Dante Alighieri Society of Massachusetts

Scroll down to see links to many Dante sites

DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321)
 
The greatest Italian poet and one of the most important writers of European and World Literature. Best known for the epic poem COMMEDIA, c. 1310-14, later named LA DIVINIA COMMEDIA.

Dante grew up in Florence where he was born in 1265 (probably May 29). He was registered in one of the city guilds - the Apothecaries - being entered as "Dante d'Aldighieri, poeta." In 1285 he married Gemma Donati with whom he had seven children - six sons and one daughter, Beatrice, who became a nun at Ravenna. However his ideal lady and inspiration for his poetry was Beatrice Portinari (d.1290) whose chance meeting in May 1274 determined the whole future course of the poet's life.

Dante wrote La vita nuova c. 1293. In it he relates how he first set eyes on "the glorious lady of his heart, Beatrice." He then being about nine years of age and she a few months younger.
The book is dedicated to the Florentine poet, Guido Cavalcanti, the greatest poet of that time, whom Dante calls "the first of my friends," and ends with the promise of writing concerning Beatrice "what has never before been written of any woman" ( io spero di dicer di lei quello che mai non fue detto d'alcuna.)

Dante's Exile (1301-1321)

In 1301, due to changes in the the political climate, Dante was exiled, but he found shelter from various Italian cities and rulers before making his final home in Ravenna where he died and was buried on September 14, 1321. His tomb was restores to the original sarcophagus in 1865 and there he still remains.
The poet's years of exile were very productive. He wrote his most important works during this period:

  • Il convivio, 1307 (unfinished)
  • De vulgari eloquentia, 1304-07
  • De monarchia, c. 1313
  • Inferno (finished before 1316)
  • Purgatorio (finished before 1320)
  • Paradiso (finished before 1321)

Recognition for the Commedia was not long in coming. Giovanni Boccaccio wrote a life of the poet and in 1373-74 delivered the first public lectures of the "divino poeta".
When a splendid edition of Dante's poem was published in 1555, the adjective divine was also applied to the poem's title, and thus the work, originally simply named Commedia, became La divina commedia.

Links of interest about Dante Alighieri, his life, and his works:

| Back |