Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Dante was born in Florence, of a bourgeois family of noble descent in 1265. In 1274, when he was nine, a meeting with Beatrice Portinari, the daughter of an aristocratic family, influenced the rest of his life. His platonic devotion to her continued despite her marriage, and despite his own marriage to Gemma Donati, daughter of a powerful Guelph family. The story of his boyish but unquenchable passion is told in La Vita nuova (c.1293, The New Life), a collection of lyric poems in the form of an autobiographical novel.
In c.1300 he became one of the six priors of Florence (1300). His sympathy for the moderate "White Guelphs" led to his exile in 1302, when the Black faction became dominant and sentenced him to death. His travelling after this date is unclear, but he never returned to his native town. He eventually settled in Ravenna (1318), where he remained for most of the rest of his life.
During his exile, he completed his most celebrated work, the epic poem Divina commedia (Divine Comedy), begun c.1307. Written in a complex pentameter form, terza rima, it is a magnificent synthesis of the medieval outlook, picturing a changeless universe ordered by God. It narrates a journey through Hell and Purgatory, guided by Virgil, and finally to Paradise, guided by Beatrice. The Divine Comedy elevated the vernacular Italian language from daily use into art.
Dante wrote persuasively in favour of vernacular in the unfinished De vulgari eloquentia (c.1304-7, Concerning Vernacular Eloquence).
Another important work is the fragment called the Convivio (c.1304-7, Banquet), which takes the form of a commentary on some of the author's canzoni, or short poems.
De monarchia (c.1313, On Monarchy), in Latin, expounded Dante's theory about temporal power.
Canzoniere is a collection of short poems, canzoni, sonnets, etc.
Dante was the chief poet of the Italians, and one of the world's greatest writers. He died from malaria shortly after he had finished the Paradiso.
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