Historical Figures Codexery

Dante Alighieri

Italian poet who wrote the Divine Comedy in the vernacular.

His Divine Comedy is widely considered the greatest literary work in the Italian language and one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages.[1]

Quick Facts

Born
c. May 1265
Birthplace
Florence
Died
14 September 1321 (aged c. 56)
Place of death
Ravenna, Papal States
Resting place
Tomb of Dante, Ravenna
Occupation
  • Statesman
  • poet
  • language theorist
  • political theorist
Movement
Dolce Stil Novo
Notable works
Divine Comedy

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Dante claimed his family descended from ancient Romans, but the earliest relative he could name was his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida, born around 1100.[2][3] Dante said he first met Beatrice Portinari when he was nine and claimed to have fallen in love with her "at first sight"[4] After the Guelphs split, Dante belonged to the White Guelphs, who wanted more freedom from Rome, while the Black Guelphs supported the Pope.[5] He refused to pay, was condemned to perpetual exile, and never returned to Florence.[6][7][8]

Dante's mother, Bella, is thought to have been a member of the noble Abati family, while his father, Alighiero di Bellincione, worked as a businessman and moneylender.[2][3] Before his 1301 exile, Dante had three children—Pietro, Jacopo, and Antonia—with Gemma di Manetto Donati, to whom he was betrothed at age twelve.[4][9] On June 11, 1289, Dante participated in the Battle of Campaldino as a member of the Guelph cavalry.[10][11] Around 1295, Dante joined the Physicians' and Apothecaries' Guild, a step necessary for holding public office.[12][11]

Dante died in Ravenna on September 14, 1321, at approximately 56 years of age, from quartan malaria.[13]

What the cited sources add

The same source notes that his father Alaghiero was already dead by 1283, since in that year Dante, having become an orphan at age 18, sold a paternal credit.[3] According to the Academy of American Poets account, at twelve years old Dante was betrothed to Gemma di Manetto Donati, though he had already fallen in love with Beatrice Portinari.[8] The Academy of American Poets also states that Dante is credited with inventing terza rima, composed of tercets woven into a linked rhyme scheme.[8] A 2021 Courthouse News article reports that legal scholars held a conference examining whether Dante was the victim of a miscarriage of justice after his sentence to burn at the stake.[14]

The same article notes that the 2021 Giro d'Italia bicycle race was dedicated to Dante and visited cities where he once walked.[14] Phelan's article in The Local Italy notes that Florence constructed a tomb for Dante in 1829 within the Basilica of Santa Croce, yet that tomb has remained unoccupied since its completion.[15][16]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wetherbee, "Dante", Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, April 30, 2018; Hutton, Edward (1910). Giovanni Boccaccio, a Biographical Study . p. 273.; Bloom, "The Western Canon", Riverhead Books, 1994; Shaw 2014, p. xiii (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Santagata 2016, p. 6; Chimenz, "Alighieri, Dante", Enciclopedia Italiana, 2014 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Chimenz, "Alighieri, Dante", Enciclopedia Italiana, 2014. facts only, no text reused. treccani.it
  4. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Beatrice and Dante Alighieri > A Love Story", December 14, 2016; Alighieri, "Delphi Complete Works of Dante Alighieri", Delphi Classics, 2013; Chimenz, "Alighieri, Dante", Enciclopedia Italiana, 2014; Chimenz, "Alighieri, Dante", Enciclopedia Italiana, 2014; Alighieri, "The Paradiso of Dante Alighieri", J.M. Dent and Company, 1904, p. 129 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Chronology", Renaissance Dante in Print (1472–1629); "The Oxford Handbook of Dante", Oxford University Press, 2021, p. 343 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Moore, "Dante's infernal crimes forgiven", The Daily Telegraph, June 17, 2008; Raffa 2020, p. 24 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burdeau, "Dante Gets a Bit of Justice, 700 Years After His Death", Courthouse News, May 21, 2021; Santagata 2016, p. 6 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. "Dante Alighieri", Academy of American Poets. facts only, no text reused. poets.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chimenz, "Alighieri, Dante", Enciclopedia Italiana, 2014 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Davenport, "Dante: Poet, Author, and Proud Florentine", Infobase Publishing, 2005, p. 53 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Davenport, "Dante: Poet, Author, and Proud Florentine", Infobase Publishing, 2005, p. 53; "Guelphs and Ghibellines", Dante Alighieri Society of Massachusetts; Santagata 2016, p. 6; Santagata 2016, p. 6; Sandor, "Medicine and Pharmacy in the Works of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)", Medicine and Pharmacy Reports, April 2022, p. 218–224; Shaw 2014, p. xiii; Took 2021, p. 28; Barbero 2022, p. 79; Santagata 2016, p. 6; Shaw 2014, p. xiii (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: di Serego Alighieri, "The Sun and the other Stars of Dante Alighieri", World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., 2022, p. 48 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Raffa 2020, p. 24 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Burdeau, "Dante Gets a Bit of Justice, 700 Years After His Death", Courthouse News, May 21, 2021. facts only, no text reused. courthousenews.com
  15. Phelan, "Dante's last laugh: Why Italy's national poet isn't buried where you think he is.", The Local Italy, September 4, 2019. facts only, no text reused. thelocal.it
  16. Wikipedia, "Dante Alighieri" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Phelan, "Dante's last laugh: Why Italy's national poet isn't buried where you think he is.", The Local Italy, September 4, 2019 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Dante Alighieri (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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