DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321) Florentine Guelfs, lesser nobility; 1248 exiled by Ghib
Grandfather: Cacciaguida, knighted by Emperor Conrad III, died on Crusade
Arranged marriage with Donati family, 3 children born before 1300
Public Life:
1282 Guild regime of priors established – functions of podesta reduced
1293 Ordinances of Justice: ban nobles from govt, unless they are guild members
1295 amendment: lesser nobility permitted to hold office, if they join guild
as sign of loyalty to the guild regime
Dante enrolls in Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries;
elected member of Council of the Popolo 1295-96
1300 selected as ambassador to San Gimignano, Tuscan hill town, Guelf alliance
elected prior for two months (one of six; highest elective office in city)
1301 ambassador to
Split of Florentine Guelfs into factions: Dante related to both sides of this split
Black leader Corso Donati = Dante’s brother-in-law
White leader Guido Cavalcanti = Dante best friend
1300 leaders of both factions exiled to calm tensions
Blacks: Papal allies; French army of Charles of Valois (brother of King) used
by Pope Boniface VIII to expand Papal States in
1301 BLACK GUELF COUP: Army of Charles of Valois enters
Dante condemned in absentia, 5,000 florin fine, later to death by burning
1300-1301 = turning point in Dante’s life, becomes exile in
Career as writer and poet:
Teacher: Brunetto Latini – Latin grammar, rhetoric (public speaking)
(in Inferno Canto XV – circle of the sodomites)
1292 La Vita Nuova poems in vernacular Italian, love poems dedicated to
Beatrice Portinari, Florentine noble woman married to Bardi family
combination of love sonnets and chronology of meeting Beatrice
1307-1314 La Commedia (later called La Divina Commedia)
Christian symbolism, allegory: "autobiography on a cosmic scale"
Time frame: set in the year 1300 (actually written later)
Characters: Dante ("everyman," the Christian soul/pilgrim),
Virgil (Reason), Beatrice (Revelation/Divine Love)
Geography: Ptolemaic universe; Ptolemy = Egyptian astronomer; universe as
geocentric: sun & moon = planets, on crystalline spheres moved by angels
Journey through universe: opens with Dante lost in Dark Wood
Hell: First Circle = Limbo, "good pagans" Plato, Aristotle, Virgil etc.
deeper circles: Incontinence: sins of passion, eg lust, gluttony
Violence: against self (suicide), neighbor, God
Fraud: sins of deceit, treason as worst
eg Brutus in jaws of demon at bottom of Hell
for role in assassination of Julius Ceasar
Purgatory: "mountain of Purgatory" summit "Earthly Paradise"
where Beatrice replaces Virgil as guide to heaven
of angels, level of holiness; last sphere = Primum mobile,
beyond this universe ends, Empyrean (where God is) begins
1311-12 De Monarchia (On Monarchy) political treatise in support of authority of
Emperor Henry VII of
seen by Dante in exile as just ruler, savior of conflict ridden
by 1310, Dante is supporter of Empire (1301 charge of Ghibellinism)
Papacy: usurper of Emperor’s temporal power, cause of
rejects papal theory of Donation of Constantine to claim secular power
Emperor’s authority directly from God; not subordinate to Pope
overcoming local conflicts, tensions, factions