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Detail from a portrait of Dante by Giotto (Dante Alighieri
information)
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), perhaps the greatest poet of the
Middle Ages, is known as the father of Italian literature. He was
born in Florence, in northern Italy. His father and mother died
while Dante was still a boy. He was educated in Italy and probably
in France. His education was supervised by the statesman Brunetto
Latini. Dante served in the Florentine army for a time.
When he was twenty-five, Dante wrote the first of his three main
works, Vita Nuova (The New Life), in which he describes his first
sight of Beatrice, whose beauty inspired his devotion and his best
work. She was probably Beatrice Porti-nari, who married Simone de
Bardi. In 1290 Dante mourned her death. Some time after this he
married Gemma Donati, and joined the Bianchi, or Guelph, party,
which opposed Pope Boniface.
Dante reached high office in Florence, but because of the Pope's
hostility was sentenced to be fined and imprisoned. He fled from
Florence in 1301, and we know little of his wandering life from this
time forwards. He spent some time in Paris before his death at
Ravenna in Italy. He wrote his second principal work, the Convivio
(Feast) in about 1300, but he is mainly remembered for his greatest
work, the Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy). In this allegorical poem,
Dante describes his visit to Hell and Purgatory with the poet Virgil
as his guide.
The last part of the poem of Dante Alighieri is about Paradise,
where he meets Beatrice as an angel. Dante wrote in the Tuscan
dialect, which has developed into the modern Italian language. Until
his time, there was the possibility that one of the southern French
dialects might spread down through Italy. But Dante Alighieri
information in a poem helped to ensure that the Italian language
would prevail.
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