conceptual, by Barry Moser (Mandelbaum Trans.)

The Work… Characters: Dante the poet = universal Dante the Pilgrim = personal Beatrice = faith and love Virgil (also a poet) = reason and logic

Homework… Take the level of hell test. Where are you going? inferno-test.mv inferno-test.mv

Best tour of hell yet!