DANTE ALIGHIERI

DURANTE DEGLI ALIGHIERI

Durante degli Alighieri, simply called Dante, was a major Italian poet of the late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally

called Comedìa (modern Italian: Commedia) and later called Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the

greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of

world literature.In Italy he is called il Sommo Poeta ("the

Supreme Poet") and il Poeta. He, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also called "the three

fountains" and "the three crowns". Dante is also called "the Father of the Italian

language".

DURANTE DEGLI ALIGHIERI

Dante was born in Florence, Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown,

although it is generally believed to be around 1265. This can be deduced from autobiographic allusions in the Divine Comedy. Its first section, the Inferno,

begins, "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" ("Midway upon the journey of our

life"), implying that Dante was around 35 years old, since the average lifespan according to the Bible (Psalm 89:10, Vulgate) is 70 years; and since his

imaginary travel to the nether world took place in 1300, he was most probably born

around 1265.

Some verses of the Paradiso section of the Divine Comedy also provide a

possible clue that he was born under the sign of Gemini: "As I revolved with the eternal twins, I saw revealed, from

hills to river outlets, the threshing-floor that makes us so ferocious" (XXII

151–154). In 1265, the sun was in Gemini between approximately May

11 and June 11

Alighieri was born in 1265 to a family with a history of involvement in the complex Florentine political scene,

and this setting would become a feature in his

Inferno years later. Dante’s mother died only a few

years after his birth.

And when Dante was around 12

years old, it was arrange that he

would marry Gemma Donati., the daughter of Manetto Donati, member of the

powerful Donati family. Around 1285, the pair

married.

But, Dante was Inlove with

other woman—Beatrice

Portinari, who would be a

huge influence on Dante and

whose character form the backbone of Dante’s Devine

Comedy.

Dante met Beatrice when she was 9

years old, and he had apparently

expirienced love at first sight.

The pair were acquainted for years, but Dante’s love for

Beatrice was ‘courtly’, which

could be called an expression of love and admiration,

usually from afar, and unrequited.

Beatrice died unexpectedly in 1290.And five years later Dante published Vita

Nuova (The New Life), which details his tragic

love for Beatrice.