Dante Alighieri - Florentine Writer

Enlarge Image Dante Alighieri lived a long time before the Italian Renaissance shook Europe out of the dark stupor of the Middle Ages. He is, in fact, considered as the spark that heralded the coming enlightenment. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265. His father was a well-respected, Florentine lawyer and Dante had a privileged childhood. He was given an excellent, science-oriented education under Brunetto Latini. It was impossible to live in Florence and not get infected with romantic ideas. Like his mates, Dante too tried his hand at writing on love-lorn themes. He probably imagined himself in and out of love dozens of times, but the person that made the strongest and longest-lasting effect on his life was Beatrice.

Dante first met Beatrice when they were both nine. The next time he saw her was nine years later when he saw her walking down the street with two companions. He was immediately smitten, but never managed to summon up the nerve to go get reacquainted. It remained a long-distance adoration, which is why he could build her up into an ideal that no real woman could ever have reached. His work 'Vita Nuova' (New Life) explored his deep feelings for this paragon and she also finds high-flown mention - 'O, Queen of Virtue' - in his later famous work, 'The Inferno of Dante Alighieri'. Beatrice eventually married Simone de' Bardi and died a few years afterwards in 1290.

Dante was heart-broken and sought to assuage his grief by getting married himself - perhaps he hoped it would kill him too and thereby bring about a reunion with Beatrice in the happy after-life. But he had no such luck. He lived to regret it. His wife, Gemma Donati, bore him four children, two girls and two boys, and made his life miserable. No doubt it was Mrs. Alighieri that inspired lines like 'My haughty wife of evils proved the worst' in 'The Inferno'.

Dante, The Soldier:

Not succeeding as a lover, Dante turned to soldiering. A conflict had broken out in Florence between two of the foremost political parties, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. All because a Florentine aristocrat was jilted at the altar and subsequently murdered - hardly a novel event in those violent times - but when you let politics mix with family squabbles, you get a potent mix. Pope Boniface VIII fanned the flames further by siding with the Guelphs and this led to the battles of Campaldino and Capranao. Dante had entered the fray on the side of the Ghibellines and, although they eventually lost, he acquitted himself very bravely

Dante, The Politician:

From soldiering, Dante turned to Politics. He became a member of the Apocatheries Guild - there were six guilds in Florence that controlled the city commerce and thereby made all the important decisions. Dante soon became a powerful figure in the Guilds - mainly because he resolutely prevented the Florentines from getting bullied by the Pope into forming an army for fighting His Holiness' personal enemies.

He couldn't, however, prevent the Florentines from fighting between themselves. A ferocious struggle broke out between the Cerchi (Bianchi) and the Donati(Neri) factions and even Papal Intervention could not put an effective lid on it. It ended with a lot of blood-shed and the ousting from power of Dante and the other rulers. He had to flee to exile - this was in 1302 - and, as later he could return only under the most humiliating conditions, he remained in exile for the rest of his life.

Dante in Exile:

Until his death in 1321, Dante moved, one after the other, through the other Italian City States - Lombardy, Tuscany, Romagna - receiving a warm welcome each time from the respective rulers. He stayed for a long time with the Lord of Verona and wrote the 'Paradiso' while here; the work is dedicated to his patron's son, Can Grande della Scala. His last patron was Guido Novello da Polenta of Ravenna.

Dante died in Ravenna in 1321 right after returning from an unsuccessful mission on behalf of his patron to the Doge of Venice. He was buried with honors in the Church of St. Francis. But almost immediately a new controversy brewed up. His last book 'De Monarchia' was published posthumously and it contained political ideas that were far in advance for the times. They were sure to shake the Papal status quo if they were allowed to become wide-spread - Dante called for the Pope to reign only as 'lord spiritual' and keep out of earthly intrigues - and so the Pope saw to it at once that the book was put on the Vatican's list of banned books. Copies were collected and consigned to public bonfires.

The Church also toyed with the idea of exhuming Dante's body and subjecting it to public humiliation, but on the request of the citizens of Ravenna, who wanted no such desecration on their soil, that idea was abandoned.

Not taking any chances though, the good people of Ravenna removed Dante from his grave and hid his remains in another part of the Church. They were returned to the original place in 1865, ending his final exile.