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DANTE
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DANTE , Dante (or See also:Durante) Alighieri (1265-1321), the greatest of See also:Italian poets, was See also:born at See also:Florence about the See also:middle of May 1265. He was descended from an See also:ancient See also:family, but from one which at any See also:rate for several generations had belonged to the burgher and not to the knightly class. His biographers have attempted on very slight grounds to deduce his origin from the Frangipani, one of the See also:oldest senatorial families of See also:Rome. We can affirm with greater certainty that he was connected with the Elisei who took See also:part in the See also:building of Florence under See also: He further tells his descendant that he was born in the See also:year 11o6 (or, if another See also:reading of xvi, 37, 38 be adopted, in 1091), and that he married an Aldighieri from the valley of the Po. Here the See also:German See also:strain appears unmistakably; the name Aldighiero (Aldiger) being purely Teutonic. He also mentions two See also:brothers, Moronte and Eliseo, and that he accompanied the See also:emperor See also:Conrad III. upon his crusade into the See also:Holy See also:Land, where he died (1147) among the infidels. From Eliseo was probably descended the See also:branch of the Elisei; from Aldighiero, son of Cacciaguida, the branch of the Alighieri. Bellincione, son of Aldighiero, was the grandfather of Dante. His See also:father was a second Aldighiero, a lawyer of some reputation. By his first wife, Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffii, this Aldighiero had a son See also:Francesco; by his second, Donna Bella, whose family name is not known, Dante and a daughter. Thus the family of Dante held a most respectable position among the citizens of his beloved See also:city; but had it been reckoned in the very first See also:rank they could not have remained in Florence after the defeat of the Guelphs at Montaperti in 126o. It is clear, however, that Dante's See also:mother at least did so remain, for Dante was born in Florence in 1265. The heads of the See also:Guelph party did not return till 1267. Dante was born under the sign of the twins, " the glorious stars pregnant with virtue, to whom he owes his See also:genius such as it is." Astrologers considered this See also:constellation as favourable to literature and See also:science, and Brunetto See also:Latini, the philosopher and diplomatist, his instructor, tells him in the Inferno (xv. 25, foll.) that, if he follows its guidance, he cannot fail to reach the See also:harbour of fame. See also:Boccaccio relates that before his See also:birth his mother dreamed that she See also:lay under a very lofty See also:laurel, growing in a See also:green meadow, by a very .clear See also:fountain, when she See also:felt the pangs of childbirth,—that her See also:child, feeding on the berries which See also:fell from the laurel, and on the See also:waters of the fountain, in a very See also:short See also:time became a shepherd, and attempted to reach the leaves of the laurel, the See also:fruit of which had nurtured him,—that, trying to obtain them he fell, and See also:rose up, no longer a See also:man, but in the See also:guise of a See also:peacock. We know little of Dante's boyhood except that he was a hard student and was profoundly influenced by
Brunetto Latini. Boccaccio tells us that he became very See also:familiar with See also:Virgil, See also:Horace, See also:Ovid and See also:Statius, and all other famous poets. From the See also:age of eighteen he, like most cultivated See also:young men of that age, wrote See also:poetry assiduously, in the philosophical amatory See also:style of which his friend, older by many years than him-self, Guido See also:Cavalcanti, was a great exponent, and of which Dante regarded Guido Guinicelli of See also:Bologna as the See also:master (Purg. See also:xxvi. 97, 8). Leonardo See also:Bruni of See also:Arezzo, See also:writing a See also:hundred years or more after his See also:death, says that " by study of See also:philosophy, of See also:theology, See also:astrology, See also:arithmetic and See also:geometry, by reading of See also:history, by the turning over many curious books, watching and sweating in his studies, he acquired the science which he was to adorn and explain in his verses." Of Brunetto Latini Dante himself speaks with the most loving gratitude and See also:affection, though he does not hesitate to See also:brand his vices with See also:infamy. Under such guidance Dante became master of all the science of his age at a time when it was not impossible to know all that could be known. He had some knowledge of See also:drawing; at any rate he tells us that on the anniversary of the death of See also:Beatrice he See also:drew an See also:angel on a tablet. He was an intimate friend of See also:Giotto, who has immortalized his youthful lineaments in the See also:chapel of the Bargello, and who is recorded to have See also:drawn from his friend's See also:inspiration the allegories of Virtue and See also:Vice which fringe the frescoes of the Scrovegni Chapel at See also:Padua. Nor was he less sensible to the delights of See also:music. See also:Milton had not a keener See also:ear for the loud uplifted angel trumpets and the immortal harps of See also:golden wires of the See also:cherubim and See also:seraphim; and the See also:English poet was proud to compare his own friendship with See also: It is a wonderful thing (says Leonardo Bruni) that, though he studied without intermission, it would not have appeared to anyone that he studied, from his joyous mien and youthful conversation. Like Milton he was trained in the strictest academical See also:education which the age afforded; but Dante lived under a warmer See also:sun and brighter skies, and found in the See also:rich variety and gaiety of his See also:early See also:life a See also:defence against the withering misfortunes of his later years. Milton felt too early the chill breath of See also:Puritanism, and the serious musing on the experience of life, which saddened the See also:verse of both poets, deepened in his See also:case rather into See also:grave and desponding See also:melancholy, than into the fierce scorn and invective which disillusion wrung from Dante. We must now consider the See also:political circumstances in which lay the activity of Dante's manhood. From 1115, the year of the death of See also:Matilda countess of See also:Tuscany, to 1215, life. Florence enjoyed a nearly uninterrupted See also:peace. Attached to the Guelph party, it remained undivided against itself. But in 1215 a private See also:feud between the families of Buondelmonte and Uberti introduced into the city the horrors of See also:civil See also:war. Villani (See also:lib. v. cap. 38) relates how Buondelmonte de' Buondelmonti, a See also:noble youth of Florence, being engaged to marry a lady of the See also:house of Amidei, allied himself instead to a See also:Donati, and how Buondelmonte was attacked and killed by the Amidei and Uberti at the See also:foot of the See also:Ponte Vecchio, See also:close by the See also:pilaster which bears the See also:image of Mars. " The death of Messer Buondelmonte was the occasion and beginning of the accursed parties of Guelphs and Ghibellines in Florence." Of the seventy-two families then in Florence See also:thirty-nine became Guelph under the leadership of the Buondelmonte and the See also:rest Ghibelline under the Uberti. The strife of parties was for a while allayedby the war against See also:Pisa in 1222, and the See also:constant struggles against See also:Siena; but in 1248 See also:Frederick II. sent into the city his natural son Frederick " of See also:Antioch," with 1600 German knights. The Guelphs were driven away from the See also:town, and took See also:refuge, part in Montevarchi, part in See also:Capraia. The Ghibellines, masters of Florence, behaved with great severity, and destroyed the towers and palaces of the Guelph nobles. At last the See also:people became impatient. They rose in See also:rebellion, reduced the See also:powers of the See also:podesta, elected a See also:captain of the people to See also:manage the See also:internal affairs of the city, with a See also:council of twelve, established a more democratic constitution, and, encouraged by the death of Frederick II. in See also:December 1250, recalled the exiled Guelphs. See also:Manfred, the See also:bastard son of Frederick, pursued the policy of his father. He stimulated the Ghibelline Uberti to See also:rebel against their position of subjection. A rising of the vanquished party was put down by the people, in See also:July 1258 the Ghibellines were expelled from the town, and the towers of the Uberti razed to the ground. The exiles betook themselves to the friendly city of Siena. Manfred sent them a reinforcement of German See also:horse, under his kinsman See also:Count See also:Giordano Lancia. The Florentines, after vainly demanding their surrender, despatched an See also:army against them. On the 4th of See also:September 126o was fought the great See also:battle of Montaperti, which dyed the Arbia red, and in which the Guelphs were entirely defeated. The See also:hand which held the banner of the See also:republic was sundered by the See also:sword of a traitor (Inf. xxxii. 106). For the first time in the history of Florence the Carroccio was taken. Florence lay at the See also:mercy of her enemies. A See also:parliament was held at See also:Empoli, in which the deputies of Siena, Pisa, Arezzo and other Tuscan towns consulted on the best means of securing their new war See also:power. They voted that the accursed Guelph city should be blotted out. But Farinata degli Uberti stood up in their midst, bold and defiant as when he stood erect among the sepulchres of See also:hell, and said that if, from the whole number of the Florentines, he alone should remain, he would not suffer, whilst he could wield a sword, that his See also:country should be destroyed, and that, if it were necessary to See also:die a thousand times for her, a thousand times would he be ready to encounter death. Help came to the Guelphs from an unexpected See also:quarter. See also:Clement IV., elected See also:pope in 1265, offered the See also:crown of See also:Apulia and See also:Sicily to Charles of See also:Anjou. The See also:French See also:prince, passing rapidly through See also:Lombardy, Romagna and the See also:Marches, reached Rome by way of See also:Spoleto, was crowned on the 6th of See also:January 1266, and on the 23rd of See also:February defeated and killed Manfred at See also:Benevento. In such a See also:storm of conflict did Dante first see the See also:light. In 1267 the Guelphs were recalled, but instead of settling down in peace with their opponents they summoned Charles of Anjou to vengeance, and the Ghibellines were driven out. The See also:meteor passage of See also:Conradin gave See also:hope to the imperial party, which was quenched when the See also:head of the See also:fair-haired boy fell on the See also:scaffold at See also:Naples. Pope after pope tried in vain to make peace. See also:Gregory X. placed the rebelliou< city under an See also:interdict; in 1278 See also:Cardinal Latini by See also:order of See also:Nicholas III. effected a truce, which lasted for four years. The city was to be governed by a See also:committee of fourteen buonomini, on which the Guelphs were to have a small See also:majority. In 1282 the constitution of Florence received the final See also:form which it retained till the collapse of freedom. From the three arti maggiori were chosen six priors, in whose hands was placed the See also:government of the republic. Before the end of the See also:century, seven greater arts were recognized, including the speziali,—druggists and dealers in all manner of See also:oriental goods, and in books—among whom Dante afterwards enrolled himself. They remained in See also:office for two months, and during that time lived and shared a See also:common table in the public See also:palace. We shall see what See also:influence this office had upon the See also:fate of Dante. The success of the " Sicilian See also:Vespers " (See also: 1, See also:foil.). On the 1 ith of See also:June 1289, at Campaldino near Poppi, in the Casentino, the Ghibellines were utterly defeated. They never again recovered their hold on Florence, but the violence of See also:faction survived under other names. In a See also:letter quoted, though not at first hand, by Leonardo Bruni, which is not now extant, Dante is said to mention that he himself fought with distinction at Campaldino. He was present shortly after-wards at the battle of Caprona (Inf. xxi. 95, foil.), and returned in September 1289 to his studies and his love. His peace was of short duration. On the 9th of June 1290 died Beatrice, whose mortal love had guided him for thirteen years, and whose immortal spirit purified his later life, and revealed to himthemysteriesof See also:Paradise. Dante had first met Beatrice Portinari at the house of her father Folco on May-See also:day 1274. In his own words, " already nine times after my birth the See also:heaven of light had returned as it were to the same point, when there appeared to my eyes the glorious lady of mymind, who was by many called Beatrice who knew not what to See also:call her. She had already been so See also:long in this life that already in its time the starry heaven had moved towards the See also:east the twelfth part of a degree, so that she appeared to me about the beginning of her ninth year, and I saw her about the end of my ninth year. Her See also:dress on that day was of a most noble See also:colour, a subdued and goodly See also:crimson, girdled and adorned in such sort as best suited with her See also:tender age. At that moment I saw most truly that the spirit of life which hath its dwelling in the secretest chamber of the See also:heart began to tremble so violently that the least pulses of my See also:body shook therewith; and in trembing it said these words, `Ecce See also:deus fortior me qui veniens dominabitur mihi.' " In the Vita Nuova is written the See also:story of his See also:passion from its commencement to within a year after the lady's death (June 9th, 1290). He saw Beatrice only once or twice, and she probably knew little of him. She married See also:Simone de' Bardi. But the See also:worship of her See also:lover was stronger for the remoteness of its subject. The last See also:chapter of the Vita Nuova relates how, after the See also:lapse of a year, " it was given me to behold a wonderful See also:vision, wherein I saw things which determined me to say nothing further of this blessed one until such time as I could discourse more worthily concerning her. And to this end I labour all I can, as she in truth knoweth. Therefore if it be His See also:pleasure through whom is the life of all things that my life continue with me a few years, it is my hope that I shall yet write concerning her what See also:bath not before been written of any woman. After the which may it seem good unto Him who is the master of See also:grace that my spirit should go hence to behold the See also:glory of its lady, to wit, of that blessed Beatrice who now gloriously gazes on the countenance of Him qui est per omnia saecula See also:benedictus." In the Convito he resumes the story of his life. " When I had lost the first delight of my soul (that is, Beatrice) I remained so pierced with sadness that no comforts availed me anything, yet after some time my mind, desirous of See also:health, sought to return to the method by which other disconsolate ones had found See also:consolation, and I set myself to read that little-known See also:book of See also:Boetius in which he consoled himself when a prisoner and an See also:exile. And See also:hearing that Tully had written another See also:work, in which, treating of friendship, he had given words of consolation to See also:Laelius, I set myself to read that also." He so far recovered from the shock of his loss that in 1292 he married Gemma, daughter of Manetto Donati, a connexion of the celebrated Corso Donati, afterwards Dante's See also:bitter foe. It is possible that she is the lady mentioned in the Vita Nuova as sitting full of pity at her window and comforting Dante for his sorrow. By this wife he had two sons and two daughters, and although he never mentions her in the Divina Commedia, and although she did not accompany him into exile, there is no See also:reason to suppose that she was other than a good wife, or that the See also:union was otherwise than happy. Certain it is that he spares the memory of Corso iii his great poem, and speaks kindly of his kinsmen Piccarda and Forese. In 1293 Giano della Bella, a man of old family who had thrown in his See also:lot with the people, induced the See also:commonwealth to adopt the so-called " Ordinances of See also:Justice," a severely democratic constitution, by which among other things it was enacted that no man of noble family, even though engaged in See also:trade, could hold office as See also:prior. Two years later Giano was banished, but the ordinances remained in force, though the grandi recovered much of their power. Dante now began to take an active part in politics. He was inscribed in the arte of the See also:Medici and Speziali, which made him eligible as one of the six priori to whom the government of the city was entrusted in 1282. Documents still existing in the archives of Florence show that he took part in the deliberations of the several See also:councils of the city in 1295, 1296, 1300 and 1301. The See also:notice in the last year is of some importance. The pope had demanded a contingent of too Florentine knights to serve against his enemies, the See also:Colonna family. On the 19th of June we read in the contemporary See also:report of the debate on this question in the Council of a Hundred : " Dantes Alagherius consuluit quod de servitio faciendo Domino Papae nihil fieret." Other instances of his invariable opposition to See also:Boniface occur. See also:Filelfo says that he served on fourteen embassies, a statement not only unsupported by See also:evidence, but impossible in itself. Filelfo does not mention the only See also:embassy in which we know for certain that Dante was engaged, that to the town of See also:San Gemignano in May 1300. From the 15th of June to the 15th of See also:August 1300 he held the office of prior, which was the source of all the miseries of his life. The spirit of faction had again broken out in Florence. The two See also:rival families were the Cerchi and the Donati,—the first of great See also:wealth but See also:recent origin, the last of ancient ancestry but poor. A See also:quarrel had arisen in Pistoia between the two branches of the Cancellieri,—the Bianchi and See also:Neri, the Whites and the Blacks. The quarrel spread to Florence, the Donati took the See also:side of the Blacks, the Cerchi of the Whites. Pope Boniface was asked to mediate, and sent Cardinal Matteo d'Acquasparta to maintain peace. He arrived just as Dante entered upon his office as prior. The cardinal effected nothing, but Dante and his colleagues banished the heads of the rival parties in different directions to a distance from the See also:capital. The Blacks were sent to Citta della Pieve in the Tuscan mountains; the Whites, among whom was Dante's dearest friend Guido Cavalcanti, to Serrezzano in the unhealthy See also:Maremma. After the expiration of Dante's office both parties returned, Guido Cavalcanti so See also:ill with See also:fever that he shortly afterwards died. At a See also:meeting held in the See also: There are, how-ever, improbabilities in the story, and the passage quoted in support of it bears marks of later See also:interpolation. He never again saw the towers of his native city. Charles of Valois, after visiting the pope at Anagni, retraced his steps to Florence, entering the city on All See also:Saints' Day and taking up his See also:abode in the Oltr' See also:Arno. Corso Donati, who had been banished a second time, returned in force and summoned the Blacks to arms. The prisons were broken open, the podesta driven from the town, the Cerchi confined within their houses, a third of the city was destroyed with See also:fire and sword. By the help of Charles the Blacks were victorious. They appointed Cante de' Gabrielli of See also:Gubbio as podesta, a man devoted to their interests. More than 600 Whites were condemned to exile and See also:cast as beggars upon the See also:world. On the 27th of January 1302, Dante, with four others of the See also: No doubt the papal See also:finger may be traced in the affair. On the See also:roth of March Dante and fourteen others were condemned to be burned alive if they should come into the power of the republic. Similar sentences were passed in September 13r1 and See also:October 1315. The See also:sentence was not formally reversed till 1494, under the government of the Medici. Leonardo Bruni, who accepts the story of the embassy to Rome, states that Dante received the See also:news of his banishment in that city, and at once joined the other exiles at Siena. How he escaped See also:arrest in the papal states is not explained. The exiles met first at Gargonza, a castle between Siena and Arezzo, and then at Arezzo itself. They joined themselves to the Ghibellines, to which party the podesta Uguccione della Faggiuola belonged. The Ghibellines, however, were divided amongst themselves, and the more strict Ghibellines were not disposed to favour the cause of the White Guelphs. On the 8th of June 1302, however, a meeting was held at San Godenzo, a See also:place in the Florentine territory, Dante's presence at which is proved by documentary evidence, and an See also:alliance was there made with the powerful Ghibelline See also:clan of the Ubaldini. The exiles remained at Arezzo till the summer of 1304. In September 1303 the fleur-de-lis had entered Anagni, and See also:Christ had a second time been made prisoner in the See also:person of his See also:vicar. At the instigation of Philip the Fair, See also: In 1303 he had left Arezzo and gone to Forli in Romagna, of which city Scarpetta degli Ordelaffi was See also:lord. To him, according to Flavius Blondus the historian (d. before 1484), a native of the place, Dante acted for a time as secretary. From Forli Dante probably went to Bartolommeo della Scala, lord of See also:Verona, where the country of the great Lombard gave him his first refuge and his first hospitable reception. Can name's Grande, to whom he afterwards'dedicated the Paradiso, l3hlbel- linlsm. was then a boy. Bartolommeo died in 1304, and it is possible that Dante may have remained in Verona till his death. We must consider, if we would understand the real nature of Dante's Ghibellinism, that he had been born and bred a Guelph; but he saw that the conditions of the time were altered, and that other dangers menaced the welfare of his country. There was no fear now that Florence, Siena, Pisa, Arezzo should be razed to the ground in order that the castle of the lord might overlook the humble cottages of his contented subjects; but there .was danger lest See also:Italy should be torn in sunder by its own jealousies and passions, and lest the fair domain bounded by the sea and the See also:Alps should never properly assert the force of its individuality, and should present a contemptible contrast to a See also:united See also:France and a confederated See also:Germany. Sick with See also:petty quarrels and dissensions, Dante strained his eyes towards the hills for the See also:appearance of a universal monarch, raised above the jars of faction and the See also:spur of ambition, under whom each country, each city, each man, might, under the institutions best suited to it, See also:lead the life and do the work for which it was best fitted. United in spiritual See also:harmony with the vicar of Christ, he should show for the first time to the world an example of a government where the strongest force and the highest wisdom were interpenetrated by all that See also:God had given to the world of piety and justice. In this sense and in no other was Dante a Ghibelline. The vision was never realized —the hope was never fulfilled. Not till 500 years later did Italy become united and the " greyhound of deliverance " See also:chase from city to city the See also:wolf of cupidity. But is it possible to say that the See also:dream did not work its own realization, or to deny that the high ideal of the poet, after inspiring a few minds as lofty as his own, has become embodied in the constitution of a See also:state which acknowledges no stronger See also:bond of union than a common worship of the exile's indignant and impassioned verse? It is very difficult to determine with exactness the order and the place of Dante's wanderings. Many cities and castles in Italy have claimed the See also:honour of giving him shelter, or of being for a time the See also:home of his inspired muse. He Wanderings. certainly spent some time with Count Guido Salvatico in the Casentino near the See also:sources of the Arno, probably in the castle of Porciano, and with Uguccione in the castle of Faggiuola in the mountains of See also:Urbino. After this he is said to have visited the university of Bologna; and in August 1306 we find him at Padua. Cardinal See also:Napoleon See also:Orsini, the See also:legate of the French pope Clement V., had put Bologna under a See also:ban, dissolved the university and driven the professors to the See also:northern city. In May or June 1307 the same cardinal collected the Whites at Arezzo and tried to induce the Florentines to recall them. The name of Dante is found attached to a document signed by the Whites in the church of St Gaudenzio in the Mugello. This enterprise came to nothing. Dante retired to the castle of Moroello Malespina in the Lunigiana, where the See also:marble ridges of the mountains of See also:Carrara descend in precipitous slopes to the Gulf of Spezzia. From this time till the arrival of the emperor Henry VII. in Italy, October 1310, all is uncertain. His old enemy Corso Donati had at last allied himself with Uguccione della Faggiuola, the leader of the Ghibellines. Dante thought it possible that this might lead to his return. But in 1308 Corso was declared a traitor, attacked in his house, put to See also:flight and killed. Dante lost his last hope. He left Tuscany, and went to Can Grande della Scala at Verona. From this place it is thought that he visited the university of See also:Paris (1309), studied in the See also:rue du Fouarre and went on into the See also:Low Countries. That he ever crossed the Channel or went to See also:Oxford, or himself saw where the heart of Henry, son of See also:Richard, See also:earl of See also:Cornwall, murdered by his See also:cousin See also:Guy of See also:Montfort in 1271, was " still venerated on the See also:Thames," may safely be disbelieved. The only evidence for it is in the Commentary of See also: Henry still lingered in Lombardy at the See also:siege of See also:Cremona, when Dante, on the 16th of See also:April 1311, in a celebrated See also:epistle, upbraided his delay, argued that the crown of Italy was to be won on the Arno rather than on the Po, and urged the tarrying emperor to hew the rebellious Florentines like Agag in pieces before the Lord. Henry was as See also:deaf to this exhortation as the Florentines themselves. After reducing Lombardy he passed from See also:Genoa to Pisa, and on the 29th of June 1312 was crowned by some cardinals in the church of St John Lateran at Rome; the Vatican being in the hands of his adversary King See also:Robert of Naples. Then at length he moved towards 4. DANTE Tuscany by way of See also:Umbria. Leaving See also:Cortona and Arezzo, he reached Florence on the 19th of September. He did not dare to attack it, but returned in See also:November to Pisa. In the summer of ' the following year he prepared to invade the See also:kingdom of Naples; but in the neighbourhood of Siena he caught a fever and died at the monastery of Buonconvento, on the 24th of August 1313. He lies in the Campo Santo of Pisa; and the hopes of Dante and his party were buried in his grave. After the death of the emperor Henry (Bruni tells us) Dante passed the rest of his life as an exile, sojourning in various places throughout Lombardy, Tuscany and the Romagna, under the See also:protection of various lords, until at length he retired to See also:Ravenna, where he ended his life. Very little can be added to this meagre story. There is reason for supposing that he stayed at Gubbio with Bosone dei Rafaelli, and tradition assigns him a See also:cell in the monastery of Sta Croce di Fonte Avellana in the same See also:district, situated on the slopes of Catria, one of the highest peaks of the See also:Apennines in that region. After the death of the French pope, Clement V., he addressed a letter, dated the 14th of July 1314, to the cardinals in See also:conclave, urging them to elect an Italian pope. About this time he came to See also:Lucca, then lately conquered by his friend Uguccione. Here he completed the last cantos of the Purgatory, which he dedicated to Uguccione, and here he must have become acquainted with Gentucca, whose name had been whispered to him by her country- man on the slopes of the See also:Mountain of See also:Purification (Purg. See also:xxiv. 39). That the intimacy between the " world-worn" poet and the young married lady (who is thought to be identifiable with Gentucca Morla, wife of one Cosciorino Fondora) was other than blameless, is quite incredible. In August 1315 was fought the battle of See also:Monte Catini, a day of humiliation and See also:mourning for the Guelphs. Uguccione made but little use of his victory; and the Florentines marked their vengeance on his adviser by See also:con- demning Dante yet once again to death if he ever should come into their power. In the beginning of the following year Uguc- cione lost both his cities of Pisa and Lucca. At this time Dante was offered an opportunity of returning to Florence. The con- ditions given to the exiles were that they should pay a fine and walk in the dress of humiliation to the church of St John, and there do See also:penance for their offences. Dante refused to tolerate this shame; and the letter is still extant in which he declines to enter Florence except with honour, secure that the means of life will not fail him, and that in any corner of the world he will be able to gaze at the sun and the stars, and meditate on the sweetest truths of philosophy. He preferred to take refuge with his most illustrious See also:protector Can Grande della Scala of Verona, then a young man of twenty-five, rich, liberal and the favoured head of the Ghibelline party. His name has been immortalized by an eloquent See also:panegyric in the seventeenth See also:canto of the Paradiso. Whilst on a visit at the See also:court of Verona he maintained, on the loth of January 1320, the philosophical thesis De aqua et terra, on the levels of land and See also:water, which is included in his See also:minor works. The last three years of his life were spent at Ravenna, under the protection of Guido da See also:Polenta. In his service Dante undertook an embassy to the Venetians. He failed in the See also:object of his See also:mission, and, returning disheartened and broken in spirit through the unhealthy lagoons, caught a fever and died in Ravenna on the 14th of September 1321. His bones still repose there. His See also:doom of exile has been reversed by the union of Italy, which has made the city of his birth and the various cities of his wanderings component members of a common country. His son See also:Piero, who wrote a commentary on the Divina Commedia, settled as a lawyer in Verona, and died in 1364. His daughter Beatrice lived as a See also:nun in Ravenna, dying at some time between 1350 (when Boccaccio brought her a present of ten See also:gold crowns from a Florentine gild) and 1370. His See also:direct See also:line became See also:extinct in 1509. Dante's Works.—Of Dante's works, that by which he is known to all the educated world, and in virtue of which he holds his place as one of the See also:half-dozen greatest writers of all Dlvina Commedia. time, is of course the Commedia. (The epithet diving, See also:Gomm it may be noted, was not given to the poem by its author, nor does it appear on a See also:title-See also:page until 1555, in theedition of Ludovico See also:Dolce, printed by Giolito; though it is applied to the poet himself as early as 1512.) The poem is absolutely unique in literature; it may safely be said that at no other See also:epoch of the world's history could such a work have been produced. Dante was steeped in all the learning, which in its way was considerable, of his time; he had read the Summa Theologica of See also:Aquinas, the Tresor of his master Brunetto, and other encyclopaedic works available in that age; he was familiar with all that was then known of the Latin classical and See also:post-classical authors. Further, he was a deep and See also:original political thinker, who had himself See also:borne a prominent part in See also:practical politics. He was born into a See also:generation in which almost every man of education habitually wrote verse, as indeed their predecessors had been doing for the last fifty years. See also:Vernacular poetry had come See also:late into Italy, and had hitherto, See also:save for a few didactic or devotional See also:treatises hitched into rough See also:rhyme, been exclusively lyric in form. Amatory at first, later, chiefly in the hands of Guittone of Arezzo and Guido Cavalcanti, taking an ethical and metaphysical See also:tone, it had never fully shaken off the Provencal influence under which it had started, and of which Dante himself shows considerable traces. The age also was unique, though the two great events which made the 15th century a turning-point in the world's history—the invention of See also:printing and the See also:discovery of the new world (to which might perhaps be added the intrusion of See also:Islam into Europe) —were still far in the future. But the age was essentially one of great men; of See also:free thought and free speech; of brilliant and daring See also:action, whether for good or evil. It is easy to understand how Dante's bitterest scorn is reserved for those " sorry souls who lived without infamy and without renown, displeasing to God and to His enemies." The time was thus propitious for the See also:production of a great imaginative work, and the man was ready who should produce it. It called for a See also:prophet, and the prophet said, " Here am I." " Dante," says an acute writer, " is not, as See also:Homer is, the father of poetry springing in the freshness and simplicity of childhood out of the arms of mother See also:earth; he is rather, like See also:Noah, the father of a second poetical world, to whom he pours forth his prophetic See also:song fraught with the wisdom and the experience of the old world." Thus the Commedia, though often classed for want of a better description among epic poems, is totally different in method and construction from all other poems of that See also:kind. Its " See also:hero " is the narrator himself; the incidents do not modify the 'course of the story; the place of episodes is taken by theological or metaphysical disquisitions; the world through which the poet takes his readers is peopled, not with characters of heroic story, but with men and See also:women known personally or by repute to him and those for whom he wrote. Its aim is not to delight, but to reprove, to rebuke, to exhort; to form men's characters by teaching them what courses of life will meet with See also:reward, what with See also:penalty, hereafter; " to put into verse," as the poet says, " things difficult to think." For such new See also:matter a new vehicle was needed. We have See also:Bembo's authority for believing that the terza rima,surpassed, if at all, only by the ancient See also:hexameter, as a measure equally adaptable to sustained narrative, to debate, to fierce invective, to clear-cut picture and to trenchant See also:epigram, was first employed by Dante. The action of the Commedia opens in the early See also:morning of the See also:Thursday before See also:Easter, in the year 1300. The poet finds himself lost in a See also:forest, escaping from which he has his way barred by a wolf, a See also:lion and a See also:leopard. All this, like the rest of the poem, is highly symbolical. This branch of the subject is too vast to be entered on at any length here; but so far as this passage is concerned it may be said that it seems to indicate that at this See also:period of his life, about the age of thirty-five, Dante went through some experience akin to what is now called " See also:conversion." Having led up till then the See also:ordinary life of a cultivated Florentine of good family; taking his part in public affairs, military and civil, as an hereditary member of the predominant Guelph party; dallying in See also:prose which with all its beauty and passion is full of the conceits familiar to the 13th century, and in verse which save for the excellence of its See also:execution differs in no way from that of his Old age and death. predecessors, with the memory of his lost love; studying more seriously, perhaps, than most of his associates; possibly travel-See also:ling a little, gradually or suddenly he became convinced that all was not well with him, and that not by leading, however blamelessly, the "active" life could he save his soul. The strong vein of See also:mysticism, found in so many of the deepest thinkers of that age, and conspicuous in Dante's mind, no doubt played its part. His efforts to free himself from the " forest " of worldly cares were impeded by the temptations of the world—cupidity (including ambition), the See also:pride of life and the lusts of the flesh, symbolized by the three beasts. But ahelperis at hand. Virgil appears and explains that he has a See also:commission from three ladies on high to See also:guide him. The ladies are the Blessed Virgin, St See also:Lucy (whom for some reason never yet explained Dante seems to have regarded as in a special sense his protector) and Beatrice. In Virgil we are apparently intended to see the See also:symbol of what Dante calls philosophy, what we should rather call natural See also:religion; Beatrice See also:standing for theology, or rather revealed religion. Under Virgil's escort Dante is led through the two See also:lower realms of the next world, Hell and Purgatory; meeting on the way with many persons illustrious or notorious in recent or remoter times, as well as many well enough known then in Tuscany and the neighbouring states; but who, without the See also:immortality, often unenviable, that the poet has conferred on them, would long ago have been forgotten. Popes, See also:kings, emperors, poets and warriors, Florentine citizens of all degrees, are there found; some doomed to hopeless See also:punishment, others expiating their offences in milder torments, and looking forward to deliverance in due time. It is remarkable to notice how rarely, if ever, Dante allows political sympathy or antagonism to influence him in his See also:distribution of See also:judgment. Hell is conceived as a vast conical hollow, reaching to the centre of the earth. It has three great divisions, corresponding to See also:Aristotle's three classes of vices, incontinence, brutishness and malice. The first are outside the walls of the city of Dis; the second, among whom are included unbelievers, tyrants, suicides, unnatural offenders, usurers, are within; the first apparently on the same level as those without, the rest separated from them by a steep descent of broken rocks. (It should be said that many Dante scholars hold that Aristotle's " brutishness "has no place in Dante's See also:scheme; but the symmetry of the arrangement, the special reference made to that See also:division, and certain expressions used elsewhere by Dante, seem to make it probable that he would here, as in most other cases, have followed his master in philosophy.) The sinners by malice, which includes all forms of See also:fraud or treachery, are divided from the last by a yet more formidable barrier. They See also:lie at the bottom of a See also:pit, the See also:depth of which is not stated, with See also:vertical sides, and accessible only by supernatural means; a See also:monster named See also:Geryon bearing the poets down on his back. The torments here are of a more terrible, often of a loathsome See also:character. Ignominy is added to See also:pain, and the nature of Dante's demeanour towards the sinners changes from pity to hatred. At the very bottom of the pit is See also:Lucifer, immovably fixed in See also:ice; climbing down his limbs they reach the centre of the earth, whence a cranny conducts them back to the See also:surface, at the foot of the purgatorial mountain, which they reach as Easter Day is dawning. Before the actual Purgatory is attained they have to climb for the latter half of the day and rest at See also:night. The occupants of this See also:outer region are those who have delayed repentance till death was upon them. They include many of the most famous men of the last thirty years. In the morning the See also:gate is opened, and Purgatory proper is entered. This is divided into seven terraces, corresponding to the seven deadly sins, which encircle the mountain and have to be reached by a See also:series of steep climbs, compared by Dante in one instance to the path from Florence to Samminiato. The penalties are not degrading, but rather tests of See also:patience or endurance; and in several cases Dante has to See also:bear a See also:share in them as he passes. On the See also:summit is the Earthly Paradise. Here Beatrice appears, in a mystical See also:pageant ; Virgil departs, leaving Dante in her charge. By her he is led through the various See also:spheres of which, according to both the See also:astronomy and the theology of the time, Heaven is composed, to the supreme Heaven, or See also:Empyrean, the seat of the Godhead. For one moment there is granted him the intuitive vision of the Deity, and the comprehension of all mysteries, which is the ultimate See also:goal of mystical theology; his will is wholly blended with that of God, and the poem ends. The Convito, or Banquet, also called Convivio (Bembo uses the first form, Trissino the other), is the work of Dante's manhood, as the Vita Nuova is the work of his youth. It consists, Convito. in the form in which it has come down to us, of an introduction and three treatises, each forming an elaborate commentary in a long See also:canzone. It was intended, if completed, to have comprised commentaries on eleven more canzoni, making fourteen in all, and in this shape would have formed a tesoro or handbook of universal knowledge, such as Brunetto Latini and others have left to us. It is perhaps the least well known of Dante's Italian works, but crabbed and unattractive as it is in many parts, it is well See also:worth reading, and contains many passages of great beauty and See also:elevation. Indeed a knowledge of it is quite indispensable to the full understanding of the Diving Commedia and the De Monarchia. The time of its See also:composition is uncertain. As it stands it has very much the look of being the contents of See also:note-books partiallyarranged. Dantementions princes as living who died in 1309; he does not mention Henry VII. as emperor, who succeeded in 1310. There are some passages which seem to have been inserted at a later date. The canzoni upon which the commentary is written were probably composed between 1292 and 1300, when he was seeking in philosophy consolation for the loss of Beatrice. The Convito was first printed in Florence by Buonaccorsi in 1490. It has never been adequately edited. The Vita Nuova (Young Life or New Life, for both significations seem to be intended) contains the history of his love for Beatrice. He describes how he met Beatrice as a child, himself a vita child, how he often sought her glance, how she once Naova. greeted him in the See also:street, how he feigned a false love to hide his true love, how he fell ill and saw in a dream the death and transfiguration of his beloved, how she died, and how his health failed from sorrow, how the tender compassion of another lady nearly won his heart from its first affection, how Beatrice appeared to him in a vision and reclaimed his heart, and how at last he saw a vision which induced him to devote himself to study that he might be more See also:fit to glorify her who gazes on the See also:face of God for ever. This See also:simple story is interspersed with sonnets, See also:ballads and canzoni, arranged with a remarkable symmetry, to which See also:Professor Charles See also:Eliot See also:Norton was the first to draw See also:attention, chiefly written at the time to emphasize some See also:mood of his changing passion. After each of these, in nearly every case, follows an explanation in prose, which is intended to make the thought and See also:argument intelligible to those to whom the See also:language of poetry was not familiar. The whole has a somewhat artificial See also:air, in spite of its undoubted beauty; showing that Dante was still under the influence of the Dugentisti, many of whose conceits he reproduces. The book was probably completed by 1300. It was first printed by Sermartelli in Florence, 1576. Besides the smaller poems contained in the Vita Nuova and Convito there are a considerable number of canzoni, baliate and sonnetti bearing the poet's name. Of these many ca undoubtedly are genuine, others as undoubtedly See also:mere. See also:spurious. Some which have been preserved under the name of Dante belong to Dante de Maiano, a poet of a harsher style; others which bear the name of Aldighiero are referable to Dante's sons Jacopo or Pietro, or to his grandsons; others may be ascribed to Dante's contemporaries and predecessors Cino da Pistoia and others. Those which are genuine secure Dante a place among lyrical poets scarcely if at all inferior to that of See also:Petrarch. Most of these were printed in Sonetti e canzoni (Giunta, 1527). The best edition of the Canzoniere of Dante is that by See also:Fraticelli published by Barbera at Florence. His collection includes seventy-eight genuine poems, eight doubtful and fifty-four spurious. To these are added an Italian See also:paraphrase of the seven See also:penitential See also:psalms in terza rima, and a similar paraphrase of the Credo, the seven sacraments, the ten commandments, the Lord's See also:Prayer and the See also:Ave Maria. The Latin See also:treatise De monarchia, in three books, contains the mature statement of Dante's political ideas. In it he propounds the theory that the supremacy of the emperor is derived De See also:mortar- from the supremacy of the See also:Roman people over the See also:chic. world, which was given to them direct from God. As the emperor is intended to assure their earthly happiness, so does their spiritual welfare depend upon the pope, to whom the emperor is to do honour as to the first-born of the Father. The date of its publication is almost universally admitted to be the time of the descent of Henry VII. into Italy, between 1310 and 1313, although its composition may have been in hand from a much earlier period. The book was first printed by Oporinus at See also:Basel in 1559, and placed on the See also:Index of forbidden books. The treatise De vulgari eloquentia, in two books, also in Latin, is mentioned in the Convito. Its object was first to establish the Italian language as a See also:literary See also:tongue, and to distinguish the noble or " courtly " speech which might become the property of the whole nation, at once a bond of internal unity and a line of demarcation against See also:external nations, from the See also:local dialects See also:peculiar to different districts; and secondly, to lay down rules for poetical composition in the language so established. The work was intended to be in four books, but only two are extant. The first of these deals with the language, the second with the style and with the composition of the canzone. The third was probably intended to continue this subject, and the See also:fourth was destined to the See also:laws of the ballata and sonetto. It contains much acute See also:criticism of poetry and poetic diction. This work was first published in the Italian See also:translation of Trissino at See also:Vicenza in 1529. The original Latin was not published till 1577 at Paris by Jacopo Corbinelli, one of the Italians who were brought from Florence by See also:Catherine de' Medici, from a MS. now preserved at See also:Grenoble. The work was probably left unfinished in consequence of Dante's death. Boccaccio mentions in his life of Dante that he wrote two eclogues in Latin in See also:answer to Johannes de Virgilio, who invited Eclogues. him to come from Ravenna to Bologna and compose a great work in the Latin language. The most interesting passage in the work is that in the first poem, where he expresses his hope that when he has finished the three parts of his great poem his See also:grey hairs may be crowned with laurel on the See also:banks of the Arno. Although the Latin of these poems is See also:superior to that of his prose works, we may feel thankful that Dante composed the great work of his life in his own vernacular. The versification, however, is good, and there are pleasant touches of See also:gentle See also:humour. The Eclogues have been edited by Messrs Wicksteed and See also:Gardiner (Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio, See also:London, 1902). A treatise De aqua et terra has come down to us, which Dante tells us was delivered at See also:Mantua in January 1320 (perhaps 1321) as a See also:solution of the question which was being at that time much discussed—whether in any place on the earth's surface water is higher than the earth. It was first published at See also:Venice in 1508, by an ecclesiastic named Moncetti, from a MS. which he alleged to be in his See also:possession, but which no one seems to have seen. Its genuineness is accordingly eery doubtful; but Dr See also:Moore has from internal evidence made out a very strong case for it. The Letters of Dante are among the most important materials for his See also:biography. Giovanni Villani mentions three as specially Getters. remarkable—one to the government of Florence, in which he complains of undeserved exile; another to the emperor Henry VII., when he lingered too long at the siege of See also:Brescia; and a third to the Italian cardinals to urge them to the election of an Italian pope after the death of Clement V. The first of these letters has not come down to us, the two last are extant. Besides these we have one addressed to the cardinal da Prato, one to a Florentine friend refusing the See also:base conditions of return from exile, one to the princes and lords of Italy to prepare them for the coming of Henry of Luxembourg, another to the Florentines reproaching them with the rejection of the emperor, and a long letter to Can Grande della Scala, containing directions for interpreting the Divina Commedia, with especial reference to the Paradise. Of less importance are the letters to the nephews of Count Alessandro da Romena, to the See also:marquis Moroello Malespina, to Cino da Pistoia and to Guido da Polenta. The genuineness of all the letters has at one time or another been impugned; but the more important are now generally accepted. They have been translated by Mr C. S. Latham, ed. by Mr G. R. See also:Carpenter (See also:Cambridge, See also:Massachusetts and London, 1891). Dante's reputation has passed through many vicissitudes, and much trouble has been spent by critics in comparing him with other poets of established fame. Read and commented upon with more admiration than intelligence in the Italian See also:universities in the generation immediately succeeding his death, his name became obscured as the sun of the See also:Renaissance rose higher towards its See also:meridian.. In the 16th century he was held inferior to Petrarch; in the 17th and first half of the 18th he was almost universally neglected. His fame is now fully vindicated. See also:Translations and commentaries issue from every See also:press in Europe and See also:America, and many studies for See also:separate points are appearing every year. AuTR0RITIES.—It would be impossible here to give anything like a See also:complete See also:account even of the See also:editions of Dante's works; still more of the books which have been written to elucidate the Commedia as a whole, or particular points in it. The See also:section " Dante " in the See also:British Museum See also:catalogue down to 1887 occupies twenty-nine See also:folio pages; the supplement, to 1900, as many more. The catalogue of the See also:Fiske collection, in Cornell University library, is in two See also:quarto volumes and covers 606 pages. A few of the more important editions and of the more valuable commentaries and See also:aids may, however, be recorded. Editions.—The Commedia was first printed by John Numeister at See also:Foligno, in April 1472. Two other editions followed in the same year: one at See also:Jesi (Federicus Veronensis), and Mantua (Georgics et See also:Paulus Teutonici). These, together with a Naples edition of about 1477 (Francesco del Tuppo), were included by Lord See also:Vernon in Le See also:Prime Quattro Edizioni (1858). Another Neapolitan edition, with-out printer's name, is dated 1477, and in the same year Wendelin 4f See also:Spires published the first Venetian edition. Milan followed in 1478 with that known from the name of its editor as the Nidobeatine. In 1481 appeared the first Florentine edition (See also:Nicole and Lorenzo della Magna) with the commentary of Cristoforo Landino, and a series of See also:copper engravings ascribed to See also:Baccio Baldini, varying in number in different copies from two to twenty; a sumptuous and very carelessly printed See also:volume. Venice supplied most of the editions for many years to come. Altogether twelve existed by the end of the century. In 1502 Aldus produced the first " See also:pocket " edition in his new " See also:italic " type, probably cut from the See also:handwriting of his friend Bembo. A second edition of this is dated 1515. The See also:firm of Giunta at Florence printed the poem in a small volume with cuts, in 1506; and for the rest of the 16th century edition follows edition, to the number of about thirty in all. The most noteworthy commentaries are those of Alessandro Vellutello (Venice, 1544), and Bernardo Daniello (Venice, 1568), both of Lucca. The Cruscan Academicians edited the See also:text in 1595. The first edition with woodcuts is that of Boninus de Boninis (Brescia, 1487). Bernardino Benali followed at Venice in 1491, and from that time onward few if any of the folio editions are without them. The 17th century produced three (or perhaps four) small, shabby and inaccurate editions. In 1716 a revival of See also:interest in Dante had set in, and before 1800 some See also:score of editions had appeared, the best-known being those of G. A. Volpi (Padua, 1727), Pompeo Venturi (Venice, 1739) and Baldassare Lombardi (Rome, 1791)• Commentaries.—The Commedia began to be the subject of commentaries as soon as, if not before, the author was in his grave. One known as the Anonimo until in 1881 Dr Moore identified its writer as Graziolo de' Bambaglioli, was in course of writing in 1324. It was published by Lord Vernon, to whose munificence we owe the accessibility of most of the earlier commentaries, in 1848. That of Jacopo della Lana is thought to have been composed before 1340. It was printed in the Venice and Milan editions of 1477, and 1478 respectively. The so-called Ottimo Comento (Pisa, 1837) is of about the same date. It embodies parts of Lana's, but is largely an See also:independent work. See also:Witte ascribes it to See also:Andrea della Lancia, a Florentine See also:notary. Dante's sons Pietro and Jacopo also commented on their father's poem. Their works were published, again at Lord Vernon's expense, in 1845 and 1848. Boccaccio's lectures on the Commedia, cut short at Inf. xvii. 17 by his death in 1375, are accessible in various forms. His work was achieved by his See also:disciple Benvenuto Rambaldi of See also:Imola (d. c. 1390). Benvenuto's commentary, written in Latin, genial in See also:temper, and often acute, was popular from the first. Extracts from it were used as notes in many See also:MSS. Much of it was printed by See also:Muratori in his Antiquitates Italicae; but the entire work was first published in 1887 by Mr William See also:Warren Vernon, with the aid of See also:Sir See also: This remained in MS. till recently, when it was printed in a costly form. Translations.—Probably the first complete translation of Dante into a See also:modern language was the Castilian version of See also:Villena (1428). In the following year Andreu Febrer produced a rendering into Catalan verse. In 1515 See also:Villegas published the Inferno in See also:Spanish. The earliest French version is that of B. Grangier (1597). See also:Chaucer has rendered several passages beautifully, and similar fragments are embedded in Milton and others. But the first attempt to reproduce any considerable portion of the poem was made by See also:Rogers, who only completed the Inferno (1782). The entire poem appeared first in English in the version of Henry See also:Boyd (1802) in six-line stanzas; but the first adequate rendering is the admirable See also:blank verse of H. F. See also:Cary (1814, 2nd ed. 1819), which has remained the See also:standard translation, though others of merit, notably those of See also:Pollock (1854) and See also:Longfellow (1867) in blank verse, See also:Plumptre (1887) and Haselfoot (1887) in terza rima; J. A. See also:Carlyle (Inferno only, 1847). C. E. Norton (1891), and H. F. Tozer (1904), in prose, have since appeared. The best in German are those of " Philalethes " (the late King John of See also:Saxony) and Witte, both in blank verse. Modern Editions and Commentaries.—The first serious attempt to establish an accurate text in recent times was made by Carl Witte, whose edition (1862) has been subsequently used as the basis for the text of the Commedia in the Oxford edition of Dante's complete works (1896 and later issues). Dr See also:Toynbee's text (1900) follows the Oxford, with some modifications. The notes of Cary, Longfellow, Witte and " Philalethes," appended to their several translations, and Tozer's, in an independent volume, are valuable. Scartazzini's commentary is the most voluminous that has appeared since the 15th century. With a good See also:deal of superfluous, and some superficial, erudition, it cannot be neglected by any one who wishes to study the poem thoroughly. An edition by A.J. See also: Mr W. W. Vernon's Readings in Dante have profited many students. Dante's minor works still lack thorough editing and scholarly elucidation, with the exception of the De vulgari eloquentia, which has been well handled by Professor Pio Rajna (1896), and the Vita Nuova by F. See also:Beck (1896) and Barbi (1907). Good translations of the latter by D. G. Rossetti and C. E. Norton, and of the De monarchia by F. C. Church and P. H. Wicksteed are in existence. The best text is that of the Oxford Dante, though much confessedly remains to be done. 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