Dante Alighieri
1265-1321,
Italian poet, author of the Divine Comedy. A Florentine patrician, he fought on
the side of the GUELPHS
but later supported the imperial party. In 1290, after t 333c26d he death of his exalted
Beatrice (see BEATRICE PORTINARI),
he plunged into the study of philosophy and Provençal poetry. Politically
active in Florence from 1295, he was banished in 1302 and became a citizen of
all Italy, dying in Ravenna. The Divine Comedy, a vernacular poem in 100 cantos
(more than 14,000 lines), was composed in exile. It is the tale of the poet's
journey through Hell and Purgatory (guided by VERGIL) and through Heaven (guided by
Beatrice, to whom the poem is a memorial.) Written in a complex PENTAMETER form, terza rima, it is a
magnificent synthesis of the medieval outlook, picturing a changeless universe
ordered by God. Through it Dante established Tuscan as the literary language of
Italy and gave rise to a vast literature. His works also include La vita nuova
(c.1292), a collection of prose and lyrics celebrating Beatrice and ideal love;
treatises on language and politics; eclogues; and epistles.
