Dante The Early Years n Dante Alighieri

Dante

The Early Years… n Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, then a virtual city-state and perhaps the wealthiest mercantile center in the world.

The Early Years… Dante began his career as a love poet, one of a group who developed a "new sweet style" (dolce stil nuovo) n Poems on the mysteries and ecstasies of courtly love. n

The Early Years… After the death of his exalted Beatrice (Beatrice Portinari, 1266 -90), he plunged into the study of philosophy and Provençal poetry. n Dante included her as a character symbolic of God’s message of faith and love in his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. n

Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Oil on canvas. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK. 1871.

Dante’s House in Florence

The Middle Years… n By 1295, however, Dante had entered into a political career, rising to become one of the city's leaders, only to find himself banished from Florence under sentence of death in 1302 when a rival faction rose to power.

The Later Years… n The remainder of Dante's life was spent in exile, as an honored guest in various Italian courts and palaces. In this period he wrote important prose works on politics and the Italian language, and composed the Divine Comedy, publishing the first part, Inferno, in 1314. The remaining two parts of this work, Purgatorio and Paradiso, were published after Dante's death in 1321.

The Work… The Divine Comedy, a vernacular poem in 100 cantos (more than 14, 000 lines), was composed in exile. n Why the name Comedy: was a low style of writing, the style of grotesque caricatures, with plots that flowed from an unhappy beginning to a happy end. . n

The Work… This is the first work written in Italian Vulgare rather that Latin which helped to establish a national language (like Canterbury tales did in England). n Written in Terza Rima = aba bcb cdc ded……. a very difficult scheme. n

The Work… Dante uses 1. real life characters n 2. autobiographical moments n 3. eschatological (the body of religious doctrines concerning the human soul in its relation to death, judgment, heaven, and hell) detail n 4. mythological characters n

Last Judgment Stratford Guild Chapel

The Structure of Three After the initial canto, the three major sections of the work (The Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso) are divided into 33 cantos, representing the age of Christ when he died. The work also represents The Trinity & Holiday • The Inferno represents the power of God the Father (Good Fri) • Purgatorio represents the wisdom of Christ the Son (Sat. ) • Paradiso represents the love of the Holy Spirit (Easter Sun)

INFERNO Conceptual by Barry Moser

An Eye for an Eye n Contrapasso – In Dante’s Inferno there is a logical punishment for every offence.

Best tour of hell! http: //people. eku. edu/kingt/inferno/ *What the Hell… Testhttp: //www. 4 degreez. com/misc/dante-infernotest. mv * This test and Dante’s Inferno is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not to offend or attack anyone’s beliefs!