Dante Alighieri - Poet | Academy of American Poets Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization. browse poems & poets poet Dante Alighieri The author of La Commedia (The Divine Comedy), considered a masterwork of world literature, Dante Alighieri was born Durante Alighieri in Florence, Italy, in 1265, to a notable family of modest means. His mother died when he was seven years old, and his father remarried, having two more children. At twelve years old, Dante was betrothed to Gemma di Manetto Donati, though he had already fallen in love with another girl, Beatrice Portinari, who he continued to write about throughout his life, though his interaction with her was limited.

The love poems to Beatrice are collected in Dante's La Vita Nuova, or The New Life. In his youth, Dante studied many subjects, including Tuscan poetry, painting, and music. He encountered both the Occitan poetry of the troubadours and the Latin poetry of classical antiquity, including Homer and Virgil . He read Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae and Cicero's De amicitia. By the age of eighteen, Dante had met the poets Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia, and others. Along with Brunetto Latini, these poets became the leaders of Dolce Stil Novo ("The Sweet New Style"), in which personal and political passions were the purpose of poetry. He later turned his attention to philosophy, which the character of Beatrice criticizes in Purgatorio. He also became a pharmacist, and in his twenties and thirties took an active part in local public affairs. Like most Florentines during his lifetime, Dante was affected by the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, a political division of loyalty between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Papacy.

On June 11, 1289, he fought in the ranks at the battle of Campaldino on the side of the Guelphs, helping to bring forth a reformation of the Florentine constitution. After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs themselves divided into two factions: the White Guelphs, Dante's party, who were wary of the Pope's political influence; and the Black Guelphs, who remained loyal to Rome. Initially the Whites were in power and kicked the Blacks out of Florence, but Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of the city. A delegation of Florentines, with Dante among them, was sent to Rome to ascertain the Pope's intentions. While he was in Rome, the Black Guelphs destroyed much of the city, and established a new government. Dante received word that his assets had been seized and that he was considered an absconder, having left the city. Condemned to perpetual exile, Dante never returned to his beloved Florence. An outcast, Dante wandered Italy for several years, beginning to outline La Commedia, his great work.

In 1315, the military officer controlling Florence granted an amnesty to Florentines in exile, but the government of the city insisted that returning expatriots were required to pay a large fine and do public penance. Dante refused, preferring to remain in exile. Six years later, Dante died on September 13, 1321 in Ravenna, Italy, most likely of malarial fever. Unlike the epic poems of Homer and Virgil, which told the great stories of their people's history, Dante's The Divine Comedy is a somewhat autobiographical work, set at the time in which he lived and peopled with contemporary figures. It follow's Dante's own allegorical journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso). Guided at first by the character of Virgil, and later by his beloved Beatrice, Dante wrote of his own path to salvation, offering philosophical and moral judgments along the way.

Dante is credited with inventing terza rima , composed of tercets woven into a linked rhyme scheme, and chose to end each canto of the The Divine Comedy with a single line that completes the rhyme scheme with the end-word of the second line of the preceding tercet. The tripartite stanza likely symbolizes the Holy Trinity, and early enthusiasts of terza rima, including Italian poets Boccaccio and Petrarch, were particularly interested in the unifying effects of the form. Also unlike the epic works that came before, The Divine Comedy was written in the vernacular Italian, instead of the more acceptable Latin or Greek. This allowed the work to be published to a much broader audience, contributing substantially to world literacy. Due to the monumental influence the work has had on countless artists, Dante is considered among the greatest writers to have lived. As the poet T. S.

Eliot wrote, "Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them, there is no third." by this poet Dante Alighieri (Author of Inferno) Poetry , Religion , Philosophy Influences edit data Dante Alighieri, or simply Dante (May 14/June 13 1265 – September 13/14, 1321), is one of the greatest poets in the Italian language; with the comic story-teller Boccaccio and the poet Petrarch, he forms the classic trio of Italian authors. Dante Alighieri was born in the city-state Florence in 1265. He first saw the woman, or rather the child, who was to become the poetic love of his life when he was almost nine years old and she was some months younger. In fact, Beatrice married another man, Simone di' Bardi, and died when Dante was 25, so their relationship existed almost entirely in Dante's imagination, but she nonetheless plays an extremely important role in his poetry.

Dante attributed all the heavenly virtues to her soul and imagined Dante Alighieri, or simply Dante (May 14/June 13 1265 – September 13/14, 1321), is one of the greatest poets in the Italian language; with the comic story-teller Boccaccio and the poet Petrarch, he forms the classic trio of Italian authors. Dante Alighieri was born in the city-state Florence in 1265. He first saw the woman, or rather the child, who was to become the poetic love of his life when he was almost nine years old and she was some months younger. In fact, Beatrice married another man, Simone di' Bardi, and died when Dante was 25, so their relationship existed almost entirely in Dante's imagination, but she nonetheless plays an extremely important role in his poetry. Dante attributed all the heavenly virtues to her soul and imagined, in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, that she was his guardian angel who alternately berated and encouraged him on his search for salvation. Politics as well as love deeply influenced Dante's literary and emotional life.

Renaissance Florence was a thriving, but not a peaceful city: different opposing factions continually struggled for dominance there. The Guelfs and the Ghibellines were the two major factions, and in fact that division was important in all of Italy and other countries as well. The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor were political rivals for much of this time period, and in general the Guelfs were in favor of the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported Imperial power. By 1289 in the battle of Campaldino the Ghibellines largely disappeared from Florence. Peace, however, did not insue. Instead, the Guelf party divided between the Whites and the Blacks (Dante was a White Guelf). The Whites were more opposed to Papal power than the Blacks, and tended to favor the emperor, so in fact the preoccupations of the White Guelfs were much like those of the defeated Ghibellines. In this divisive atmosphere Dante rose to a position of leadership. in 1302, while he was in Rome on a diplomatic mission to the Pope, the Blacks in Florence seized power with the help of the French (and pro-Pope) Charles of Valois.

The Blacks exiled Dante, confiscating his goods and condemning him to be burned if he should return to Florence. Dante never returned to Florence. He wandered from city to city, depending on noble patrons there. Between 1302 and 1304 some attempts were made by the exiled Whites to retrieve their position in Florence, but none of these succeeded and Dante contented himself with hoping for the appearance of a new powerful Holy Roman Emperor who would unite the country and banish strife. Henry VII was elected Emperor in 1308, and indeed laid seige to Florence in 1312, but was defeated, and he died a year later, destroying Dante's hopes. Dante passed from court to court, writing passionate political and moral epistles and finishing his Divine Comedy, which contains the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. He finally died in Ravenna in 1321. ...more Inferno, Canto I - Poems | Academy of American Poets Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets.

For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization. browse poems & poets sign up to receive a new poem-a-day in your inbox sign up Pirate Story by Robert Louis Stevenson Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson Loneliness by Trumbull Stickney Alphabet Poem by Edward Lear poetic forms poem About this poet The author of La Commedia (The Divine Comedy), considered a masterwork of world literature, Dante Alighieri was born Durante Alighieri in Florence, Italy, in 1265, to a notable family of modest means. His mother died when he was seven years old, and his father remarried, having two more children. At twelve years old, Dante was betrothed to Gemma di Manetto Donati, though he had already fallen in love with another girl, Beatrice Portinari, who he continued to write about throughout his life, though his interaction with her was limited.

The love poems to Beatrice are collected in Dante's La Vita Nuova, or The New Life. In his youth, Dante studied many subjects, including Tuscan poetry, painting, and music. He encountered both the Occitan poetry of the troubadours and the Latin poetry of classical antiquity, including Homer and Virgil . He read Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae and Cicero's De amicitia. By the age of eighteen, Dante had met the poets Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia, and others. Along with Brunetto Latini, these poets became the leaders of Dolce Stil Novo ("The Sweet New Style"), in which personal and political passions were the purpose of poetry. He later turned his attention to philosophy, which the character of Beatrice criticizes in Purgatorio. He also became a pharmacist, and in his twenties and thirties took an active part in local public affairs. Like most Florentines during his lifetime, Dante was affected by the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, a political division of loyalty between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Papacy.

On June 11, 1289, he fought in the ranks at the battle of Campaldino on the side of the Guelphs, helping to bring forth a reformation of the Florentine constitution. After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs themselves divided into two factions: the White Guelphs, Dante's party, who were wary of the Pope's political influence; and the Black Guelphs, who remained loyal to Rome. Initially the Whites were in power and kicked the Blacks out of Florence, but Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of the city. A delegation of Florentines, with Dante among them, was sent to Rome to ascertain the Pope's intentions. While he was in Rome, the Black Guelphs destroyed much of the city, and established a new government. Dante received word that his assets had been seized and that he was considered an absconder, having left the city. Condemned to perpetual exile, Dante never returned to his beloved Florence. An outcast, Dante wandered Italy for several years, beginning to outline La Commedia, his great work.

In 1315, the military officer controlling Florence granted an amnesty to Florentines in exile, but the government of the city insisted that returning expatriots were required to pay a large fine and do public penance. Dante refused, preferring to remain in exile. Six years later, Dante died on September 13, 1321 in Ravenna, Italy, most likely of malarial fever. Unlike the epic poems of Homer and Virgil, which told the great stories of their people's history, Dante's The Divine Comedy is a somewhat autobiographical work, set at the time in which he lived and peopled with contemporary figures. It follow's Dante's own allegorical journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso). Guided at first by the character of Virgil, and later by his beloved Beatrice, Dante wrote of his own path to salvation, offering philosophical and moral judgments along the way.

Dante is credited with inventing terza rima , composed of tercets woven into a linked rhyme scheme, and chose to end each canto of the The Divine Comedy with a single line that completes the rhyme scheme with the end-word of the second line of the preceding tercet. The tripartite stanza likely symbolizes the Holy Trinity, and early enthusiasts of terza rima, including Italian poets Boccaccio and Petrarch, were particularly interested in the unifying effects of the form. Also unlike the epic works that came before, The Divine Comedy was written in the vernacular Italian, instead of the more acceptable Latin or Greek. This allowed the work to be published to a much broader audience, contributing substantially to world literacy. Due to the monumental influence the work has had on countless artists, Dante is considered among the greatest writers to have lived. As the poet T. S. Eliot wrote, "Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them, there is no third." Dante Alighieri , 1265 - 1321 Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Ah me!

how hard a thing it is to say What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, Which in the very thought renews the fear. So bitter is it, death is little more; But of the good to treat, which there I found, Speak will I of the other things I saw there. I cannot well repeat how there I entered, So full was I of slumber at the moment In which I had abandoned the true way. But after I had reached a mountain's foot, At that point where the valley terminated, Which had with consternation pierced my heart, Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders, Vested already with that planet's rays Which leadeth others right by every road. Then was the fear a little quieted That in my heart's lake had endured throughout The night, which I had passed so piteously. And even as he, who, with distressful breath, Forth issued from the sea upon the shore, Turns to the water perilous and gazes; So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward, Turn itself back to re-behold the pass Which never yet a living person left.

After my weary body I had rested, The way resumed I on the desert slope, So that the firm foot ever was the lower. And lo! almost where the ascent began, A panther light and swift exceedingly, Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er! And never moved she from before my face, Nay, rather did impede so much my way, That many times I to return had turned. The time was the beginning of the morning, And up the sun was mounting with those stars That with him were, what time the Love Divine At first in motion set those beauteous things; So were to me occasion of good hope, The variegated skin of that wild beast, The hour of time, and the delicious season; But not so much, that did not give me fear A lion's aspect which appeared to me. He seemed as if against me he were coming With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger, So that it seemed the air was afraid of him; And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings Seemed to be laden in her meagreness, And many folk has caused to live forlorn!

She brought upon me so much heaviness, With the affright that from her aspect came, That I the hope relinquished of the height. And as he is who willingly acquires, And the time comes that causes him to lose, Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent, E'en such made me that beast withouten peace, Which, coming on against me by degrees Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent. While I was rushing downward to the lowland, Before mine eyes did one present himself, Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse. When I beheld him in the desert vast, "Have pity on me," unto him I cried, "Whiche'er thou art, or shade or real man!" He answered me: "Not man; man once I was, And both my parents were of Lombardy, And Mantuans by country both of them. 'Sub Julio' was I born, though it was late, And lived at Rome under the good Augustus, During the time of false and lying gods. A poet was I, and I sang that just Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy, After that Ilion the superb was burned.

But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance? Why climb'st thou not the Mount Delectable, Which is the source and cause of every joy?" "Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?" I made response to him with bashful forehead. "O, of the other poets honour and light, Avail me the long study and great love That have impelled me to explore thy volume! Thou art my master, and my author thou, Thou art alone the one from whom I took The beautiful style that has done honour to me. Behold the beast, for which I have turned back; Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage, For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble." "Thee it behoves to take another road," Responded he, when he beheld me weeping, "If from this savage place thou wouldst escape; Because this beast, at which thou criest out, Suffers not any one to pass her way, But so doth harass him, that she destroys him; And has a nature so malign and ruthless, That never doth she glut her greedy will, And after food is hungrier than before.

Many the animals with whom she weds, And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain. He shall not feed on either earth or pelf, But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue; 'Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be; Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour, On whose account the maid Camilla died, Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds; Through every city shall he hunt her down, Until he shall have driven her back to Hell, There from whence envy first did let her loose.

Therefore I think and judge it for thy best Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide, And lead thee hence through the eternal place, Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations, Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate, Who cry out each one for the second death; And thou shalt see those who contented are Within the fire, because they hope to come, Whene'er it may be, to the blessed people; To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend, A soul shall be for that than I more worthy; With her at my departure I will leave thee; Because that Emperor, who reigns above, In that I was rebellious to his law, Wills that through me none come into his city.

He governs everywhere, and there he reigns; There is his city and his lofty throne; O happy he whom thereto he elects!" And I to him: "Poet, I thee entreat, By that same God whom thou didst never know, So that I may escape this woe and worse, Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou hast said, That I may see the portal of Saint Peter, And those thou makest so disconsolate." Then he moved on, and I behind him followed. From The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This poem is in the public domain. From The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This poem is in the public domain.

Dante Alighieri The Divine Comedy : Dante Alighieri : 9780199535644 The Divine Comedy US$10.41 US$17.96 You save US$7.55 Free delivery worldwide Add to basket Add to wishlist Description Described variously as the greatest poem of the European Middle Ages and, because of the author's evangelical purpose, the 'fifth Gospel', the Divine Comedy is central to the culture of the west. The poem is a spiritual autobiography in the form of a journey - the poet travels from the dark circles of the Inferno, up the mountain of Purgatory, where Virgil, his guide leaves him to encounter Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise. Dante conceived the poem as the new epic of Christendom, and he creates a world in which reason and faith have transformed moral and social chaos into order. Charles Sisson's blank verse translation is remarkable for its lucidity and vigour, and the Introduction, diagrams, maps, and notes by David Higgins provide the reader with invaluable guidance. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe.

Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. show more Product details 128 x 196 x 46mm | 539.77g Publication date Religious & Spiritual Fiction About Dante Alighieri Charles H. Sisson is a well-known poet and translator, and editor of Poetry Nation Review. David Higgins is Head of Italian Studies at the University of Bristol, and is the author of Dante and the Bible (1992). show more Table of contents AVAILABLE show more Review quote 'The pleasingly plain, readable English well reflects Dante's original eloquence.' The Times What is amazing about Dante's language is the fluency, the plainness, the simplicity - the sheer approachability - of his words. The sheer formal mastery of the man is quite amazing.

Michael Glover, New Statesman & Society show more Review Text The Divine Comedy by Dante, Gustave Dore |, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble® Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, che la diritta via era smarrita. Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura4 esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte che nel pensier rinova la paura! Tant' è amara che poco è più morte;7 ma per trattar del ben ch'i' vi trovai, dirò de l'altre cose ch'i' v'ho scorte. Io non so ben ridir com' i' v'intrai,10 tant' era pien di sonno a quel punto che la verace via abbandonai. Ma poi ch'i' fui al piè d'un colle giunto,13 là dove terminava quella valle che m'avea di paura il cor compunto, guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle16 vestite già de' raggi del pianeta che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.

Allor fu la paura un poco queta,19 che nel lago del cor m'era durata la notte ch'i' passai con tanta pieta. E come quei che con lena affannata,22 uscito fuor del pelago a la riva, si volge a l'acqua perigliosa e guata, Canto One Lost in a dark wood and threatened by three beasts, Dante is rescued by Virgil, who proposes a journey to the other world. Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wilderness, for I had wandered from the straight and true. How hard a thing it is to tell about,4 that wilderness so savage, dense, and harsh, even to think of it renews my fear! It is so bitter, death is hardly more-7 but to reveal the good that came to me, I shall relate the other things I saw. How I had entered, I can't bring to mind,10 I was so full of sleep just at that point when I first left the way of truth behind.

But when I reached the foot of a high hill,13 right where the valley opened to its end- the valley that had pierced my heart with fear- I raised my eyes and saw its shoulders robed16 with the rays of that wandering light of Heaven° that leads all men aright on every road. That quieted a bit the dread that stirred19 trembling within the waters of my heart all through that night of misery I endured. And as a man with labored breathing drags22 his legs out of the water and, ashore, fixes his eyes upon the dangerous sea, ° that wandering light of Heaven: Italian pianeta, "planet." It is the sun, considered a planet, or wandering light, revolving about the earth. così l'animo mio, ch'ancor fuggiva,25 si volse a retro a rimirar lo passo che non lasciò già mai persona viva. Poi ch'èi posato un poco il corpo lasso,28 ripresi via per la piaggia diserta, sì che 'l piè fermo sempre era 'l più basso.

Ed ecco, quasi al cominciar de l'erta,31 una lonza leggera e presta molto, che di pel macolato era coverta; e non mi si partia dinanzi al volto,34 anzi 'mpediva tanto il mio cammino, ch'i' fui per ritornar più volte vòlto. Temp' era dal principio del mattino,37 e 'l sol montava 'n sù con quelle stelle ch'eran con lui quando l'amor divino mosse di prima quelle cose belle;40 sì ch'a bene sperar m'era cagione di quella fiera a la gaetta pelle l'ora del tempo e la dolce stagione;43 ma non sì che paura non mi desse la vista che m'apparve d'un leone. Questi parea che contra me venisse46 con la test' alta e con rabbiosa fame, sì che parea che l'aere ne tremesse.

Ed una lupa, che di tutte brame49 sembiava carca ne la sua magrezza, e molte genti fé già viver grame, questa mi porse tanto di gravezza52 con la paura ch'uscia di sua vista, ch'io perdei la speranza de l'altezza. E qual è quei che volontieri acquista,55 e giugne 'l tempo che perder lo face, che 'n tutti suoi pensier piange e s'attrista; tal mi fece la bestia sanza pace,58 che, venendomi 'ncontro, a poco a poco mi ripigneva là dove 'l sol tace. So too my mind, while still a fugitive,25 turned back to gaze again upon that pass which never let a man escape alive. When I had given my weary body rest,28 I struck again over the desert slope, ever the firmer foot the one below, And look!

just where the steeper rise began,31 a leopard light of foot and quick to lunge, all covered in a pelt of flecks and spots, Who stood before my face and would not leave,34 but did so check me in the path I trod, I often turned to go the way I came. The hour was morning at the break of dawn;37 the sun was mounting higher with those stars° that shone beside him when the Love Divine In the beginning made their beauty move,40 and so they were a cause of hope for me to get free of that beast of flashy hide- The waking hour and that sweet time of year;43 but hope was not so strong that I could stand bold when a lion stepped before my eyes! This one seemed to be coming straight for me,46 his head held high, his hunger hot with wrath- seemed to strike tremors in the very air! Then a she-wolf, whose scrawniness seemed stuffed49 with all men's cravings, sluggish with desires, who had made many live in wretchedness- So heavily she weighed my spirit down,52 pressing me by the terror of her glance, I lost all hope to gain the mountaintop.

And as a gambler, winning with a will,55 happening on the time when he must lose, turns all his thoughts to weeping and despair, So I by that relentless beast, who came58 against me step by step, and drove me back to where the sun is silent evermore. those stars: the constellation Aries. It is the springtime of the year, recalling the springtime of the universe; see notes. Mentre ch'i' rovinava in basso loco,61 dinanzi a li occhi mi si fu offerto chi per lungo silenzio parea fioco. Quando vidi costui nel gran diserto,64 «Miserere di me», gridai a lui, «qual che tu sii, od ombra od omo certo!». Rispuosemi: «Non omo, omo già fui,67 e li parenti miei furon lombardi, mantoani per patrïa ambedui.

Nacqui sub Iulio, ancor che fosse tardi,70 e vissi a Roma sotto 'l buono Augusto nel tempo de li dèi falsi e bugiardi. Poeta fui, e cantai di quel giusto73 figliuol d'Anchise che venne di Troia, poi che 'l superbo Ilïón fu combusto. Ma tu perché ritorni a tanta noia?76 perché non sali il dilettoso monte ch'è principio e cagion di tutta gioia?». «Or se' tu quel Virgilio e quella fonte79 che spandi di parlar sì largo fiume?», rispuos' io lui con vergognosa fronte. «O de li altri poeti onore e lume,82 vagliami 'l lungo studio e 'l grande amore che m'ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume. Tu se' lo mio maestro e 'l mio autore,85 tu se' solo colui da cu' io tolsi lo bello stilo che m'ha fatto onore.

Vedi la bestia per cu' io mi volsi;88 aiutami da lei, famoso saggio, ch'ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi». «A te convien tenere altro vïaggio»,91 rispuose, poi che lagrimar mi vide, «se vuo' campar d'esto loco selvaggio; ché questa bestia, per la qual tu gride,94 non lascia altrui passar per la sua via, ma tanto lo 'mpedisce che l'uccide; Now while I stumbled to the deepest wood,61 before my eyes appeared the form of one who seemed hoarse, having held his words so long. And when I saw him in that endless waste,64 "Mercy upon me, mercy!" I cried out, "whatever you are, a shade, or man in truth!" He answered me: "No man; I was a man,67 and both my parents came from Lombardy, and Mantua they called their native land. In the last days of Julius I was born,70 and lived in Rome under the good Augustus in the time of the false and cheating gods.

I was a poet, and I sang of how73 that just son of Anchises° came from Troy when her proud towers and walls were burnt to dust. But you, why do you turn back to such pain?76 Why don't you climb that hill that brings delight, the origin and cause of every joy?" "Then are you-are you Virgil? And that spring79 swelling into so rich a stream of verse?" I answered him, my forehead full of shame. "Honor and light of every poet, may82 my long study avail me, and the love that made me search the volume of your work. You are my teacher, my authority;85 you alone are the one from whom I took the style whose loveliness has honored me. See there the beast that makes me turn aside.88 Save me from her, O man renowned and wise! She sets the pulses trembling in my veins!" "It is another journey you must take,"91 replied the poet when he saw me weep, "if you wish to escape this savage place, Because this beast that makes you cry for help94 never lets any pass along her way, but checks his path until she takes his life.

Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321) - Genealogy Dante Alighieri Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love Build your family tree online Share photos and videos "The Supreme Poet", "il Sommo Poeta", "Father of the Italian language" Birthdate: in Ravenna, Emilia Romagna, Italia Cause of death: Half brother of Francesco and Gaetana Occupation: FamilySearch Family Tree Birth: ...irenze, Firenze, Tuscany, Italy; The exact date of his birth is unknown, although it is generally believed to be around 1265. His own sta...

Death: Alighiero Di Bellincione, Bella Degli Abati Brother: Jacopo Alighieri, Pietro Alighieri, Antonia Alighieri, Giovanni Alighieri Residence: Alighiero II Alighieri, Bella (Gabriella) Alighieri (nata Degli Abati) Siblings: Tana Alighieri, Francesco Alighieri, (donna) Poggi (nata Alighieri) Wife: Alighiero II Alighieri, Bella Alighieri (born degli Abati) Siblings: Tana Riccomanni (born Alighieri), Francesco Alighieri, Unknown Poggi Wife: Sep 14 1321 - Ravenna, Emilia Romagna, Italia Wife: Circa May 1265 - Florença, Itália Death: Sep 14 1321 - Ravenna, Itália Parents: Gaetana Alighieri, Francesco Alighieri, Unknown Alighieri Poggi Wife: Between Jan 8 1265 and Jan 7 1266 Death: Between May 22 1265 and June 13 126

5 - Firenze Death: Alighiero Alighieri, Bella (Gabriella) Alighieri (nata Degli Abati) Wife: half sister About Dante Alighieri Durante degli Alighieri (May/June c.1265 – September 14, 1321), commonly known as Dante, was a major Florentine poet of the Middle Ages.

His Divine Comedy, originally called Commedia and later called Divina by Boccaccio, is considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. In Italy he is known as "The Supreme Poet" (il Sommo Poeta) or just il Poeta. Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also known as "the three fountains" or "the three crowns". Dante is also called the "Father of the Italian language". Life Dante was born in Florence, Italy. The exact date of Dante's birth is not known, although it is generally believed to be around 1265. This can be deduced from autobiographic allusions in La Divina Commedia, "the Inferno" (Halfway through the journey we are living, implying that Dante was around 35 years old, as the average lifespan according to the Bible (Psalms 89:10, Vulgate) is 70 years; and as the imaginary travel took place in 1300, Dante must have been born around 1265).

Some verses of the Paradiso section of the Divine Comedy also provide a possible clue that he was born under the sign of Gemini—"As I revolved with the eternal twins, I saw revealed from hills to river outlets, the threshing-floor that makes us so ferocious" (XXII 151-154). In 1265 the Sun was in Gemini approximately during the period 11 May to 11 June. Dante claimed that his family descended from the ancient Romans (Inferno, XV, 76), but the earliest relative he could mention by name was Cacciaguida degli Elisei (Paradiso, XV, 135), of no earlier than about 1100. Dante's father, Alighiero di Bellincione, was a White Guelph who suffered no reprisals after the Ghibellines won the Battle of Montaperti in the mid 13th century. This suggests that Alighiero or his family enjoyed some protective prestige and status, although some suggest that the politically inactive Alighiero was of such low standing that he was not considered worth exiling.

Dante's family had loyalties to the Guelphs, a political alliance that supported the Papacy and which was involved in complex opposition to the Ghibellines, who were backed by the Holy Roman Emperor. The poet's mother was Bella degli Abati. She died when Dante was not yet ten years old, and Alighiero soon married again, to Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi. It is uncertain whether he really married her, as widowers had social limitations in these matters, but this woman definitely bore two children, Dante's half-brother Francesco and half-sister Tana (Gaetana). When Dante was 12, he was promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati, member of the powerful Donati family. Contracting marriages at this early age was quite common and involved a formal ceremony, including contracts signed before a notary. Famously, Dante had by this time fallen in love with another, Beatrice Portinari (known also as Bice), whom he first met when he was nine years old.

Years after his marriage to Gemma, he claims to have met Beatrice again; although he wrote several sonnets to Beatrice, he never mentioned his wife Gemma in any of his poems. (Dante scholar Dorothy L. Sayers, following the lead of Giovanni Boccaccio, asserts that Dante did not actually marry Gemma until the mid-1290s, after Beatrice's death.) Dante on the Italian €2.00 coin based on a portrait by Raphael Dante fought with the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289). This victory brought forth a reformation of the Florentine constitution. To take any part in public life, one had to be enrolled in one of the city's many commercial or artisan guilds, so Dante entered the guild of physicians and apothecaries. In the following years, his name is occasionally found recorded as speaking or voting in the various councils of the republic. A substantial portion of minutes from such meetings from 1298-1300 were lost during the Second World War, however, and consequently the true extent of Dante's participation in the city's councils is somewhat uncertain.

Dante had several children with Gemma. As often happens with significant figures, many people subsequently claimed to be Dante's offspring; however, it is likely that Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia were truly his children. Antonia later became a nun with the name of Sister Beatrice. Education and poetry Not much is known about Dante's education, and it is presumed he studied at home or in a chapter school attached to a church or monastery in Florence. It is known that he studied Tuscan poetry, at a time when the Sicilian School (Scuola poetica Siciliana), a cultural group from Sicily, was becoming known in Tuscany. His interests brought him to discover the Occitan poetry of the troubadours and the Latin poetry of classical antiquity, including Cicero, Ovid, and especially Virgil. Dante claims to have first met Beatrice Portinari, daughter of Folco Portinari, at age nine, and claims to have fallen in love "at first sight", apparently without even speaking to her.

He saw her frequently after age 18, often exchanging greetings in the street, but he never knew her well; he effectively set the example for so-called courtly love, a phenomenon developed in French and Occitan poetry of the preceding centuries. Dante's experience of such love was typical, but his expression of it was unique. It was in the name of this love that Dante gave his imprint to the Dolce Stil Novo (Sweet New Style, a term which Dante himself coined) and would join other contemporary poets and writers in exploring the themes of Love (Amore), which had never been so emphasized before. Love for Beatrice (as in a different manner Petrarch would show for his Laura) would apparently be the reason for poetry and for living, together with political passions. In many of his poems, she is depicted as semi-divine, watching over him constantly and providing spiritual instruction, sometimes harshly. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante sought refuge in Latin literature. The Convivio reveals that he had read Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae and Cicero's De amicitia. He then dedicated himself to philosophical studies at religious schools like the Dominican one in Santa Maria Novella.

He took part in the disputes that the two principal mendicant orders (Franciscan and Dominican) publicly or indirectly held in Florence, the former explaining the doctrine of the mystics and of Saint Bonaventure, the latter presenting Saint Thomas Aquinas' theories. At 18, Dante met Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia and soon after Brunetto Latini; together they became the leaders of the Dolce Stil Novo. Brunetto later received a special mention in the Divine Comedy (Inferno, XV, 28), for what he had taught Dante. Nor speaking less on that account, I go With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who are His most known and most eminent companions. Some fifty poetical components by Dante are known (the so-called Rime, rhymes), others being included in the later Vita Nuova and Convivio. Other studies are reported, or deduced from Vita Nuova or the Comedy, regarding painting and music. Florence and politics Dante, like most Florentines of his day, was embroiled in the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict.

He fought in the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289), with the Florentine Guelphs against Arezzo Ghibellines, then in 1294 he was among the escorts of Charles Martel of Anjou (grandson of Charles I of Naples more commonly called Charles of Anjou) while he was in Florence. To further his political career, he became a pharmacist. He did not intend to actually practice as one, but a law issued in 1295 required that nobles who wanted public office had to be enrolled in one of the Corporazioni delle Arti e dei Mestieri, so Dante obtained admission to the apothecaries' guild. This profession was not entirely inapt, since at that time books were sold from apothecaries' shops. As a politician, he accomplished little, but he held various offices over a number of years in a city undergoing political unrest.

After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs divided into two factions: the White Guelphs (Guelfi Bianchi) -- Dante's party, led by Vieri dei Cerchi -- and the Black Guelphs (Guelfi Neri), led by Corso Donati. Although initially the split was along family lines, ideological differences rose based on opposing views of the papal role in Florentine affairs, with the Blacks supporting the Pope and the Whites wanting more freedom from Rome. Initially the Whites were in power and expelled the Blacks. In response, Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of Florence. In 1301, Charles de Valois, brother of Philip the Fair king of France, was expected to visit Florence because the Pope had appointed him peacemaker for Tuscany. But the city's government had treated the Pope's ambassadors badly a few weeks before, seeking independence from papal influence. It was believed that Charles de Valois would eventually 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. Exile and death Boniface quickly dismissed the other delegates and asked Dante alone to remain in Rome.

At the same time (November 1, 1301), Charles de Valois entered Florence with Black Guelphs, who in the next six days destroyed much of the city and killed many of their enemies. A new Black Guelph government was installed and Messer Cante de' Gabrielli da Gubbio was appointed Podestà of Florence. Dante was condemned to exile for two years and ordered to pay a large fine. The poet was still in Rome where the Pope had "suggested" he stay and was therefore considered an absconder. He did not pay the fine in part because he believed he was not guilty and in part because all his assets in Florence had been seized by the Black Guelphs. He was condemned to perpetual exile, and if he returned to Florence without paying the fine, he could be burned at the stake. (The city council of Florence finally passed a motion rescinding Dante's sentence in June 2008.) He took part in several attempts by the White Guelphs to regain power, but these failed due to treachery.

Dante, bitter at the treatment he received from his enemies, also grew disgusted with the infighting and ineffectiveness of his erstwhile allies and vowed to become a party of one. Dante went to Verona as a guest of Bartolomeo I della Scala, then moved to Sarzana in Liguria. Later, he is supposed to have lived in Lucca with a lady called Gentucca, who made his stay comfortable (and was later gratefully mentioned in Purgatorio, XXIV, 37). Some speculative sources claim he visited Paris between 1308 and 1310 and others, even less trustworthy, take him to Oxford: these claims, first occurring in Boccaccio's book on Dante several decades after his death, seem inspired by readers being impressed with the poet's wide learning and erudition. Evidently Dante's command of philosophy and his literary interests deepened in exile, when he was no longer busy with the day-to-day business of Florentine domestic politics, and this is evidenced in his prose writings in this period, but there is no real indication that he ever left Italy.

Despite these years of disputed whereabouts, Dante's Immensa Dei dilectione testante to Henry VII of Luxembourg confirms his residence "beneath the springs of Arno, near Tuscany" in March of 1311. In 1310, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg marched 5,000 troops into Italy. Dante saw in him a new Charlemagne who would restore the office of the Holy Roman Emperor to its former glory and also re-take Florence from the Black Guelphs. He wrote to Henry and several Italian princes, demanding that they destroy the Black Guelphs. Mixing religion and private concerns, he invoked the worst anger of God against his city and suggested several particular targets that coincided with his personal enemies. It was during this time that he wrote De Monarchia, proposing a universal monarchy under Henry VII. At some point during his exile, he conceived of the Comedy, but the date cannot be specified.

The work is much more assured, and on a larger scale, than anything he had produced in Florence, and it is likely that he would have undertaken such a work only after he realized that his personal political ambitions, which had been central to him up to his banishment, would have to be put on hold for some time, possibly forever. It is also noticeable that Beatrice has returned to his imagination with renewed force and with a wider meaning than in the Vita Nuova; in Convivio (written c.1304-07) he had declared that the memory of this youthful romance belonged to the past.

One of the earliest outside indications that the poem was under way is a notice by the law professor Francesco da Barberino, tucked into his I Documenti d'Amore (Lessons of Love) and written probably in 1314 or early 1315: speaking of Virgil, da Barberino notes in appreciative words that Dante followed the Roman classic in a poem called the Comedy, and that the setting of this poem (or part of it) was the underworld, that is, Hell.[4] Unfortunately, the brief note gives no incontestable indication that he himself had seen or read even Inferno, or that this part had been published at the time, but it indicates that composition was well under way and that the sketching of the poem may likely have begun some years before. We know that Inferno had been published by 1317; this is established by quoted lines interspersed in the margins of contemporary dated records from Bologna, but there is no certainty whether the three parts of the poem were published each part in full or a few cantos at a time. Paradiso seems to have been published posthumously.

In Florence, Baldo d'Aguglione pardoned most of the White Guelphs in exile and allowed them to return; however, Dante had gone too far in his violent letters to Arrigo (Henry VII), and the sentence on him was not recalled. In 1312, Henry assaulted Florence and defeated the Black Guelphs, but there is no evidence that Dante was involved. Some say he refused to participate in the assault on his city by a foreigner; others suggest that he had become unpopular with the White Guelphs too and that any trace of his passage had carefully been removed. In 1313, Henry VII died (from fever), and with him any hope for Dante to see Florence again. He returned to Verona, where Cangrande I della Scala allowed him to live in a certain security and, presumably, in a fair amount of prosperity. Cangrande was admitted to Dante's Paradise (Paradiso, XVII, 76). In 1315, Florence was forced by Uguccione della Faggiuola (the military officer controlling the town) to grant an amnesty to people in exile, including Dante.

But Florence required that as well as paying a sum of money, these exiles would do public penance. Dante refused, preferring to remain in exile. When Uguccione defeated Florence, Dante's death sentence was commuted to house arrest, on condition that he go to Florence to swear that he would never enter the town again. Dante refused to go. His death sentence was confirmed and extended to his sons. Dante still hoped late in life that he might be invited back to Florence on honorable terms. For Dante, exile was nearly a form of death, stripping him of much of his identity and his heritage. He addresses the pain of exile in Paradiso, XVII (55-60), where Cacciaguida, his great-great-grandfather, warns him what to expect: ... Tu lascerai ogne cosa diletta ... You shall leave everything you love most: più caramente; e questo è quello strale this is the arrow that the bow of exile che l'arco de lo essilio pria saetta. shoots first.

You are to know the bitter taste Tu proverai sì come sa di sale of others' bread, how salty it is, and know lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle how hard a path it is for one who goes lo scendere e 'l salir per l'altrui scale ...

ascending and descending others' stairs As for the hope of returning to Florence, he describes it as if he had already accepted its impossibility, (Paradiso, XXV, 1–9): Se mai continga che 'l poema sacro If it ever come to pass that the sacred poem al quale ha posto mano e cielo e terra, to which both heaven and earth have set their hand sì che m'ha fatto per molti anni macro, so as to have made me lean for many years vinca la crudeltà che fuor mi serra should overcome the cruelty that bars me del bello ovile ov'io dormi' agnello, from the fair sheepfold where I slept as a lamb, nimico ai lupi che li danno guerra; an enemy to the wolves that make war on it, con altra voce omai, con altro vello with another voice now and other fleece ritornerò poeta, e in sul fonte I shall return a poet and at the font del mio battesmo prenderò 'l cappello ...

of my baptism take the laurel crown Prince Guido Novello da Polenta invited him to Ravenna in 1318, and he accepted. He finished the Paradiso, and died in 1321 (at the age of 56) while returning to Ravenna from a diplomatic mission to Venice, possibly of malaria contracted there. Dante was buried in Ravenna at the Church of San Pier Maggiore (later called San Francesco). Bernardo Bembo, praetor of Venice in 1483, took care of his remains by building a better tomb. On the grave, some verses of Bernardo Canaccio, a friend of Dante, dedicated to Florence: parvi Florentia mater amoris - "Florence, mother of little love" The first formal biography of Dante was the Vita di Dante (also known as Trattatello in laude di Dante) written after 1348 by Giovanni Boccaccio; several statements and episodes of it are seen as unreliable by modern research. However, an earlier account of Dante's life and works had been included in the Nuova Cronica of the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani.

Eventually, Florence came to regret Dante's exile, and made repeated requests for the return of his remains. The custodians of the body at Ravenna refused to comply, at one point going so far as to conceal the bones in a false wall of the monastery. Nevertheless, in 1829, a tomb was built for him in Florence in the basilica of Santa Croce. That tomb has been empty ever since, with Dante's body remaining in Ravenna, far from the land he loved so dearly. The front of his tomb in Florence reads Onorate l'altissimo poeta—which roughly translates as "Honour the most exalted poet". The phrase is a quote from the fourth canto of the Inferno, depicting Virgil's welcome as he returns among the great ancient poets spending eternity in Limbo. The continuation of the line, L'ombra sua torna, ch'era dipartita ("his spirit, which had left us, returns"), is poignantly absent from the empty tomb. In 2007, a reconstruction of Dante's face was completed in a collaborative project.

Artists from Pisa University and engineers at the University of Bologna at Forli completed the revealing model, which indicated that Dante's features were somewhat different than was once thought. Works The Divine Comedy describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso), guided first by the Roman poet Virgil and then by Beatrice, the subject of his love and of another of his works, La Vita Nuova. While the vision of Hell, the Inferno, is vivid for modern readers, the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and knowledge to appreciate. Purgatorio, the most lyrical and human of the three, also has the most poets in it; Paradiso, the most heavily theological, has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g., when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa"—"at this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe," Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

By its serious purpose, its literary stature and the range—both stylistically and in subject matter—of its content, the Comedy soon became a cornerstone in the evolution of Italian as an established literary language. Dante was more aware than most earlier Italian writers of the variety of Italian dialects and of the need to create a literature beyond the limits of Latin writing at the time, and a unified literary language; in that sense he is a forerunner of the renaissance with its effort to create vernacular literature in competition with earlier classical writers. Dante's in-depth knowledge (within the realms of the time) of Roman antiquity and his evident admiration for some aspects of pagan Rome also point forward to the 15th century. Ironically, while he was widely honoured in the centuries after his death, the Comedy slipped out of fashion among men of letters: too medieval, too rough and tragical and not stylistically refined in the respects that the high and late renaissance came to demand of literature. He wrote the Comedy in a language he called "Italian", in some sense an amalgamated literary language mostly based on the regional dialect of Tuscany, with some elements of Latin and of the other regional dialects.

The aim was to deliberately reach a readership throughout Italy, both laymen, clergymen and other poets. By creating a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression. In French, Italian is sometimes nicknamed la langue de Dante. Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break free from standards of publishing in only Latin (the language of liturgy, history, and scholarship in general, but often also of lyric poetry). This break set a precedent and allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience—setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future. However, unlike Boccaccio, Milton or Ariosto, Dante didn't really become an author read all over Europe until the romantic era. To the romantics, Dante, like Homer and Shakespeare, was a prime example of the "original genius" who sets his own rules, creates persons of overpowering stature and depth and goes far beyond any imitation of the patterns of earlier masters and who, in turn, cannot really be imitated.

Throughout the 19th century, Dante's reputation grew and solidified, and by the time of the 1865 jubilee, he had become solidly established as one of the greatest literary icons of the Western world. Readers often cannot understand how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In Dante's time, all serious scholarly works were written in Latin (a tradition that would persist for several hundred years more, until the waning years of the Enlightenment) and works written in any other language were assumed to be more trivial in nature. Furthermore, the word "comedy", in the classical sense, refers to works which reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events not only tended towards a happy or "amusing" ending, but an ending influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, as Dante himself wrote in a letter to Cangrande I della Scala, the progression of the pilgrimage from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God.

Dante's other works include the Convivio ("The Banquet") a collection of his longest poems with an (unfinished) allegorical commentary; Monarchia, a summary treatise of political philosophy in Latin, which was condemned and burned after Dante's death by the Papal Legate Bertrando del Poggetto, which argues for the necessity of a universal or global monarchy in order to establish universal peace in this life, and this monarchy's relationship to the Roman Catholic Church as guide to eternal peace; De vulgari eloquentia ("On the Eloquence of Vernacular"), on vernacular literature, partly inspired by the Razos de trobar of Raimon Vidal de Bezaudun; and, La Vita Nuova ("The New Life"), the story of his love for Beatrice Portinari, who also served as the ultimate symbol of salvation in the Comedy. The Vita Nuova contains many of Dante's love poems in Tuscan, which was not unprecedented; the vernacular had been regularly used for lyric works before, during all the thirteenth century. One of the most famous poems is Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare, which many Italians can recite by heart.

However, Dante's commentary on his own work is also in the vernacular—both in the Vita Nuova and in the Convivio—instead of the Latin that was almost universally used. References to Divina Commedia are in the format (book, canto, verse), e.g., (Inferno, XV, 76). Images and media from Commons on Dante The Divine Comedy Summary - eNotes.com The Divine Comedy Summary Dante Alighieri The Divine Comedy Summary In this epic poem, Dante's alter ego, the Pilgrim, travels through Hell and Purgatory to reach Heaven. His journey is meant to impress upon readers the consequences of sin and the glories of Heaven. In the first section, commonly known as Dante's Inferno, the spirit of Roman poet Virgil leads Dante's alter ego, the "Pilgrim," through the circles of Hell, where they witness the horrible punishments that sinners have brought upon themselves. In the second section, Purgatory, Pilgrim meets the souls of those waiting to ascend into Heaven. There, the souls of the saved make penance for their sins, of which they must be cleansed before they can go to Heaven. In the third section, Pilgrim reaches Heaven.

On the way there, he sails through space and sees the planets, which are inhabited by saints. Upon witnessing the majesty of God in his true glory, Pilgrim returns to Earth to write this very poem. Download Study Guide Start Free Trial Start your free trial with eNotes to access more than 30,000 study guides. Get help with any book. link Link Dante’s The Divine Comedy is the beginning of Italian literature and the single most significant work of the Middle Ages because its allegory emphasizes the importance of salvation and divine love in a work that is inclusive and tightly structured. It is so thoroughly infused with Christian ethics that any overview has to touch on major Christian themes, beginning with the plot being set during Easter week 1300. The work is a complex narrative with many allusions to biblical stories, classical myths, history, and contemporary politics; however, the plot’s symbolism provides clarity in that it celebrates the ideal of universalism, where everything has its place in God’s world, and its ultimate goal of salvation triumphs over the contemporary reality of the power struggle between worldly and religious leaders.

The structure of the entire work, as well as of its parts, is symbolic of the story it tells, as the use of numbers shows. The number 3 (symbolic of the Trinity: God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost) and the number 10 (the “perfect” number: 3 × 3 + 1) are the most conspicuous examples. The Divine Comedy has three “cantiche,” or parts (Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven). Each cantica has thirty-three cantos, or songs, with the exception of the first cantica, which has thirty-four cantos, adding up to a total of one hundred (the perfect number squared: 10 × 10). Each canto is written in terza rima, that is, in tercets that rhyme in an interlocking manner. The first canto of Inferno, is considered to be an introduction to the whole work (making the structure even more symmetric: 1 + 33 + 33 + 33 = 100) because all three parts of The Divine Comedy are present in the first canto’s symbolic landscape. Dante finds himself lost in a dark forest.

Looking for orientation, he decides to hike up a mountain, whose sunlit top represents Purgatory, while the sky and the sun represent Heaven. However, Dante’s path is blocked by three animals on the mountain’s slope: a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf, which represent the three main types of sin that correspond to the three main divisions of Hell. The spirit of Virgil appears and promises to get Dante to salvation the long way: through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Dante’s doubts are assuaged because Virgil has been sent by three heavenly ladies (the Virgin Mary, Saint Lucy, and Beatrice); in the combination of human reason with divine grace, Dante’s salvation may yet be achieved. After they enter Hell in the third canto, Dante learns through conversations with Virgil and individual souls that each sin is punished according to its severity, systematically going from the lighter sins of incontinence (giving in to one’s desires) to the more severe sins of violence (actively willing evil) and fraud (adding malice).

Hell, which is presented as a huge funnel-shaped underground cave, extends in ever-smaller and more-constricting circles to the middle of the earth; there, in the pit of hell, sits Satan himself, forever stuck frozen in the ice of the lake Cocytus, chewing on the three worst human traitors: Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. Climbing past Satan, Dante is headed toward salvation. While all sinners in Hell will remain there forever to suffer their horrible punishments because they did not admit their sins, souls in Purgatory are already saved and eventually will go to Heaven because they confessed their sins before death. Therefore, the mood has completely changed: The souls are not stuck in everlasting isolation but learn in groups from examples of the virtue and vice that correspond to their penance. Purgatory is presented as a huge cone-shaped mountain and the only landmass in the southern hemisphere. Purgatory proper is organized in seven rings according to the traditional seven deadly sins (pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust).

At the top of the mountain is earthly paradise (the Garden of Eden); this is as far as human reason can lead, so Virgil leaves and Beatrice becomes Dante’s guide. Cleansed of his own sins, Dante rises naturally toward Heaven. In keeping with the Ptolemaic worldview, Heaven is organized in spheres with the earth in the center. Dante identifies ten spheres that he relates to the so-called four pagan virtues of fortitude, justice, temperance, and prudence in varying degrees (first to seventh Heavens), the three Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity (eighth Heaven), the Primum Mobile (the ninth heaven, which moves all others), and the Empyrean (the tenth Heaven outside of time and space, where God dwells). The Empyrean as a state of being also contains the Celestial Rose, where all blessed souls reside. The souls do not reside in the individual heavens where Dante encounters them but are put there so that he may more easily understand their place in the divine order.

The blessed souls in Heaven form a true, though strictly hierarchical, community that exists in an all-permeating feeling of love and bliss, which comes from the joy and peace of being in the proper place in God’s creation. Dante evokes in images of light what lies beyond human experience, such as the radiance of the blessed souls and Dante’s vision of God. Dante - Baby Boy Name Meaning and Origin | Oh Baby! Names Dante Achiever Etymology & Historical Origin - Dante Dante is a contracted form of the Italian name Durante which means ‘steadfast, enduring’ from the Latin "durus" meaning ‘hard, firm’. The name Dante was most famously borne by Dante Alighieri, the 13th century poet who gave the world one of the greatest pieces of literature in the Middle Ages, “La Grande Commedia” or in English, The Divine Comedy. This masterpiece is divided into three parts (the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) and tells of Dante’s journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. Or more simply, it’s an allegory of the soul’s journey toward God.

Dante himself wrote that the Comedy was a passage from “the human to the divine, from time to the eternal, from Florence to a people just and sane.” (Dante had been exiled to Rome from his home in Florence, but after the success of his epic poem throughout Italy, he was readily invited back). From an English-speaking perspective, the use of the name Dante was also influenced by the 19th century pre-Raphaelite poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rosetti (the son of an exiled Italian who lived in England). Popularity of the Name Dante Dante has been in use in America since 1910. The name saw low levels of popularity back in the first half of the 20th century, perhaps too exotic for the average palate. Regardless, the name started to show upwards momentum by the 1960s and gradually climbed its way onto the Top 200 list by 1997. Since the turn of the 21st century, Dante has declined slightly but it’s still going strong for such an off-beat choice. Dante is the quintessential literary name. It’s like naming your kid Shakespeare, Homer or Virgil.

But it also has that rare crossover feature – one that wears well on both poets and athletes alike. Dante does have a ‘steadfast’ and ‘enduring’ quality like the name’s etymology. It’s classic and timeless, yet also striking and unique. And the Italian origin just adds that much more zest. Popularity of the Boy Name Dante You need Adobe Flash Player 6 (or above) to view the charts. It is a free and lightweight installation from Adobe.com. Please click here to install the same. Cultural References to the Baby Name - Dante Literary Characters of the Baby Name Dante Dante We cannot find any significant literary characters with the first name Dante. Popular Songs on Dante Dante - We cannot find any well-known or significantly popular songs featuring the name Dante. Children's Books on the Baby Name Dante Dante's Divine Comedy: As Told for Young People (Dante Alighieri / Joseph Tusiani) - This is a retelling of Dante's Divine Comedy written especially for young people by poet, novelist and translator Joseph Tusiani. The author combines summary, paraphrase and Dante's own lines translated into English verse to tell a timeless story of sin and salvation. Recommended for ages 7-10.

Famous People Named Dante Famous People Named Dante - Durante "Dante" degli Alighieri (poet/author); Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English poet and artist); Dante Bonfim Costa Santos (German soccer player); Dante Basco (actor); Dante Bichette (baseball player); Dante Lavelli (football player); Dante Hall (football player); Dante Hughes (football player) Children of Famous People Named Dante Famous People Who Named Their Child Dante - Chazz Palminteri (actor); Corey Hart (singer) Dante - Boy Baby Name - Historic Figures Durante degli Alighieri (c.1265 - 1321) - Durante Alighieri, known simply as “Dante”, was referred to as “The Supreme Poet” since he was considered one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages. Dante is most known for his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, which follows him through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. He hailed from Florence, Italy and was a philosopher and political thinker (it was his deep involvement in the politics of the day that would get him exiled from Florence and condemned to death should he ever return). This experience would have a profound impact on Dante’s writing.

Not only was The Divine Comedy a soul’s journey toward God, but it was also a condemnation of Florence and the behavior of those in power. Dante wrote his poetry in Italian regional dialects and vernacular mixed with Latin and is often credited for inventing the Italian language (in fact, the French call Italian “la langue de Dante”). The Divine Comedy would have a major influence on the development of western literature. After the success of the Comedy, Dante was invited back to Florence but under terms he refused. He lived out the rest of his life in exile. Search Baby Names

Question: What was the surname of the poet Dante, author of the Divine Comedy?
Answer: ALIGHIERI