AUTHORS (1265–1321); FLORENCE, ITALY
carry in Florence , Italy , in 1265 , Dante Alighieri — his full name was Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri , but he ’s better known simply as Dante — is considered one of the most important poets in story . His masterpiece , The Divine Comedy , is still a staple fiber at universities and in scholarly rotary , and it remains one of the preeminent pieces of religious lit from Medieval times .
1. Dante’sDivine Comedyis a massive narrative poem.
The Divine Comedychronicles Dante ’s journey through hell , where he is guided by the ItalianpoetVirgil and a womanhood name Beatrice through nine concentric set of the hereafter , all based on different sins . The first circle is Limbo , the region for those who can not go to heaven simply because they have not been baptized , or were bear before Jesus Christ .
The entirepoemtotals 14,233 lines , longer thanThe Odyssey(12,110 lines ) but shorter thanThe Iliad(15,693 lines ) . For this verse form , Dante notably used theterza rimastyle , which is when stanza are carve up into three lines , with the first and third lines ending in a rhyme and the second line rhyming with the first and third line of the following stanzas ( aba , bcb , cdc … yzy , z ) .
2.The Divine Comedyis split up into three books:Inferno,Purgatory, andParadise.
Dante work out onThe Divine Comedy — in the first place just titledThe Comedy — from around 1308 to 1321 , the year of his death . The epicpoemis split up into three part ( calledcantiche ) , and each section contains 33 cantos , which are basically subdivisions for epic poems . ( There is alsoone extra cantoinInfernothat serves as an debut , so the total is 100 . ) Interestingly , the wordstarsfinishes the last verse in each of these contribution .
3. Dante’sInfernoput popes in hell.
When writingInferno , Dantebasically allowed himself to play god , by sentencing fictionalized versions of his earthly enemies to an eternity of damnation in the hell he make for his epic verse form . Two famous material body that gained his ire were Pope Nicholas III and Pope Boniface VIII , whose ill-famed tenure was mark by his interference in alien involvement as he attempt to acquire the power of the Catholic Church . InInferno , Dante hail across Pope Nicholas in Hell ’s eighth forget me drug , which is delegate for the human action of simony ( the buying or selling of religious privileges ) .
In this circle , sinners are inter in the ground headfirst , and as Dante is walk through , the submerse Nicholas mistakes him for Pope Boniface . Once the mistaken personal identity gets cleared up , Nicholas reveals to Dante that Boniface is due to replace him in the burial hole once he break down ( in this domain , the damned can see into the future tense ) . Boniface waspartly responsiblefor Dante ’s real - public exile , so being banished to hell , even a fictional one , was part of the writer ’s retaliation .
4. Dante’s death mask, which is on display in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, probably isn’t real.
The last masquerade of Dante that ’s house in Florence ’s Palazzo Vecchio gain notoriety recently for being a primal patch point in author Dan Brown ’s ledger , and its subsequent motion picture adjustment , Inferno . Butrecent studiessuggest that the mask in question is n’t the actual article ; more than potential , it was carved in 1483 by Pietro and Tullio Lombardo , more than 160 years after Dante ’s dying .
5. Dante Alighieri is considered the father of the Italian language.
By choosing to indite his whole shebang in the first place in the localTuscan dialect — the vernacular of his home realm — rather than the much more common Latin , Dante helped establish the language we now sleep together as Italian as being adequate to of expressing slap-up art and poetry . The encroachment of his piece of work was so immense that Italian would go on to become the leading literary spoken communication throughout western Europe for centuries , and because of this , Dante is often referred to as the " father of the Italian language . " Even today , there are still Dante Alighieri Societies found across the globe , with a mission to promote the Italian speech and polish .
6. Dante was exiled and handed a death sentence in Florence in the early 14th century. The sentence was only lifted in 2008.
In 1302 , Dante discover himself the dupe of what historiographer have deem " trump - up charges " of misappropriation , resistance to the Roman Catholic Pope , and more by the Florentine governing . When he refused to seem to suffice for his crimes and pay a amercement , it was decided that should he ever step foot in Florence again , he would be burned active . As a result , Dante spent his remaining twelvemonth as a rover , a modus vivendi that afford him the inhalation to writeThe Divine Comedy . In 2008 , Florence ’s city council vote to symbolically reverse Dante ’s death sentence in the city and restore his honor .
7. Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli painted a map of hell based onThe Divine Comedy.
Hell has been the theme of countless esthetic interpretations over the century , but one of the most long - lasting and influential come from Sandro Botticelli’sMap of Hellpainting , establish onThe Divine Comedy , which is presently located in the Vatican Library . Botticelli ’s picture is just one part of a larger illustrated manuscript he created free-base on the poem , 92 pages of which still survive .
Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell.
The Divine Comedyis perhaps most famous for its characterization of the different circles of Hell , each one detailing different punishments that go along with the most heinous wickedness . The Mexican valium let in :
Famous quotes and Lines From Dante’sThe Divine Comedy:
Famous Dante Poems:
