THE ITALIAN DIVINE POET - Rated 
With Shakespeare, one of the greatest literary figures that ever lived. T.S. Eliot said: "Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them, there is no third."
Dante Alighieri (the real first name was Durante, Dante is a sort of nickname) was born in Florence in May or June 1265, from a low-aristocracy family (not very wealthy) of the guelfo party. Dante himself will become a white guelfo. In about 1285 he married Gemma di Manetto Donati, who will give him three children.
Dante's first studies were mainly in rhetoric, grammar, philosophy, literature and theology. He was a disciple of Brunetto Latini, who strongly influenced Dante's cultural growth. In his youth, he was a Stilnovo poet and had many friends among the other members of the Stilnovo Poetical School (especially Guido Cavalcanti). After the death of Bice di Folco Portinari (platonically loved by Dante, who mentioned her in his work with the name of Beatrice) Dante began studying philosophy and theology in depth, also attending some sort of cultural associations in Florence (the Studia) which provided lessons mainly about Aristotle and St. Thomas.
To begin a political career, Dante joined a Medical Corporation in 1295. In the following five years, his career grew quickly, and culminated in his becoming a priore (a sort of governor) in 1300. But in Florence the contrasts between white and black guelfi became harder and serious internal struggles began. Dante had to make some hard-line political decisions: he decided to oppose pope Bonifacio VIII's expansion policy (supported by the blacks), taking a stand against the pontiff's temporal interference. But the blacks, with the support of Carlo di Valois (a French prince) won against the whites. Dante, defeated, was strongly accused, even of fraud. He was sentenced to pay a fine and to serve a two-years exile; but he didn't pay the fine and so was sentenced to death.
From this moment on, Dante roamed many Italian courts never again to return to Florence: he stayed under the protection of Bartolomeo della Scala in Verona in 1303. In 1306 he moved to Lunigiana (a Tuscan region), then to Poppi and to Lucca. In 1313 he went back to Verona where he stayed till 1319. In the same year, he moved to Ravenna, to the court of Guido Novello da Polenta. He died there, in 1321. He was buried in San Pier Maggiore's Church where his tomb is still nowadays.
The Divina Commedia (Italian for "divine comedy") is Dante's masterpiece and is the best literal expression of medieval culture, as well as one of the world's works of genius. The original title (the one Dante gave to it) was simply Commedia. Giovanni Boccaccio suggested adding the adjective Divina ("divine") in order both to explain the kind of content and to celebrate the greatness and beauty of the work.
The word Commedia indicates the literary genre of the work: Dante himself explains, in his XIII epistle (addressed to Cangrande della Scala, duke of Verona) that a commedia is a work representing a story with a happy ending (opposite to tragedia, Italian for "tragedy", an episode which ends badly): in fact, Dante's Commedia ends well, since the protagonist meets God. The commedia genre is also characterized by a varied content and style.
Dante's literal models in his writing the Commedia, were the Bible and the VI canto of Virgil's Aeneid. There's also a certain influence by some Ciceronian works. Basically, Dante modified Virgil's pagan vision of after-life, according it to the religious dogmas of the Bible. Moreover, he used Aristotle's physical vision of Universe and Thomistic philosophy. The result is a typical medieval vision of the cosmos, mainly based on religious ideals, but considering also classical culture.
Generally speaking, the Commedia is an eschatological adventure. In other words, it's the description of Dante's travel through the three transmundane kingdoms: Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Heaven (Paradiso). During this imaginary journey, Dante tries to describe the situation of the human souls after their deaths.
It's difficult to summarize in a few sentences the general plot of the Commedia: in fact, the topics are various and changes many times. The unifying elements are the constant presence of some protagonists and the theme of the travel. The whole journey can be also seen as a moral and religious conversion of the protagonist, Dante, symbolizing the conversion of the whole mankind: the result of this conversion is the rejection of sin and a life tensed towards God and eternal bliss.
The protagonists of this travel are three, above all. The first one is Dante himself, symbol of the whole mankind. The second one is Virgil, symbol of human reason. He's Dante's guide through Inferno and Purgatorio. The third is Beatrice, a woman loved by Dante during his life. In the Commedia, she's the symbol of God's love which can help the man to be saved. She guides Dante through Paradiso.
Analysing the first line of the poem and the lines 112-114 of Inferno's XXI canto, we can understand the year in which Dante sets the poem. The journey begins in 1300, on Good Friday, and lasts seven days. Dante has chosen this year because it's a crucial year for him, for Florence and for the whole World. For him, because in this year he becomes priore: this political position will be the cause of his exile. For Florence, since in this year the struggles between whites and blacks becomes harder and bloody. For the World, since it's the year of the first jubilee, wanted by pope Bonifacio VIII. The jubilee is a universal call to moral conversion, just like the Commedia is an artistical representation of every man's conversion.
The poem is divided into three books, each one representing a kingdom: Inferno (see the links page for links to more info about it), Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Each book is composed by 33 cantos, except for the Inferno, which has 34 cantos (the first is a general introduction to the whole poem). So, the Commedia is composed by 100 cantos. The cantos are composed by triplets, rhyming with an ABABCBC... scheme (rima concatenata). Each verse is 11 syllables long. This uniformity and well-organized structure represent the structure of God's Trinity and reveal the strong religious culture of the author.
The Commedia can be read on different levels of meaning. Dante himself says that his work has more than one meaning (polisignificante): see the XIII epistle and the Convivio, II, I, where the poet lists four levels of meaning: the literal one, the metaphorical one, the moral one and the anagogical one.
Dante's main purpose in writing the Commedia was to preach the necessity of a moral and religious renew for everybody, in order to get ready for the after-life and to ascend to Heaven, eternally saved. Dante acts as a prophet who speak in behalf of God to the whole mankind. In this sense, he's strongly medieval and his poem is the higher expression of this culture. In a wider, more universal sense, the Commedia is one of the highest achievement of Western literature: a poet genius reaching for the Divine through his creation.
N.B.: The Four Stars only refer to the present "economy" edition.
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