Florence and Italy's Inferno: Life and Work of Dante

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was a Florentine poet of noble ancestry. His most noted work, The Divine Comedy, was seen as the basis for modern Italian as it was written in the regional dialect. This made Tuscan the standard for Italian language. The work is said to be the greatest literary statement in medieval history.

Dante was born to Della degli Abati, who died when he was 7, and Dante Alighieri II, who died in the 1280's. Dante had maintained a father figure with Brunetto Latini for most of his life. Latini was later placed in The Divine Comedy entering the 7th circle of hell, a place restricted to people who sinned with "violence against nature" or sodomy. One is left to draw their own conclusions as to the why of that.

Dante was well educated in both Christian and Classical Literature. At age 12 he was promised in marriage to Gemma Donati, a girl he later married in 1285. But he had but one love, and that was not of his wife but of a girl named Beatrice. Beatrice who was his guide in the Divine Comedy, and the same Beatrice who he wrote La Vita Nuova for. There are multitude of sonnets for Beatrice, and yet none for his wife.

Dante was a nomad of country, but came to rest for a final home in Ravenna in 1320. Shortly before his death he was accused of Averriosm and his book De Monarchia was ordered to be burned by Pope John XXII. Only two known copies of the original Divine Comedy are still remaining. One is in Milan, and the other is owned by the Asiatic Society of Bombay. In 1930, Mussolini offered the society one million pounds sterling for the book, but was flatly refused.

According to the Società Dantesca Italiana, no original manuscript written by Dante survives.

The Divine Comedy (condensed)

The Gate of Hell, inscribed with Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate (Abandon all hope, ye who enter here) is probably one of the best known lines from literature to this day. Each circle incorporated a special sin, from limbo to the 9th circle that was said to encase Satan himself. These are the circles: