HUM 103                   Historical Background            Wk I Day 1

DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321)
      family of Florentine Guelfs, lesser nobility
      great-great grandfather: Cacciaguida, 12^th C. Crusader
              knighted by Emperor, meets in Paradise  
      1285 arranged marriage with Gemma Donati (at least 3 children)
      1292 La Vita Nuova love poems to Beatrice
      1301 exiled in political struggle   1321 dies in exile in Ravenna

Medieval Florence and Italy

Italy: nominally part of Holy Roman Empire
11^th – 12^th C.  rise of city states in northern Italy
                    commune = city government:
                                      independent, self governing

Florence founding legends – Romans versus Germans
Ancient:       Roman army camp: Julius Caesar as founder
                                                  Mars as patron (sign of war)
                   Fiesole: hill town destroyed by Romans
Medieval:
      Germanic invasions: Florence destroyed by Totila (Goth)
                                        Fiesole rebuilt by Germans
        Rise of commune:   1125 conquest of Fiesole by Florence
                                      1138 Florentine consuls elected 
        German observor, 12^th C:
                  Otto of Friesing,: in Italy, cities rule countryside

FLORENCE: Nobles & Popolo, 12^th -13^th C

Commune: city government, first evidence for  Florence 1138            
                  = “that which is held in common”
              Latin  =  res publica  [the public matter]
              republican government, elected consuls     
              aristocratic families compete for power

12^th C. Age of the towers: built by noble families for urban warfare

          1216 Buondelmonte murder: noble factions (see chronicle)  
          Origin of Guelf – Ghibelline factions in Florence

13^th  C. Podestá:  outsider, noble with law degree
             executive brought in to curb noble family violence

    Rise of the popolo  = wealthy, non-noble merchants 
                                         alternative to noble power
    1250-60:  Primo Popolo = first popular government
             alliance of militia (armi) with guilds (arti)
     1255 Palazzo del Popolo (later Palazzo del Podesta, then Bargello)

    1282 Guild regime in Florence until 15th C
          new office of priors:  elected for 2 month terms
          priors elected from 21 guilds  (7 greater guilds, 14 lesser guilds)            
    Anti-noble agenda:  razing of the towers 
    1293 Ordinances of Justice: exclude nobility from office;
               only guild members eligible for office holding
               Dante joins guild of Apothecaries & Physicians

Dante’s writings: see course reader for other minor works

La Vita Nuova 1292  Italian love poems dedicated to Beatrice Portinari

La Divina Commedia 1307-1314:   Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso (later)
                “autobiography on a cosmic scale” – written in exile

De Monarchia (On Monarchy) 1311-12 political treatise in support of
        Emperor Henry VII of Germany, enters Italy 1310 –1313  
             Imperial authority directly from God; not subordinate to Pope
             Roman Empire = Universal monarchy: end to factions, conflicts