Childhood and youth
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence. His full name is Durante degli Alighieri. The exact date of birth of the poet is unknown; presumably, he was born between May 21 and June 1, 1265.
Dante Alighieri in a fresco by Andrea del Castagno (1450, Uffizi Gallery)
According to family tradition, his ancestors were from the Roman family of Elisei. They took part in the founding of Florence. His great-great-grandfather Kacciaguida was a knight under Conrad III, went with him on the Crusades and died in battle with the Muslims.
His great-great-grandmother was Aldighieri da Fontana, a woman from a wealthy family. She named her son Alighieri. Later this name turned into a well-known surname.
Monument to Dante Alighieri
Dante's grandfather was expelled from Florence during the confrontation between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. He returned to his homeland only in 1266. His father Alighieri II was far from politics, so he remained in Florence all the time.
Dante was an educated man, he had knowledge of the natural sciences and medieval literature. He also studied the heretical teachings of that era. Where he received this knowledge is unknown. But his first mentor was the then popular scientist and poet Brunetto Latini.
Dante Alighieri: short biography and interesting facts - TOP 14
We have prepared for you interesting facts from the life and work of Dante Alighieri. Here is his short biography and the most amazing stories.
1. Noble family . Dante Alighieri was born in May 1265 in the Italian city of Florence. He came from the ancient family of Eliseo, whose representatives participated in the founding of that very Florence. His great-great-grandfather Kacciaguida bore the title of knight - he was a participant in the Second Crusade (1147 - 1149) and died during the battle.
Portrait of Dante. Sandro Botticelli. Private collection
2. Incredibly educated . Dante Alighieri was educated in Bologna. He successfully studied the poetry of the Middle Ages and antiquity. Dante paid special attention to the works of Virgil. In addition, Dante knew some teachings declared heretical by the church.
3. Love at 9 years old at first sight . In 1274, nine-year-old Dante noticed a girl, Beatrice Portinari, at a neighbor's party and instantly fell in love with her. He never communicated his feelings to her. But since then, Beatrice remained Dante's only love.
Beatrice died at the age of 24 and this broke the young poet’s heart. However, his all-consuming love for her became the brightest feeling in his life and determined the future of Dante Alighieri. In many works, Beatrice is depicted as a semi-deity, inspiring him to achieve achievements and never leaving the lyrical hero.
4. Formal marriage at age 13 . In 1277, when Dante was a teenager, he was betrothed to Gemma di Manetto Donati. Marriage of convenience was not something surprising at that time. They signed the contract in the presence of a notary and formally became a family.
5. He had three children . Before 1301, he had two boys, Jacopo and Piero, and a girl, Antonia. The daughter chose the path of serving God and became a nun. After the expulsion of her husband, his wife Gemma remained in Florence with the children and tried to preserve their fortune.
Dante's wife is not mentioned in any work, and many sonnets from the collection “New Life” were dedicated to Beatrice. In addition, she is a key character in The Divine Comedy.
6. Work on The Divine Comedy took 15 years . It is a kind of encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, which consists of three parts and describes the author’s journey to God. Virgil was his companion in the circles of hell and heaven. Dante's "Comedy" was so popular that ordinary illiterate people asked the authorities to hold public readings with explanations in the square.
A grave sin, according to the poet, is not greed, anger or pride, but treason, the betrayal of a loved one, the deception of a person who trusted. Thieves, robbers and other criminals are not in the deepest circles of hell. The traitors are located on the ninth circle.
7. Died from malaria . After his expulsion from Florence, Dante was invited to Ravenna by the lord of the city, Guido de Polenta, and received the position of his ambassador. In August 1321, he was supposed to visit Venice in order to sign a peace treaty with the Republic of San Marco. But on the way back, passing between the Adriatic Sea and the marshy areas of the Po River basin, Dante fell ill with malaria. It was not possible to defeat the disease; death took the poet’s life on the night of September 14. The urn containing Dante's remains was stolen by Franciscan monks while it was being transported from Ravenna to Florence. They did not want to part with the talented writer.
In 2008, 690 years after Dante's death, the government of Florence rescinded the order to exile him. However, they themselves reacted to the decision with distrust, saying that this was done only to attract tourists.
8. The Divine Comedy is called a comedy because of the language used - Dante used vulgar Italian, while others wrote exclusively in Latin, which was considered noble. It was later called “divine” by Giovanni Boccaccio, who wrote the first biography of Dante.
Divine Comedy - Dante's Vision of Hell. Attack of a leopard (lynx), lion and she-wolf. Meeting with Virgil
9. Mathematical ideal . Art critics consider The Divine Comedy to be ideal in terms of composition. To write it, Dante used a special rhyme. It allows you to easily memorize large fragments of a work and retell them. Most often there are four numbers in it. “7” is the number of days it took God to create the world. The number “3” means and symbolizes the trinity of God. Man, as a result of the unification of the earthly and divine principles, corresponds to “10”. The number “13” symbolizes Christ, who has both human and divine traits. These 4 numbers (3, 7, 10, 13) can most often be found in the 100 songs of the work.
Each of the three parts of the work ends with the word “stars”.
10. The son found the missing poems with the help of a dream . The last part of the “Divine Comedy” - “Paradise” - was created by Dante in Ravenna - in exile. There is a legend that after the death of their father, the sons could not find the last 13 songs. And one day Dante came to Jacopo in a dream and pointed out where the missing fragments lay.
11. Unusual design . Benedictine monk Gabriel Celani created one of the most unusual books. On a sheet of paper 0.8 x 0.6 m, he wrote all 14,000 verses of the Divine Comedy, which are easy to read without using magnifying devices. If you move a sufficient distance away from the book, you can see a Detailed Map of Italy. This effect was achieved thanks to the correct combination of ink color and character size.
12. About translations . The Divine Comedy has been translated into many European languages. The author of the first complete Russian translation (it was prose) was V.A. Petrov in 1871. However, the work of Mikhail Lozinsky, who received the Stalin Prize in 1945, is considered classic.
13. Contributed to the development of the Italian language . The Tuscan dialect used by Dante to write his works became the basis of the modern Italian literary language.
14. Love story . Dante Alighieri's life and works influenced famous European writers - William Shakespeare and John Milton. The story of Dante's love for Beatrice Portinari is placed on a par with the relationships of Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet.
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