The famous poet, author of the well-known "Divine Comedy" Alighieri Dante was born in Florence in 1265 into a noble family. There are several versions of the true date of birth of the poet, but the authenticity of none of them has been established.

He devoted a lot of time to self-development, in particular, studied ancient literature And foreign languages. His first mentor was Brunetto Latini, a famous poet and scientist at that time.

At the age of 9, Dante meets his main muse in life. Beatrice Portinari, that was the name of the young lady, was his age and lived next door. Being just a child, the poet was not aware of his feelings, and the next meeting between them took place only after 9 years. It was then that he realized that he loved her, but it was too late, Beatrice was married. And the shyness of the young man did not allow him to confess his feelings. The girl, on the other hand, did not suspect anything and completely considered Dante arrogant, since he did not talk to her. In 1290, his beloved died, this was a serious blow to the poet. A few years later, he married the daughter of the party leader Donati, with whom his family was at enmity. Of course, this union was created by calculation. Beatrice remained his only love for life. In the book " New life"He spoke about his feelings for a woman who passed away so early and it was this book that brought fame to the author.

In 1296, he begins to actively participate in the political life of Florence, and after 4 years he becomes a member of the college of six priors governing Florence. It is the active political activity in 1302, as well as a fictional story about bribery, were the reasons for his expulsion from hometown. His property was arrested, and later even sentenced to death.

After such events, he was forced to wander around cities and countries. Once in Paris, he spoke at public debates. In 1316 he was allowed to return to his native city, but on the condition that he accept the wrongness of his views. Of course, the pride of the poet did not allow him to do this. From 1316 to 1317 he lived in Ravenna, at the invitation of the lord of the city.

It was during the period of exile that a work appeared that glorified him for centuries. Even at that moment, he thought only of his muse, because the Comedy was written in glorification of Beatrice. With the help of The Divine Comedy, he wanted to gain fame and return home, but this dream was not destined to come true. He completed the third part of the work shortly before his death.

In 1321, Alighieri went to Venice, as an ambassador, to conclude a peace treaty. On the way back, he comes down with malaria. The poet died on the night of September 13-14.

Biography 2

Dante Alighieri is an Italian writer and thinker, born June 1, 1265, whose full name is Durante degli Alighieri. He was born in the city of Florence to a Roman family. His great-grandfather went on crusades, in one of which he died, and his grandfather was expelled from Florence due to political reasons, but Dante's father was not a politician, so he had no problems in Florence.

Dante was very well read and smart person. He studied and studied natural sciences, even read the teachings of the "heretics" of that time. In what period Dante Alighieri began to write his own works is unknown, but his first work is considered to be the New Life, which was written in 1292. "New Life" was a collection of poems and prose that the writer had accumulated during this time. Some poems and prose refer to the author's friend, but experts consider this work to be the first autobiography in the history of literature.

During the conflict between the two sides of power - the Pope and the emperor, Dante chose the side of the emperor. At first, this was successful, but soon the Pope was in power, and Dante was expelled from the city. All his life he lived, moving from place to place, even visiting Paris. In 1304, philosophical works were written, but Dante never finished them, as he began to work on his most popular work, The Divine Comedy. By the way, Dante himself called this work "Comedy", and the word "divine" has already been added by Giovanni Boccaccio.

Dante's first love was Beatrice Portinari. He had known her since the age of 9, but after 9 years he met her again, when she was already married, and realized that he had lost. But Beatrice died at the age of 24, but it is not known exactly from what. There are versions that she died in childbirth, but there are versions. That she died of the plague. Later, Dante had a marriage with Gemma Donati. It was a marriage of convenience, because the families represented different political parties and were constantly at odds. In this marriage, 2 boys and a girl were born.

Dante Alighieri died on the night of September 13-14, 1921 from malaria. He was buried, but in 1329 the cardinal ordered the monks of the monastery in the city of Ravenna, where Dante lived in recent years, to publicly burn the remains of the writer, but no one did. Currently, this church has been restored and converted into the mausoleum of Dante Alighieri.

Biography by dates and Interesting Facts. The most important.

Born in mid-May 1265 in Florence. His parents were respectable citizens of modest means and belonged to the Guelph party, which opposed the power of the German emperors in Italy. They were able to pay for their son's education at school, and subsequently allowed him, without worrying about the means, to improve in the art of versification. An idea of ​​the poet’s youth is given by his autobiographical story in verse and prose New Life (La vita nuova, 1293), which tells about Dante’s love for Beatrice (it is believed that it was Bice, daughter of Folco Portinari) from the moment they first met when Dante was nine years old , and she is eight, and until the death of Beatrice in June 1290. The poems are accompanied by prose inserts explaining how this or that poem appeared. In this work, Dante develops the theory of courtly love for a woman, reconciling it with the Christian love for God. After the death of Beatrice, Dante turned to the consolation of philosophy and created several allegorical poems in praise of this new "lady". Over the years of scientific studies, his literary horizons have also expanded significantly. The decisive role in the fate and further work of Dante was played by the expulsion of the poet from his native Florence.

At that time, the power in Florence belonged to the Guelph party, torn apart by the inner-party struggle between the white Guelphs (who advocated the independence of Florence from the pope) and the black Guelphs (supporters of papal power). Dante's sympathies were on the side of the White Guelphs. In 1295-1296 he was called several times to public service, including participation in the Council of the Hundred. In 1300, he traveled as ambassador to San Gimignano, calling on the citizens of the city to unite with Florence against Pope Boniface VIII, and in the same year he was elected a member of the governing council of priors - he held this position from June 15 to August 15. From April to September 1301 he was again a member of the Council of the Hundred. In the autumn of the same year, Dante joined the embassy sent to Pope Boniface in connection with the attack on Florence by Prince Charles of Valois. In his absence, on November 1, 1301, with the advent of Charles, power in the city passed to the black Guelphs, and the white Guelphs were repressed. In January 1302, Dante learned that he had been sentenced in absentia to exile on trumped-up charges of bribery, malfeasance, and resistance to the pope and Charles of Valois, and never returned to Florence.

In 1310, Emperor Henry VII invaded Italy with a "peacekeeping" purpose. To this event, Dante, who by that time had found temporary shelter in Casentino, responded with an ardent letter to the rulers and peoples of Italy, urging them to support Henry. In another letter, entitled Dante Alighieri the Florentine, unjustly expelled, to the worthless Florentines who remained in the city, he denounced the resistance offered by Florence to the emperor. Probably at the same time he wrote a treatise on the monarchy (De monarchia, 1312-1313). However, in August 1313, after an unsuccessful three-year campaign, Henry VII died suddenly in Buonconvento. In 1314, after the death of Pope Clement V in France, Dante issued another letter addressed to the conclave of Italian cardinals in the city of Carpentras, in which he urged them to elect an Italian pope and return the papacy from Avignon to Rome.

For some time, Dante took refuge with the ruler of Verona, Can Grande della Scala, to whom he dedicated the final part of the Divine Comedy - Paradise. Last years The poet spent his life under the auspices of Guido da Polenta in Ravenna, where he died in September 1321, having completed the Divine Comedy shortly before his death.

Only a part of Dante's early poems entered the New Life. In addition to these, he wrote several allegorical canzonas, which he probably intended to include in the Feast, as well as many lyric poems. Subsequently, all these poems were published under the title Poems (Rime), or Canzoniere (Canzoniere), although Dante himself did not compile such a collection. This should also include the playfully swearing sonnets (tenzones) that Dante exchanged with his friend Forese Donati.

According to Dante himself, he wrote the treatise Pir (Il convivio, 1304-1307) to declare himself as a poet who moved from singing courtly love to philosophical topics. It was assumed that the Feast would include fourteen poems (kanzon), each of which would be provided with an extensive gloss, interpreting its allegorical and philosophical meaning. However, having written interpretations of the three canzones, Dante abandoned work on the treatise. In Pir's first book, which serves as a prologue, he passionately defends the right of the Italian language to be the language of literature. Treatise on Latin On popular eloquence (De vulgarieloquentia, 1304-1307) was also not completed: Dante wrote only the first book and part of the second. In it, Dante speaks of Italian as a means of poetic expression, expounds his theory of language, and expresses his hope for the creation in Italy of a new literary language that would rise above dialectal differences and would be worthy of being called great poetry.

In three books of carefully substantiated study On the Monarchy (Demonarchia, 1312-1313), Dante seeks to prove the truth of the following statements: 1) only under the rule of a universal monarch can humanity come to a peaceful existence and fulfill its destiny; 2) The Lord chose the Roman people to rule the world (therefore, this monarch must be the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire); 3) the emperor and the pope receive power directly from God (therefore, the first is not subordinate to the second). These views were expressed even before Dante, but he brought into them the ardor of conviction. The church immediately condemned the treatise and, according to Boccaccio, sentenced the book to be burned.

In the last two years of his life, Dante wrote two eclogues in Latin hexameter. This was an answer to the professor of poetry at the University of Bologna, Giovanni del Virgilio, who urged him to write in Latin and come to Bologna to be crowned with a laurel wreath. The study The Question of Water and Land (Questio de aqua et terra), devoted to the controversial issue of the ratio of water and land on the surface of the Earth, Dante may have read publicly in Verona. Of the letters to Dante, eleven are recognized as authentic, all in Latin (some have been mentioned).

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It is believed that Dante took up the Divine Comedy around 1307, interrupting work on the treatises Feast (Il convivio, 1304–1307) and On popular eloquence (De vulgari eloquentia, 1304–1307). In this work, he wanted to present a double view of the socio-political structure: on the one hand, as divinely pre-established, on the other, as having reached unprecedented decomposition in his contemporary society (“the current world has gone astray” - Purgatory, X VI, 82). The main theme of the Divine Comedy can be called justice in this life and in the afterlife, as well as the means to restore it, given, by the providence of God, into the hands of man himself.

Dante called his poem a Comedy, because it has a gloomy beginning (Hell) and a joyful end (Paradise and contemplation of the Divine Essence), and, moreover, is written in a simple style (as opposed to the sublime style inherent, in Dante's understanding, of tragedy), on on mother tongue, "as women say." The epithet Divine in the title was not invented by Dante; it first appeared in an edition published in 1555 in Venice.

The poem consists of one hundred songs of approximately the same length (130-150 lines) and is divided into three canticles - Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, thirty-three songs each; the first song of Hell serves as a prologue to the entire poem. The size of the Divine Comedy is an eleven-syllable, rhyming scheme, tercine, invented by Dante himself, who put a deep meaning into it. The Divine Comedy is an unsurpassed example of art as imitation; Dante takes as a model everything that exists, both material and spiritual, created by the triune God, who left the imprint of his trinity on everything. Therefore, the structure of the poem is based on the number three, and the amazing symmetry of its structure is rooted in imitation of the measure and order that the Lord gave to all things.

In a letter to Can Grande, Dante explains that his poem is ambiguous, it is an allegory like the Bible. Indeed, the poem has a complex allegorical structure, and although the narrative can almost always be based on a mere literal sense, this is far from the only level of perception. The author of the poem is presented in it as a person who has received God's special mercy - to make a journey to the Lord through the three kingdoms of the underworld, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. This journey is presented in the poem as real, performed by Dante in the flesh and in reality, and not in a dream or vision. In the afterlife, the poet sees various states of souls after death, in accordance with the retribution determined by the Lord.

The sins that are punished in Hell fall into three main categories: promiscuity, violence, and lying; these are the three sinful tendencies stemming from Adam's sin. The ethical principles on which Dante's Hell is built, as well as his vision of the world and man in general, are a fusion of Christian theology and pagan ethics based on Aristotle's Ethics. Dante's views are not original, they were common in an era when the main works of Aristotle were rediscovered and diligently studied.

After passing through the nine circles of Hell and the center of the Earth, Dante and his guide Virgil come to the surface at the foot of Mount Purgatory, located in the southern hemisphere, on the opposite edge of the Earth from Jerusalem. Their descent into Hell took them exactly the same amount of time as elapsed between the position of Christ in the tomb and his resurrection, and the opening songs of Purgatory are replete with indications of how the action of the poem echoes the feat of Christ - another example of imitation from Dante, now in habitual form of imitatio Christi.

Ascending the Mount of Purgatory, where the seven deadly sins are redeemed on seven ledges, Dante purifies himself and, having reached the top, finds himself in an earthly Paradise. Thus, climbing the mountain is a “return to Eden”, finding the lost Paradise. From that moment on, Beatrice becomes Dante's guide. Her appearance is the culmination of the whole journey, moreover, the poet draws an underlined analogy between the arrival of Beatrice and the coming of Christ - in history, in the soul and at the end of time. Here is an imitation of the Christian concept of history as a linear progressive movement, the center of which forms the coming of Christ.

With Beatrice, Dante ascends through nine concentric celestial spheres (according to the structure of the sky in Ptolemaic-Aristotelian cosmology), where the souls of the righteous dwell, to the tenth - Empyrean, the abode of the Lord. There Beatrice replaces St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who shows the poet saints and angels tasting the highest bliss: the direct contemplation of the Lord, which quenches all desires.

Despite such a variety of posthumous destinies, one principle can be distinguished that operates throughout the entire poem: retribution corresponds to the nature of sin or virtue inherent in a person during life. This is especially clearly seen in Hell (the instigators of discord and schismatics are cut in two there). In Purgatory, the purification of the soul is subject to a slightly different, “correcting” principle (the eyes of envious people are tightly sewn up). In Paradise, the souls of the righteous appear first in that heaven, or celestial sphere, which better symbolizes the degree and nature of their merits (the souls of warriors dwell on Mars).

Two dimensions can be distinguished in the structure of the Divine Comedy: the afterlife as such and Dante's journey through it, which enriches the poem with a new deep meaning and carries the main allegorical load. Theology in the days of Dante, as before, believed that a mystical journey to God is possible even during a person's life, if the Lord, by His grace, will give him this opportunity. Dante builds his journey through the afterlife in such a way that it symbolically reflects the "journey" of the soul in the earthly world. In doing so, he follows patterns already developed in contemporary theology. In particular, it was believed that on the way to God, the mind goes through three stages, led by three various types light: the Light of Natural Intelligence, the Light of Grace and the Light of Glory. It is this role that Dante's three guides play in the Divine Comedy.

The Christian concept of time is not only at the center of the poem: its entire action, up to the appearance of Beatrice, is intended to reflect what Dante understood as the path of redemption, destined by the Lord for mankind after the fall. The same understanding of history was found in Dante's treatise On Monarchy and was expressed by Christian historians and poets (for example, Orsisius and Prudentius) a thousand years before Dante. According to this concept, the Lord chose the Roman people to lead mankind to justice, in which he achieved perfection under Emperor Augustus. It was at this time, when peace and justice reigned on the whole earth, for the first time after the fall, that the Lord wished to incarnate and send his beloved son to people. With the advent of Christ, thus, the movement of mankind towards justice is completed. It is not difficult to trace the allegorical reflection of this concept in the Divine Comedy. Just as the Romans under Augustus led the human race to justice, so Virgil on the top of the Mount of Purgatory leads Dante to gain inner feeling justice and, saying goodbye, turns to the poet, as to the emperor at the coronation: "I crown you with a miter and a crown over you yourself." Now, when justice has reigned in Dante's soul, as once in the world, Beatrice appears, and her arrival is a reflection of the coming of Christ, as it was, is and will be. Thus, the path traveled by the soul of an individual, achieving justice, and then - purifying grace, symbolically repeats the path of redemption traveled by mankind in the course of history.

This allegory of the Divine Comedy is clearly intended for the Christian reader, who will be interested in both the description of the afterlife and Dante's journey to God. But the image of earthly life in Dante does not become ghostly and incorporeal from this. The poem contains a whole gallery of lively and vivid portraits, and the feeling of the significance of earthly life, the unity of "that" and "this" world is expressed in it firmly and unambiguously.

Who is Dante Alighieri?

Durante degli Alighieri (Italian: Durante deʎʎ aliɡjɛːri, short name Dante (Italian Dante, Brit. dænti, Amer. dɑːnteɪ; from 1265 - 1321.), was one of the main Italian poets of the Late Middle Ages. His "Divine Comedy", was originally called simply "Commedia" (modern Italian: Commedia), and later Boccaccio dubbed it "Divine". The Divine Comedy is considered the greatest literary work written in Italian, and also a masterpiece of world literature.

During the Late Middle Ages, the vast majority of poetry was written in Latin, which means it was available only to a wealthy and educated audience. In De vulgari eloquentia (On popular eloquence), however, Dante defended the use of jargon in literature. He himself would have written works in the Tuscan dialect, such as "The New Life" ("New Life") (1295) and the aforementioned "Divine Comedy"; this choice, though highly unorthodox, set an extremely important precedent that would later be followed by Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio. As a result, Dante played important role in building national language Italy. Great importance Dante also had for his native country; his portrayals of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven provided inspiration for much of Western art, and influenced the work of John Milton, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Alfred Tennyson, to name a few. In addition, the first use of a cross three-line rhyming scheme, or tercin, is attributed to Dante Alighieri.

Dante has been called the "Father of the Italian language" and one of the greatest poets of world literature. In Italy, Dante is often referred to as "il Sommo Poeta" ("The Supreme Poet"); he, Petrarch and Boccaccio are also called "Three Fountains" or "Three Crowns".

Biography of Dante

Childhood Dante Alighieri

Dante was born in Florence, Republic of Florence, present-day Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown, although it is believed to be around 1265. This can be deduced from the autobiographical allusions in The Divine Comedy. Its first chapter, "Inferno", begins: "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" ("Half of earthly life"), implying that Dante was about 35 years old, since the average life span, according to the Bible (Psalm 89: 10, Vulgate) is 70 years; and since his imagined journey to the underworld took place in 1300, he was most likely born around 1265. Some of the verses in the "Paradiso" section of the Divine Comedy are also a possible clue that he was born under the sign of Gemini: "As I twirled with the eternal twins, I saw, from the hills to the estuaries, the barn that makes us so ferocious "(XXII 151-154). In 1265, the sun is in Gemini roughly between May 11 and June 11 (Julian).

Dante Alighieri family

Dante claimed that his family descended from the ancient Romans ("Inferno", XV, 76), but the earliest relative could be a man named Cacciugaida degli Elisha ("Paradiso", XV, 135), born no earlier than 1100 . Dante's father, Alagiero (Alighiero) di Bellincione, was from the White Guelphs, who were not repressed after the Ghibelline victory at the Battle of Montaperti in the mid-13th century. This suggests that Alighiero or his family may have been saved due to their authority and status. Although, some suggest that the politically inactive Aliguiero had such a low reputation that he should not even be exiled.

The Dante family had allegiance to the Guelphs, a political alliance that supported the papacy and was involved in complex opposition to the Ghibellines, who in turn were backed by the Holy Roman Emperor. The poet Bell's mother is probably a member of the Abati family. She died when Dante was not yet ten years old, and Alighiero soon remarried Lapa di Chiarissimo Chialuffi. It is not known whether he actually married her, as widowers were socially restricted from such activities. But, this woman definitely bore him two children, Dante's half-brother - Francesco and half-sister - Tana (Gaetana). When Dante was 12 years old, he was forced to marry Gemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati, a member of the influential Donati family. arranged marriages in this early age were quite common and included an official ceremony, including contracts concluded with a notary. But, by this time, Dante had fallen in love with another, Beatrice Portinari (also known as Bice), whom he first met when he was only nine years old. For many years after his marriage to Gemma, he wanted to meet Beatrice again; he wrote several sonnets dedicated to Beatrice, but never mentioned Gemma in any of his poems. The exact date of his marriage is unknown: there is only information that before his exile in 1301, he had three children (Pietro, Jacopo and Antonia).

Dante took part in the battle against the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289). This victory led to the reformation of the Florentine Constitution. In order to take any part in public life, one had to enter one of the many commercial or craft guilds in the city. Dante joined the guild of doctors and apothecaries. In later years, his name is sometimes recorded among the speakers and voters in the various councils of the republic. Much of the records of such meetings in 1298-1300 have been lost, so the true extent of Dante's participation in the councils of the city is uncertain.

Gemma bore Dante several children. Although, some later argued that it is likely that his descendants are only Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia. Antonia later became a nun, taking the name Sister Beatrice.

Education Dante Alighieri

Not much is known about Dante's education; he probably studied at home or at school at the church (monastery) in Florence. It is known that he studied Tuscan poetry and admired the compositions of the Bolognese poet Guido Guinicelli, whom he described in chapter XXVI of Purgatory as his "father" - at a time when the Sicilian school (Scuola Poetica Siciliana), a cultural group from Sicily, became famous in Tuscany. Following his interests, he discovered the Provencal poetry of the troubadours (Daniel Arnaut), Latin writers of classical antiquity (Cicero, Ovid, and especially Virgil).

Dante said that he first met Beatrice Portinari, daughter of Folco Portinari, at the age of nine. He claimed to have fallen in love with her "at first sight", probably without even speaking to her. He saw her often after the age of 18, often exchanging greetings on the street, but he never knew her well. In fact, he set an example of so-called courtly love, a popular phenomenon in French and Provençal poetry of previous centuries. The experience of such love was then typical, but Dante expressed his feelings in a special way. It is in the name of this love that Dante left his imprint in Dolce stil novo (Sweet new style of writing, a term Dante coined himself). He also joined other poets and writers of the time in exploring aspects of love (Amore) that no one had previously explored. Love for Beatrice (like Petrarch for Laura, only a little differently) will be a reason for writing poetry and an incentive for life, sometimes for political passions. In many of his poems, she is portrayed as a demigod who constantly watches over him and gives spiritual guidance, sometimes harshly. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante sought refuge in Latin literature. He read: The Chronicle of the Congress, The Delian Philosophy of Boethius, and passages from Cicero. He then devoted himself to philosophical studies in religious schools such as the Dominican in Santa Maria Novella. He took part in the debate that the two main mendicant orders (Franciscans and Dominicans) directly or indirectly captured Florence, citing the doctrines of the mystics and St. Bonaventure, as well as the interpretation of this theory by Thomas Aquinas.

At the age of 18, Dante met Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Chino da Pistoia and soon Brunetto Latini; together they became the leaders of "Dolce stil novo". Brunetto was later mentioned in the "Divine Comedy" ("Inferno", XV, 28). His words to Dante are mentioned: Without saying anything more on this subject, I go with Ser Brunetto, and I ask who his most famous and most distinguished companions are. About fifty of Dante's poetic commentaries are known (so-called rhymes), others are included later in "Vita Nuova" and "Convivio". Other studies or conclusions, from the "New Life" or "Comedy", concern painting and music.

Political views of Dante Alighieri

Dante, like most Florentines of his time, was drawn into the conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibillens. He fought at the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289), with the Florentine Guelphs against the Ghibellines of Arezzo; in 1294 he was one of the escorts of Charles Martell of Anjou (grandson of Charles I of Naples; more commonly referred to as Charles of Anjou) while living in Florence. To further advance his political career, Dante became a pharmacist. He did not intend to practice in this area, but a law issued in 1295 required nobles applying for public office to be registered with one of the guilds of arts or crafts. Therefore, Dante joined the guild of apothecaries. This profession was suitable, since at that time books were sold in pharmacies. In politics, he achieved little, however, in the city for several years, he held various positions where political unrest reigned.

After the victory over the Ghibillens, the Guelphs split into two factions: the White Guelphs (Guelfi Bianchi), an association led by Vieri de Cerchi, joined by Dante, and the Black Guelphs (Guelfi Neri), led by Corso Donati. Although the split was initially over family differences, ideological differences also arose based on opposing views of the Pope's role in Florentine matters. The Black Guelphs supported the Pope, while the White Guelphs wanted more freedom and independence from Rome. The Whites took power and expelled the Blacks. In response, Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of Florence. In 1301, Charles of Valois, brother of King Philip IV of France, was to visit Florence as peacemaker of Tuscany, appointed by the Pope. But the city government had treated the papal ambassadors badly a few weeks earlier, demanding independence from papal influence. Charles was believed to have received other unofficial instructions, so the council sent a delegation to Rome to ascertain the pope's intentions. Dante was one of the delegates.

Expulsion of Dante from Florence

Pope Boniface quickly dismissed the other delegates, while Dante offered to stay in Rome. Meanwhile (November 1, 1301), Charles of Valois captured Florence with the Black Guelphs. In six days they destroyed most of the city and killed many of their enemies. A new power of the Black Guelphs was installed and Cante de Gabrielli da Gubbio was appointed head of the city. In March 1302, Dante, who belonged to the White Guelphs, along with the Gherardini family, was sentenced to exile for two years and had to pay a large fine. He was accused by the Black Guelphs of corruption and financial fraud while serving as abbot of the city (the highest position in Florence) for two months in 1300. The poet was still in Rome in 1302 when the Pope, who supported the Black Guelphs, "invited" Dante to stay. Florence under the Black Guelphs believed that Dante was a fugitive. Dante did not pay the fine, partly because he believed he was not guilty, and partly because all of his assets in Florence had been seized by the Black Guelphs. He was doomed to eternal exile; if he returned to Florence without paying a fine, he could be burned at the stake. (In June 2008, almost seven centuries after his death, the city council of Florence passed a resolution to overturn Dante's sentence.)

He took part in several attempts by the White Guelphs to regain power, but they failed due to treachery. Dante was upset by these events, he was also disgusted by the civil strife and stupidity of his former allies and vowed to have nothing to do with it. He went to Verona as a guest of Bartolomeo I della Scala and then moved to Sarzana in Liguria. Later, he is supposed to have lived in Lucca with a woman named Gentukka, who provided him with a comfortable stay (Dante mentioned her gratefully in Purgatory, XXIV, 37). Some speculative sources claim that he visited Paris between 1308 and 1310. Also, there are other, less reliable sources that take Dante to Oxford: these statements first appear in Boccaccio's book, which refers to several decades after Dante's death. Boccaccio was inspired and impressed by the wide knowledge and erudition of the poet. Obviously, Dante's philosophy and his literary interests deepened in exile. During the period when he was no longer busy with day-to-day business domestic policy Florence, he began to show himself in prose works. But, there is no real evidence that he ever left Italy. Dante's endless love for Henry VII of Luxembourg, he confirms in his residence "under the mines of the Arno, not far from Tuscany" in March 1311.

In 1310, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg entered Italy with 5,000 troops. Dante saw in him a new Charles, who would restore the office of the Holy Roman Emperor to its former glory and cleanse Florence of the Black Guelphs. He wrote to Henry and several Italian princes demanding that they destroy the Black Guelphs. Mixing religion and private concerns in his letters, he referred to the worst wrath of God against his city and offered several specific targets, which were also his personal enemies. It was during this time that he wrote to the absolute monarchs, proposing a universal monarchy under Henry VII.

During his exile, Dante conceived the writing of the Comedy, but the date is uncertain. In this work he was much more confident, and it was of a larger scale than anything else he produced in Florence; he most likely returned to this kind of activity after realizing that his political activity, which had been central to him until his exile, had been stopped for some time, perhaps forever. Also, the image of Beatrice returns to him with new force and with a broader meaning than in the "New Life"; in "Feast" (1304-1307) he declared that the memory of this youthful love belongs to the past.

Even in the early stages of the creation of the poem, when it was in the process of being developed, Francesco da Barberino mentioned it in his "Documenti d" Amore "(" Lessons in Love "), written probably in 1314 or early 1315. Remembering the image of Virgil , Francesco speaks favorably that Dante inherits the Roman classics in a poem called "Commedia", and that he describes in the poem (or part of it) the underworld; that is, hell. A brief remark does not give conclusive indications that he himself read at least "Inferno" ("Hell") or that this part was published at that time. But, this indicates that the composition had already been composed and that the outlines of the work were made several years before. (It was assumed that the knowledge of Francesco da Barberino in Dante's writings also underlies some passages in his Officiolum (1305-1308), a manuscript that only saw the world in 2003.) We know that Inferno was published around 1317; this is determined by the lines quoted, interspersed in the margins of contemporary records from Bologna, but there is no certainty whether all three parts of the poem were published in full, or only a few passages. "Paradiso" ("Paradise") is believed to have been published posthumously.

In Florence, Baldo di Aguglione pardoned and returned most of the White Guelphs from exile. However, Dante went too far in his cruel letters to Arrigo (Henry VII) and his sentence was not overturned.

In 1312, Henry attacked Florence and defeated the Black Guelphs, but there is no evidence that Dante took part in this war. Some say that he refused to participate in the attack on his own city; others believe that he became unpopular with the White Guelphs, and so his tracks were carefully covered up. Henry VII died (of a fever) in 1313, and with him died Dante's last hope of seeing Florence again. He returned to Verona, where Cangrande I della Scala allowed him to live in safety and probably in prosperity. Cangrande was admitted to Dante's "Paradise" (Paradiso, XVII, 76).

During the period of exile, Dante corresponded with the Dominican theologian Nicholas Brunacci (1240-1322), who was a student of Thomas Aquinas at the School of Santa Sabina in Rome, and later in Paris and the School of Albertus Magnus in Cologne. Brunacci became a lecturer at the School of Santa Sabina, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, and then served in the papal curia.

In 1315, in Florence, the Uguccione della Fagiola (military officer in control of the city) declared an amnesty for those who were in exile, including Dante. But for this, Florence demanded a public penance in addition to a heavy fine. Dante refused, preferring to remain in exile. When Uguccione captured Florence, Dante's death sentence was commuted to house arrest, on the condition that, upon returning to Florence, he swears never to enter the city. He refused such an offer, and his death sentence was confirmed and extended to his sons. He hoped for the rest of his life that he would be asked to return to Florence on honorable terms. For Dante, exile was tantamount to death because it stripped him of much of his identity and heritage. He described his pain from exile in "Paradiso", XVII (55-60), where Cacciaguida, his great-great-grandfather, warns him of what to expect: As for the hope of returning to Florence, he describes it as an already accepted impossibility ( Paradiso, XXV, 1-9).

Death of Dante

Alighieri accepted an invitation from Prince Guido Novello da Polenta to Ravenna in 1318. He completed Paradise, and died in 1321 (aged 56) on his way back to Ravenna from a diplomatic mission in Venice, possibly from malaria. He was buried in Ravenna in the church of San Pier Maggiore (later called San Francesco). Bernardo Bembo, praetor of Venice, erected a grave for him in 1483. Some poems by Bernardo Canaccio, a friend of Dante, dedicated to Florence were written on the grave.

Dante's legacy

The first official biography of Dante, The Life of Dante Alighieri (also known as the Small Treatise in Praise of Dante), was written after 1348 by Giovanni Boccaccio; Although some statements and episodes of this biography have been recognized as unreliable by modern researchers. An earlier account of Dante's life and work was included in the New Chronicle by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani.

Florence eventually came to regret Dante's exile, and the city repeatedly sent requests for the return of his remains. The guardians of the body in Ravenna refused, and at some point things went so far that Dante's bones were hidden in the false wall of the monastery. However, a tomb for him was built in Florence in 1829, in the Basilica of Santa Croce. This grave was empty from the very beginning, and Dante's body was left in Ravenna, far from the land he loved so much. On his tombstone in Florence is written: "Onorate l" altissimo poeta "- which roughly translates as follows:" Read greatest poet". This is a quote from the fourth canto in "Inferno", which depicts Virgil among the great ancient poets, spending eternity in limbo. The next strict says: "L" ombra sua torna, ch "era dipartita" ("His spirit, which is gone from us, will return"), these are eloquent words over an empty tomb.

On April 30, 1921, in honor of the 600th anniversary of Dante's death, Pope Benedict XV promulgated an encyclical titled "In praeclara summorum", calling him one "of the many famous geniuses that the Catholic faith can boast", as well as "pride and glory humanity."

In 2007, Dante's face was reconstructed as part of a joint project. Artists from the University of Pisa and engineers from the University of Bologna in Forla built a model that conveys Dante's features, which are somewhat different from the earlier representation of his appearance.

2015 was the 750th anniversary of Dante's birth.

The work of Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso); first his guide is the Roman poet Virgil, and then Beatrice, the object of his love (of whom he also writes in "La Vita Nuova"). While the theological subtleties presented in other books require a certain amount of patience and knowledge, Dante's depiction of "Hell" is understandable to most modern readers. "Purgatory" is perhaps the most lyrical of the three movements, according to more contemporary poets and artists than "Inferno"; "Paradise" is the most saturated with theology, and it is in it, according to many scholars, that the most beautiful and mystical moments of the "Divine Comedy" appear (for example, when Dante looks into the face of God: "all" alta Fantasia Qui Manco possa "-" in this lofty moment, opportunity failed my ability to describe, "Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

With all the seriousness of its literary growth and range, both stylistic and thematic, in its content, "Commedia" soon became a cornerstone in the establishment of the Italian literary language. Dante was more knowledgeable than most of the early Italian writers who used various Italian dialects. He understood the need to create a single literary language, beyond the Latin written form; in this sense, Alighieri is a harbinger of the Renaissance, with his attempts to create a vernacular literature that could compete with earlier classical authors. Dante's deep knowledge (within his time) of Roman antiquity, and his apparent admiration for certain aspects of pagan Rome, also point to the 15th century. Ironically, while he was widely revered after his death, the Comedy fell out of fashion among writers: too medieval, too crude and tragic, stylistically inaccurate, which the High and Late Renaissance demanded of literature.

He wrote a comedy in a language he called "Italian". In a way it's amalgamated literary language, which is mainly based on the regional dialect of Tuscany, but with some elements of Latin and other regional dialects. It deliberately aimed to win over readers throughout Italy, including laymen, priests and other poets. Creating a poem with an epic structure and a philosophical purpose, he established that Italian language suitable for the highest grade of expression. In French and Italian, he sometimes signs "la langue de Dante" ("Dante's language"). Publishing in his native language, Dante as one of the first Roman Catholics Western Europe(including the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio), broke publishing standards for only Latin (the language of liturgy, history, and scholarship in general, but often also lyric poetry). This breakthrough made it possible to publish more literature for a wide audience, paving the way for more high levels literacy in the future. However, unlike Boccaccio, Milton or Ariosto, Dante did not become an author read throughout Europe until the Romantic era. For the Romantics, Dante, like Homer and Shakespeare, was a prime example of the "original genius" who sets his own rules, creates characters of uncertain status and depth, and goes far beyond any imitation of the forms of the early masters; and who, in turn, cannot truly be surpassed. Throughout the 19th century, Dante's reputation grew and solidified; and by 1865, the 600th anniversary of his birth, he had become one of the great literary icons of the Western world.

Modern readers often wonder how such a serious work can be called "Comedy". In the classical sense, the word comedy refers to works that reflect belief in an ordered universe that not only has happy events or a funny ending, but also the influence of a providential will that orders all things for the highest good. In this sense of the word, as Dante himself wrote in a letter to Cangrande I della Scala, the progress of the pilgrimage from hell to heaven is a paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the moral confusion of the pilgrim and ends with the vision of God.

Dante's other works include: Convivio ("The Banquet"), a collection of his long poems with an (unfinished) allegorical commentary; "Monarchy", a short treatise on political philosophy in Latin that was condemned and burned after Dante's death by the papal legate Bertando del Poggetto, who argued for the need for a universal or global monarchy in order to establish universal peace in this life, and propagated these monarchical relations to the Roman Catholics in as a guide for everlasting peace; on "De vulgari eloquentia" ("On the eloquence of the people"), - popular literature, Dante was partly inspired by "Razos de trobar" by Raymond Waidel de Bezaudun; and "La Vita Nuova" ("The New Life"), the story of his love for Beatrice Portinari, which also served as a symbol of salvation in the "Commedia". "Vita Nuova" contains many love poems by Dante in Tuscan, which was not unprecedented; the vulgar language he used regularly for lyrical works before and during the whole of the thirteenth century. However, Dante's commentaries on his own work are also written in the native language, as are Vita Nuova and Feast instead of Latin, which was almost universally used.

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Name: Dante Alighieri

Date of Birth: 1265

Place of Birth: Florence
Date of death: 1321
A place of death: Ravenna

Biography of Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri is a famous literary critic, theologian and poet. He gained worldwide fame thanks to his narrative work The Divine Comedy. In it, the author tried to show how perishable and short-lived life is, and tried to help readers stop being afraid of death and torment in hell.

Everything that is known today about Dante Alighieri is known from his works. He was born in Italy in the city of Florence, and until his death he was devoted to his homeland.

Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about his family. Alighieri hardly mentioned her in his play The Divine Comedy. His mother's name was Bella and she died very early, and that's all we know about her. The father tied the knot for the second time and had two more children. Around 1283, his father died. He left his family a simple but very comfortable estate in Florence and small house In the countryside. During the same period, Dante married Gemma Donati.

A very important role in the life and development of Alighieri as a person was played by his friend and mentor Brunetto Latini. This man had great knowledge, he constantly quoted famous philosophers and writers. It was he who instilled in Dante a love of beauty and light.

Dante was a self-confident person. At the age of eighteen, he declared that he himself had learned to write poetry and now does it perfectly.

Dante Alighieri often mentioned his talented friend Guido Cavalcanti in his works. Their friendship was very complicated. Dante even had to leave Florence with him, since Guido was in exile. As a result, Cavalcanti becomes infected with malaria and dies in 1300. Dante was overshadowed by this event, and paid tribute to his friend, including him in his works. So, in the poem "New Life" Cavalcanti is mentioned many times.

Also, in this poem, Dante described his brightest and first feelings for a woman - Beatrice. Today, experts believe that this girl was Beatrice Portinari, who died very young, at 25 years old. The love of Dante and Beatrice is comparable to the feelings of Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde.

The death of his beloved made Dante take a different look at life, and he began to study philosophy. He read Cicero a lot, and thought about life and death. Also, the writer constantly visited a religious school in Florence.

In 1295, Dante became a member of the guild at a time when the struggle between the Pope and the emperor began. The city was divided into two fronts: the “blacks” were led by Corso Donati, and the “whites”, in which Alighieri was. It was the “whites” who won the battle and drove out the enemies. As time went on, Dante became more and more against the Pope.

"Blacks" once entered the city and staged a real pogrom. Dante was repeatedly summoned to the city council, but he never showed up there. Therefore, he, and several other "whites", were sentenced to death in absentia. He had to run. As a result, he became disillusioned with politics and returned to writing.

Exactly during Jen, when Dante was away from his native city, he began to work on a work that brought him worldwide fame and success - The Divine Comedy.

Alighieri tried in his work to help those who are afraid of death. At that time, this was very relevant, because the soul of the people of that time was torn by horrors before torment in hell.

Dante did not force one not to think about death, and did not claim that hell does not exist. He sincerely believed in both heaven and hell. He believed that only light, good feelings and courage will help you get out of hellish torment without damage.

In The Divine Comedy, Dante tells how he tried to write poetry in order to constantly reproduce the image of his beloved Beatrice through the lines. As a result, he began to understand that Beatrice did not die at all, did not disappear, because she is not subject to death, but on the contrary, she is able to save Dante herself. The girl shows the living Dante all the horrors of hell.

As Dante wrote, hell is not a specific place, but a state of mind that at a certain moment can appear in a person and settle there for a long time exactly when a sin is committed.

In 1308 Henry became king of Germany. Dante again plunged headlong into politics. From 1316 to 1317 he lives in Ravenna. In 1321 he went to conclude peace with the Republic of St. Mark. On the way home, Dante contracted malaria and died in September 1321.

Bibliography of Dante Alighieri

Poems and treatises

• 1292 - New life
• 1304-1306 - On popular eloquence
• 1304-1307 - Feast
• 1310-1313 - Monarchy
• 1916 - Messages
• 1306-1321 —
• This is Love
• The question of water and land
• Eclogues
• Flower

Poems of the Florentine period:

• Sonnets
• Canzone
• Ballads and stanzas

Poems written in exile:

• Sonnets
• Canzone
• Poems about the stone lady

Dante Alighieri is an Italian poet and writer, theologian, politician. His contribution to the development of not only Italian but also world literature is invaluable. He is the author of The Divine Comedy and the creator of the nine circles of hell, heaven and purgatory.

Childhood and youth

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence. His full name is Durante degli Alighieri. The exact date of the poet's birth is unknown; presumably, he was born between May 21 and June 1, 1265.

According to family tradition, his ancestors were from the Roman family of the Elisei. They took part in the founding of Florence. His great-great-grandfather Kachchagvida was a knight under Konrad III, went with him on crusades and died in battle with the Muslims.

His great-great-grandmother was Aldigieri da Fontana, a woman from a wealthy family. She named her son Alighieri. Later, this name turned into a well-known surname.

Dante's grandfather was expelled from Florence during the confrontation between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. He returned to his homeland only in 1266. His father Alighieri II was far from politics, so he remained in Florence all the time.

Dante was an educated man, he had knowledge in natural sciences, in medieval literature. He also studied the heretical teachings of that era. Where he got this knowledge is unknown. But his first mentor was at that time the popular scientist and poet Brunetto Latini.

Literature

It is not known for certain when Dante became interested in writing, but the creation of the work "New Life" dates back to 1292. Not all poems written by that time were included in it. The book alternated between poetry and prose. This is a kind of confession written by Dante after the death of Beatrice. Also in the "New Life" many poems were dedicated to his friend Guido Cavalcanti, by the way, also a poet. Scholars later called this book the first autobiography in literary history.

Like his grandfather, Dante became interested in politics at a young age. At the end of the 13th century, Florence was involved in a conflict between the Emperor and the Pope. Alighieri took the side of the opponents of papal power. At first, luck “smiled” at the poet, and soon his party managed to rise above the enemy. In 1300 he was elected to the post of prior.

However, a year later the political situation changed dramatically - power passed into the hands of the supporters of the Pope. He was expelled from Florence in a fictitious case of bribery. He was also accused of anti-state activities. Dante was fined - 5,000 florins, and his property was arrested, and later he was sentenced to death. At that time, he was outside of Florence, therefore, having learned about this, he decided not to return to the city. So he began to live in exile.

For the rest of his life, Dante wandered around cities and countries, found shelter in Verona, Bologna, Ravenna, and even lived in Paris. All subsequent works after the "New Life" were written already in exile.

In 1304 he began to write philosophical books "Feast" and "On popular eloquence." Unfortunately, both works remained unfinished. This is due to the fact that Dante began work on his main work - The Divine Comedy.

It is noteworthy that the poet originally called his work simply “Comedy”. The word "divine" was added to the title by Giovanni Boccaccio, Alighieri's first biographer.

He has been writing this work for 15 years. Dante personified himself with the main lyrical hero. The poem is based on his journey through the afterlife, to which he goes after the death of his beloved Beatrice.

The work consists of three parts. The first is "Hell", consisting of nine circles, where sinners are ranked according to the severity of their fall. Here Dante placed political and personal enemies. Also in "Hell" the poet left those who, as he believed, lived un-Christianly and immorally.

"Purgatory" he described with seven circles that correspond to the seven deadly sins. "Paradise" is performed in nine circles, which are named after the main planets of the solar system.

This work is still shrouded in legends. For example, Boccaccio claimed that after his death, Dante's children could not find the last 13 songs of "Paradise". And they discovered them only after the father himself came to his son Jacopo in a dream and told him where they were hidden.

Personal life

The main muse of Dante was Beatrice Portinari. He first saw her when he was only 9 years old. Of course, at such a young age, he did not realize his feelings. He met the girl only nine years later, when she had already married another man. Only then did he realize how much he loved her. Beatrice was for the poet the only love of his life.

He was such a shy and shy young man that in all the time he only spoke to his beloved twice. And the girl did not even suspect about his feelings for herself. On the contrary, Dante seemed arrogant to her, since he did not talk to her.

Beatrice died in 1290. She was only 24 years old. The exact cause of her death is unknown. According to one version, she died during childbirth, according to another, she became a victim of the plague. For Dante, this was a blow. Until the end of his days, he loved only her and cherished her image.

A couple of years later he married Gemma Donati. She was the daughter of the leader of the Florentine party, Donati, with whom the Alighieri family was at enmity. Of course, it was a marriage of convenience, and, most likely, political. True, later the couple had three children - sons Pietro and Jacopo and daughter Antonia.

Despite this, when Dante set about creating the Comedy, he thought only of Beatrice, and it was written in the glorification of this girl.

Death

The last years of his life, Dante lived in Ravenna under the auspices of Guido da Polenta, he was his ambassador. One day he went to Venice to conclude a peace treaty with the Republic of St. Mark. On the way back, the poet fell ill. Dante died on the night of September 13-14, 1321. The cause of his death was malaria.

Dante Alighieri was buried in the church of San Francesco in Ravenna, on the territory of the monastery. In 1329, the cardinal demanded that the monks commit the poet's body to public burning. How the monks were able to "get out" of the current situation is unknown, but no one touched the remains of the poet.

Sarcophagus of Dante Alighieri

On the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri, it was decided to restore the church. In 1865, builders found a wooden box in the wall, on which the inscription was carved - "Dante's bones were placed here by Antonio Santi in 1677." This find became an international sensation. No one knew who this Antonio was, but some suggested that it could well be a relative of the artist.

Dante's remains were transferred to the poet's mausoleum in Ravenna, where they remain to this day.

Bibliography

• 1292 - "New Life"
• 1300 - "Monarchy"
• 1305 - "On popular eloquence"
• 1307 - "Feast"
• 1320 - "Eclogues"
• 1321 - "The Divine Comedy"