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Dante, Dante Alighieri, Firenze, Italian history, Italian language, Italian literature, La Divina Commedia
Auguri Dante! 2015 is the 750th anniversary of the birth of Dante. His actual birth date is unknown, but he does provide clues in ‘Paradiso’ that he was born under the sign of Gemini. In 1265, Gemini was mid May to mid June, a bit earlier than it is now.
Dante is known as the ‘Father of the Italian Language’. His most famous work La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) is considered a masterpiece, the first and also the greatest work of literature in the Italian language. In the late medieval period, Latin was the only language for education, literature and religion. La Divina Commedia was the first major work written in a language of ordinary speech, the way people actually spoke at home. Dante combined Tuscan and other dialects and some Latin, establishing the modern Italian language. Even though La Divina Commedia was written in 1308-20 the language is understandable today.
La Divina Commedia is a long poem in 3 parts, emphasizing the importance of salvation and Divine love. It outlines Dante’s imaginary trip to Paradiso (Heaven), passing through L’Inferno (Hell) and Purgatorio (Purgatory) to get there. It is also a critique of famous figures of his time. The work is filled with historical references and discusses politics, religion, ethics and love. La Divina Commedia has no jokes and is not funny. The reason it is called a commedia is because it is not a tragedia (trajedy) and it has a happy ending.
Dante was born in Firenze (Florence). He studied philosophy, poetry, and was also a pharmacist because nobles in public office had to belong to one of the city’s guilds. This isn’t as strange as it sounds because books were sold by pharmacies at the time. Dante’s family was involved in the Guelfi/Ghibellini (Guelph/Ghibelline) conflicts. The Guelfi supported the Papacy and the Ghibellini supported the Holy Roman Emperor -although there wasn’t actually one at the time. The Guelfi split into 2 groups because the Pope at the time kept interfering with internal matters in Firenze. The Guelfi Bianchi (White Guelphs) did not want the Pope involved in city politics and the Guelfi Neri (Black Guelphs) supported complete Pope authority. Dante’s family were Guelfi Bianchi. In 1302, Firenze was occupied by the Guelfi Neri and the Guelfi Bianchi, including Dante, were exiled. The other Guelfi Bianchi in exile were pardoned a few years later, but not Dante. He was kind of a badass in exile and burnt his bridges by writing many nasty letters, so he stayed in Roma. Dante was offered amnesty in 1315, but there were strings attached and a heavy fine which he couldn’t pay. He wrote La Divina Commedia while in exile and managed to write all of his opponents to eternal damnation, imaginatively making up all sorts of horrible existances for them in l’Inferno. He obviously put a lot of effort into coming up with all of the horrible details! If Dante were alive today I think he would be writing political satire in Paris.
Dante never returned to his beloved Firenze. He moved to Ravenna, where he completed Paradiso and died in exile in 1321. He is buried in the the church of San Francesco. Firenze regretted what had happened and repeatedly asked for Dante’s remains. A tomb was built in 1829 in Santa Croce but the requests were refused. In June 2008, Firenze passed a motion rescinding his sentence and exile. Meglio tardi che mai/Better late than never!
Thanks for the history – I love the details! Somehow it seems to make him more human to hear the details of the political drama… But it also seems so grand and glamorous…
Grazie Signora Martini. Yes it is all very dramatic-and I left out a lot of detail! I do think he would have made a great political cartoonist. Ciao, Cristina
Very interesting and so much history..WoW! So wonderful to chance upon your blog through Lyn’s blog. I blog on Italy too. Just came from a recent trip from Italy. Hope you like to read my posts 🙂
Blog link- ishitasood.blogspot.in
Grazie Ishita. I will check out your blog. I believe I read a post you wrote on someone else’s blog a while ago, but now I can’t remember where it was.
I have officially shifted to WordPress 🙂 You can now easily comment and reduce the hassle of Blogger 😉 Ciao ciao!
Benvenuti a WordPress!
Grazie milla 🙂
Oh.. What a small world. Thank you 🙂
I have read that Dante was haevily influenced by the Sicilian poets of his day and that the Sicilian of that period also influenced the modern Italian he created.
That is definitely possible. I think he took all the prettiest words from quite a few dialetti plus Latin and combined them to make his ‘Italian’ sound beautiful!
In order to make amends, and following the example of other Tuscan towns (Torre del Lago Puccini and my own Caprese Michelangelo), why not rename Florence Firenze Dante? Great post as always. I need to return to the Casa Dante on my next trip to Florence.
Great idea Luca! I don’t think they would go for it though. I’ve walked by Casa Dante many times but haven’t visited yet. Hopefully it’s as interesting as Casa Buonarroti. Ciao, Cristina
The ‘Casa natale’ in Caprese, as they call it, is just a little castle from Medieval times. You can see the main bedroom, in which one can assume Michelangelo was born, but nothing remains of the man. His father was the Florentine ‘podestà’ in the village and left when Michelangelo was one year old. However, he left the boy to be brought up in the village by peasants until he was 7 or 8.
Seriously-you live in the town Michelangelo was born? Mannaggia! One of the things I always do if I’m in Firenze on a Sunday is go to Mass at Santa Croce. I sit as close as possible to Michelangelo’s tomb and feel like I can channel some of his creative energy. It’s an experience that can’t be described. There must be a lot of creative energy flowing around your street!
very nice to see you last evening..hope you got your plants watered!
i was thinking about your idea of a group for cooking in your home town and the cost etc. and the idea that you wanted the people to experience the town itself. at the yoga retreat in Mexico that I went to this year, we had it that some dinners were offered…..i think 3 nights and the other 3 nights we went out to restaurants…. you had mentioned that we would cook and then eat it for lunch/dinner….if it was that every 2nd day we did this and on other days, we would hike explore eat out…..that might be fun..and we would have the best of both worlds… what do you think?
you can see that my mind has started to imagine the opportunities…. ciao and best eloise “Be yourself! Everyone else is taken!”
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Lots to think about Eloise! it was nice to see you too and yes my pomodori got their water!
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I’m just in love with Italy and ready to return there again and again, at least reading your blog. Thanks for sharing!
Me too Victoria! Glad you like my ‘virtual travel’ ciao, Cristina