Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri (Durante degli Alighieri) was an Italian poet, one of the founders of the literary Italian language. He was the creator of the Comedy (later given the epithet Divine, introduced by Boccaccio), in which a synthesis of late medieval culture was achieved.

Brief chronology

1265 — Dante’s birth 1274 — first meeting with Beatrice 1283 — second meeting with Beatrice 1290 — Beatrice’s death 1292 — composition of New Life 1296 — first mention of Dante as a public figure 1298 — Dante’s marriage to Gemma Donati 1300 — prior of Florence 1302 — expelled from Florence 1304–1307 — The Banquet 1304–1306 — On Vernacular Eloquence 1306–1321 — Divine Comedy 1308 — Paris 1310 — return to Italy 1315 — confirmation of the exile of Dante and his sons from Florence 1316–1317 — Ravenna 1321 — Dante, as an ambassador of Ravenna, departs for Venice Night of September 13–14, 1321 — dies on the way back to Ravenna

Biography

Dante Alighieri was born (according to one version) on May 21, 1265, in Florence. Dante’s family belonged to the urban nobility. Very little factual information is known about Alighieri’s life; his trail is lost for long stretches of time.

The first mention of Dante as a public figure dates to 1296–1297, when he was actively involved in the political life of Florence. But after the armed coup of 1302 he was exiled and deprived of civic rights, and later sentenced to death in absentia. Then began the poet’s wanderings through Italy, and he never returned to Florence.

In Dante’s best-known youthful poems, influenced by the troubadours, Sicilian poets, and the school of the “sweet new style,” he sang of his beloved Beatrice. These poems, together with the prose