Dante - biography, information, personal life. Dante: biography, briefly about life and work: Dante Dante's story

SAINT PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY

CULTURE AND ARTS

ABSTRACT

at the rate: FOREIGN LITERATURE

Subject: "Dante Alighieri and his "Divine Comedy" as a standard of Italian Renaissance literature"

PERFORMED:

2nd YEAR STUDENT

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION

OFFICES

CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING

A. V. FOMINYKH

TEACHER: KOZLOVA V. I.

Introduction ................................................ ................................................. .............3

Chapter 1. Biography of the poet............................................... ........................................4

Chapter 2. Dante's "Divine Comedy" .................7

Conclusion................................................. ................................................. ........14

Bibliography............................................... ......................15

INTRODUCTION

The study of the literature of the Italian Renaissance begins with an examination of the work of the great predecessor of the Renaissance, the Florentine Dante Alighieri (Dante Alighieri, 1265 - 1321), the first of the great poets of Western Europe.

By the whole nature of his work, Dante is a poet of transitional times, standing at the turn of two great historical eras.

The main work of Dante, on which his world fame is primarily based, is the Divine Comedy. The poem is not only the result of the development of Dante's ideological, political and artistic thought, but provides a grandiose philosophical and artistic synthesis of the entire medieval culture, while at the same time throwing a bridge from it to the culture of the Renaissance. Precisely as the author of the Divine Comedy, Dante is at the same time the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times.

Chapter 1. Biography of the poet

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265. The poet came from an old noble family. However, the Dante family has long lost its feudal appearance; already the poet's father belonged, like himself, to the Guelph party.

Having reached adulthood, Dante enrolled in 1283 in the guild of pharmacists and doctors, which also included booksellers and artists and belonged to the seven "senior" guilds of Florence.

Dante received an education in the volume of the medieval school, which he himself recognized as meager, and sought to fill it with the study of French and Provencal languages, which opened him access to the best examples of foreign literature.

Along with the medieval poets, the young Dante carefully studied the ancient poets and, first of all, Virgil, whom he chose, in his own words, as his "leader, master and teacher."

The main passion of the young Dante was poetry. He began to write poetry early and already in the early 80s of the XIII century. wrote many lyrical poems, almost exclusively of love content. At the age of 18, he experienced a great psychological crisis - love for Beatrice, daughter of the Florentine Folco Portinari, a friend of his father, subsequently

married to a nobleman.

The story of his love for Beatrice Dante outlined in a small book, New Life, which brought him literary fame.

After the death of Beatrice, the poet engaged in an intensive study of theology, philosophy and astronomy, and also learned all the subtleties of medieval scholasticism. Dante became one of the most learned people of his time, but his learning was typically medieval in nature, as it was subject to theological dogmas.

Dante's political activity began very early. Barely reaching adulthood, he takes part in the military enterprises of the Florentine commune and fights on the side of the Guelphs against the Ghibellines.

In the 90s, Dante sat in city councils and carried out diplomatic missions, and in June 1300 he was elected a member of the college of six priors that ruled Florence.

After the split of the Guelph party, he joined the Whites and vigorously fought against the orientation towards the papal curia. After the Blacks were defeated by the Whites, Pope Boniface VIII intervened in their struggle, calling for help from the French prince Charles of Valois, who entered the city in November 1301 and massacred the supporters of the White party, accusing them of all kinds of crimes.

In January 1302, the blow fell on the great poet. Dante was sentenced to a heavy fine on a trumped-up charge of bribery. Fearing the worst, the poet fled from Florence, after which all his property was confiscated. Dante spent all the rest of his life in exile, wandering from city to city, he fully learned “how bitter is the bread of a stranger”, and never again saw Florence dear to his heart - “a beautiful sheepfold where he slept like a lamb”.

Life in exile significantly changed political beliefs

Dante. Full of anger against Florence, he came to the conclusion that her citizens had not yet grown up to defend their interests on their own. More and more, the poet is inclined to believe that only the imperial power can pacify and unite Italy, giving a decisive rebuff to the papal power. He pinned the hope for the implementation of this program on Emperor Henry VII, who appeared in Italy in 1310, allegedly to restore “order” and eliminate the internecine strife of Italian cities, in fact, with the aim of robbing them. But Dante saw in Henry the desired "messiah" and vigorously agitated for him, sending Latin letters in all directions.

messages. However, Henry VII died in 1313 before he could occupy Florence.

Now Dante's last hopes of returning to his homeland have collapsed. Florence crossed his name twice from the amnestied list, because she saw him as an implacable enemy. The offer made to him in 1316 to return to Florence under the condition of humiliating public repentance, Dante resolutely rejected. The poet spent the last years of his life in Ravenna with Prince Guido da Polenta, the nephew of Francesca da Rimini, whom he sang.

Here Dante worked to complete his great poem, written during the years of exile. He hoped that poetic fame would bring him an honorable return to his homeland, but did not live to see it.

Dante died on September 14, 1321 in Ravenna. He remained faithful to the end of his mission as a poet of justice. Subsequently, Florence repeatedly made attempts to regain the ashes of the great exile, but Ravenna always refused her.

Chapter 2. Dante's Divine Comedy

The title of the poem needs clarification. Dante himself called it simply “Comedy”, using this word in a purely medieval sense: in the poetics of that time, any work with a happy beginning and a sad end was called a tragedy, and any work with a sad beginning and a happy, happy end was called a comedy. Thus, the concept of "comedy" in the time of Dante did not include the installation necessarily cause laughter. As for the epithet “divine” in the title of the poem, it does not belong to Dante and was established no earlier than the 16th century, and not with the aim of denoting the religious content of the poem, but solely as an expression of its poetic perfection.

Like other works of Dante, The Divine Comedy is distinguished by an unusually clear, thoughtful composition. The poem is divided into three large parts (“canticles”), dedicated to the image of the three parts of the underworld (according to the teachings of the Catholic Church) - hell, purgatory and paradise. Each of the three canticles consists of 33 songs, and one more song (the first) is added to the first canticle, which has the character of a prologue to the entire poem.

For all the originality of Dante's artistic method, his poem has numerous medieval sources. The plot of the poem reproduces the scheme of the popular in medieval clerical literature genre of "visions" or "walking through the torment", that is, poetic stories about how a person managed to see the secrets of the afterlife.

The task of medieval “visions” was the desire to distract a person from worldly fuss, show him the sinfulness of earthly life and encourage him to turn his thoughts to afterlife. Dante, on the other hand, uses the form of “visions” in order to most fully reflect real, earthly life; he does judgment on human crimes and vices not for the sake of

denial of earthly life as such, but with the aim of correcting it. Dante does not lead a person away from reality, but immerses a person into it.

Depicting hell, Dante showed in it a whole gallery of living people endowed with various passions. He is perhaps the first in Western European literature to make the subject of poetry the image of human passions, and in order to find full-blooded human images, he descends into the afterlife. Unlike medieval “visions”, which gave the most general, schematic representation of sinners, Dante concretizes and individualizes their images.

The afterlife is not opposed to real life, but continues it, reflecting the relationships that exist in it. In Dante's hell, as on earth, political passions rage. Sinners have conversations and disputes with Dante on contemporary political topics. Proud Ghibelline Farinata degli Uberti, punished in hell among heretics, is still full of hatred for the Guelphs and talks about politics with Dante, although he is imprisoned in a fiery grave. In general, the poet retains in the afterlife all the political passion inherent in him and, at the sight of the suffering of his enemies, bursts into abuse against them. The very idea of ​​afterlife retribution acquires political overtones in Dante. It is no coincidence that many of Dante's political enemies reside in hell, and his friends live in paradise.

Fantastic in its overall design, Dante's poem is built entirely from pieces of real life. So, when describing the torment of the covetous, thrown into boiling tar, Dante recalls the marine arsenal in Venice, where ships are caulked in melted tar (“Hell”, canto XXI). At the same time, the demons make sure that sinners do not float up, and push them with hooks into the pitch, as cooks “heat meat with forks in a cauldron.” In other cases, Dante illustrates the described torment of sinners with pictures of nature. So, for example, he compares traitors immersed in an icy lake with frogs, who

from the pond” (Ode XXXII). The punishment of crafty advisers, enclosed in fiery tongues, reminds Dante of a valley filled with fireflies on a quiet evening in Italy (Canto XXVI). The more unusual the objects and phenomena described by Dante, the more he strives to visually present them to the reader, comparing them with well-known things.

So, “Hell” is characterized by a gloomy color, thick sinister colors, among which red and black dominate. They are replaced in “Purgatory” by softer, pale and misty colors - gray-blue, greenish, golden. This is due to the appearance in purgatory of wildlife - the sea, rocks, verdant meadows and trees. Finally, in "Paradise" dazzling brilliance and transparency, radiant colors; paradise is the abode of the purest light, harmonious movement and music of the spheres.

Particularly expressive is one of the most terrible episodes of the poem - the episode with Ugolino, whom the poet meets in the ninth circle of hell, where the greatest (from Dante's point of view) crime - betrayal - is punished. Ugolino furiously gnaws the neck of his enemy, Archbishop Ruggeri, who, having unjustly accused him of treason, locked him with his sons in a tower and starved him to death.

Terrible is Ugolino's story about the torments he experienced in the terrible tower, where before his eyes his four sons died of starvation one after another, and where he, in the end, mad with hunger, attacked their corpses.

Allegorism is of great importance.

So, for example, in the first song of his poem, Dante tells how “in the middle of his life's journey” he got lost in a dense forest and was nearly torn to pieces by three terrible beasts - a lion, a she-wolf and a panther. He is led out of this forest by Virgil, whom Beatrice sent to him. The entire first song of the poem is a continuous allegory. In religious and moral terms, it is interpreted as follows: a dense forest - the earthly existence of a person, full of sinful delusions, three animals - three

the main vices that destroy a person (the lion - pride, the she-wolf - greed, the panther - voluptuousness), Virgil, delivering the poet from them, is earthly wisdom (philosophy, science), Beatrice - heavenly wisdom (theology), which is subject to earthly wisdom (mind - threshold of faith). All sins entail a form of punishment that allegorically depicts the state of mind of people covered by this vice. For example, the voluptuous are condemned to forever spin in a hellish whirlwind, symbolically depicting the whirlwind of their passion. Just as symbolic are the punishments of the angry (they are immersed in a stinking swamp in which they fiercely fight each other), tyrants (they wallow in boiling blood), usurers (heavy purses hang around their necks, bending them to the ground), sorcerers and soothsayers ( their heads are turned back, since during their lifetime they boasted of the imaginary ability to know the future), hypocrites (they are wearing lead robes, gilded on top), traitors and traitors (they are subjected to various tortures with cold, symbolizing their cold heart). Purgatory and paradise are filled with the same moral allegories. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, those sinners who are not condemned to eternal torment and can still be cleansed of their sins are in purgatory. The internal process of this cleansing is symbolized by the seven letters P (the initial letter of the Latin word peccatum, "sin"), inscribed with an angel's sword on the forehead of the poet and denoting the seven deadly sins; these letters are erased one by one as Dante goes through the circles of purgatory. Dante's guide through purgatory is still Virgil, who gives him long instructions about the mysteries of divine justice, about the free will of man, etc. Having climbed with Dante along the ledges of the rocky mountain of purgatory to the earthly paradise, Virgil leaves him, because further ascent to him, as a pagan, inaccessible.

Virgil is replaced by Beatrice, who becomes

Dante's guide through the heavenly paradise, for in order to contemplate the divine reward given to the righteous for their merits, earthly wisdom is no longer sufficient: heavenly, religious wisdom is needed - theology, personified in the image of the poet's beloved. She ascends from one celestial sphere to another, and Dante flies after her, carried away by the power of his love. His love is now cleansed of everything earthly, sinful. It becomes a symbol of virtue and religion, and its ultimate goal is the contemplation of God, who himself is "love that moves the sun and other stars."

In addition to the moral and religious meaning, many images and situations of the Divine Comedy have a political meaning: the dense forest symbolizes the anarchy that reigns in Italy and gives rise to the three above-mentioned vices. Dante carries through his entire poem the idea that earthly life is a preparation for a future eternal life. On the other hand, he reveals a passionate interest in earthly life and reconsiders from this point of view a number of church dogmas and prejudices. So, for example, outwardly identifying with the teaching of the church about the sinfulness of carnal love and placing the voluptuous in the second circle of hell, Dante internally protests against the cruel punishment that befell Francesca da Rimini, who was deceived into marrying Gianciotto Malatesta, ugly and lame, instead of his brother Paolo, whom she loved.

Dante critically revisits the ascetic ideals of the church in other respects as well. Agreeing with the church teaching about the vanity and sinfulness of striving for glory and honors, at the same time, through the mouth of Virgil, he praises the striving for glory. He extols another property of a person, just as severely condemned by the church - the inquisitiveness of the mind, the thirst for knowledge, the desire to go beyond the narrow circle of ordinary things and ideas. A striking illustration of this trend is the wonderful image of Ulysses (Odysseus), who is executed among other evil

advisers. Ulysses tells Dante about his thirst to "explore the world's far horizons." He describes his journey and thus conveys the words with which he encouraged his weary companions:

O brothers, - so I said, - into the sunset

Those who came along the difficult road,

That short period, while they still do not sleep

Earthly feelings, their remnant is meager

Give in to the comprehension of novelty,

To follow the sun to see the deserted world!

Think about whose sons you are

You were not created for animal fate,

But they were born to valor and knowledge.

("Hell," Ode XXVI.)

In the nineteenth canto of Inferno, talking about the punishment of popes who sell church positions, Dante compares them to the harlot of the Apocalypse and angrily exclaims:

Silver and gold are now God for you;

And even those who pray to the idol,

They honor one, - you honor a hundred at once.

But Dante condemned not only the greed and greed of the popes and princes of the church. He threw the same accusation against the greedy bourgeoisie of the Italian communes, in particular he reproached his Florentine compatriots for their thirst for profit, for he considered money to be the main source of evil, the main reason for the decline of morality in Italian society. Through the mouth of his ancestor, the knight of Kachchagvida, a participant in the second crusade, he paints in the XV song of Paradise a wonderful picture of ancient Florence, in which

simplicity of morals prevailed, there was no pursuit of money and the luxury and debauchery generated by it:

Florence within the ancient walls,

Where the clock still strikes terts, nones,

Sober, modest, lived without change.

This idealization of the good old days is not at all an expression of Dante's backwardness. Dante is very far from glorifying the world of feudal anarchy, violence and rudeness. But at the same time, he surprisingly sensitively discerned the basic properties of the emerging bourgeois system and recoiled from it with disgust and hatred. In this, he showed himself to be a deeply popular poet, breaking the narrow boundaries of both the feudal and bourgeois worldview.

CONCLUSION

Accepted by the people for whom it was written, Dante's poem became a kind of barometer of the Italian people's self-consciousness: interest in Dante either increased or fell according to the fluctuations of this self-consciousness. The Divine Comedy enjoyed particular success during the years of the national liberation movement of the 19th century, when Dante began to be praised as an exiled poet, a courageous fighter for the cause of the unification of Italy, who saw art as a powerful weapon in the struggle for a better future for mankind. This attitude towards Dante was also shared by Marx and Engels, who ranked him among the greatest classics of world literature. In the same way, Pushkin referred Dante's poem to the number of masterpieces of world art, in which "a vast plan is embraced by creative thought."

Dante is first and foremost a poet who still touches hearts. For us, the readers who today reveal the Comedy, what matters in Dante's poetry is poetry, not religious, ethical or political ideas. These ideas are long dead. But Dante's images live on.

Of course, if Dante had written only The Monarchy and The Feast, there would not have been a whole branch of science dedicated to his legacy. We carefully read every line of Dante's treatises, especially because they belong to the author of the Divine Comedy.

The study of Dante's worldview is essential not only for the history of Italy, but also for the history of world literature.

Bibliography:

Batkin, L. M. Dante and his time. Poet and politics / L. M. Batkin. - M. : Nauka, 1965. - 197 p.

Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy / Dante Alighieri. - M. : Folio, 2001. - 608 p.

Dante Alighieri. Collected Works: In 2 vols. Vol. 2 / Dante Alighieri. - M. : Literature, Veche, 2001. - 608 p.

Dante, Petrarch / Translation. from Italian, foreword. and comment. E. Solonovich. - M.: Children's literature, 1983. - 207 p., ill.

History of world literature. In 9 vols. T. 3. - M .: Nauka, 1985. - 816 p.

History of foreign literature. Early Middle Ages and Renaissance / ed. Zhirmunsky V. M. - M .: State. study.-teacher. ed. Min. Enlightenment of the RSFSR, 1959. - 560 p.

Encyclopedia of literary heroes. Foreign literature. Antiquity. Middle Ages. In 2 books. Book 2. - M.: Olimp, AST, 1998. - 480 p.

Forming reference, idealized... and timeless. LITERATURE Batkin L. M. Italian Resurrection in search... lays Dante Alighieri(1265 ... Created Dante V his « Divine comedy" great... revived ancient ideal of man, understanding of beauty How ...

Dante Alighieri - the largest Italian poet, literary critic, thinker, theologian, politician, author of the famous "Divine Comedy". There is very little reliable information about the life of this person; their main source is an artistic autobiography written by him, in which only a certain period is described.

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, in 1265, on May 26, in a well-born and wealthy family. It is not known where the future poet studied, but he himself considered the education received insufficient, therefore he devoted a lot of time to independent education, in particular, to the study of foreign languages, the works of ancient poets, among whom he gave special preference to Virgil, considering him his teacher and "leader".

When Dante was only 9 years old, in 1274, an event occurred that became a landmark in his life, including his creative one. At the celebration, his attention was attracted by a peer, a neighbor's daughter - Beatrice Portinari. Ten years later, as a married lady, she became for Dante that beautiful Beatrice, whose image illuminated his whole life and poetry. The book entitled A New Life (1292), in which he spoke in poetic and prose lines about his love for this young woman who died untimely in 1290, is considered the first autobiography in world literature. The book glorified the author, although it was not his first literary experience He started writing back in the 80s.

The death of his beloved woman forced him to go headlong into science, he studied philosophy, astronomy, theology, turned into one of the most educated people of his time, although at the same time the baggage of knowledge did not go beyond the medieval tradition based on theology.

In 1295-1296. Dante Alighieri declared himself and as a public, political figure, participated in the work of the city council. In 1300 he was elected a member of the college of six priors that governed Florence. In 1298 he married Gemma Donati, who was his wife until his death, but this woman always played a modest role in his fate.

Active political activity caused the expulsion of Dante Alighieri from Florence. The split in the Guelph party, in which he was a member, led to the fact that the so-called whites, in whose ranks the poet was, were subjected to repression. A charge of bribery was brought against Dante, after which he was forced, leaving his wife and children, to leave his native city so as not to return to it ever again. It happened in 1302.

Since that time, Dante constantly wandered around the cities, traveled to other countries. So, it is known that in 1308-1309. he visited Paris, where he participated in open debates organized by the university. The name of Alighieri was twice included in the list of persons subject to amnesty, but both times it was deleted from there. In 1316, he was allowed to return to his native Florence, but on the condition that he publicly admits the wrongness of his views and repents, but the proud poet did not do this.

Since 1316, he settled in Ravenna, where he was invited by Guido da Polenta, the ruler of the city. Here, in the company of his sons, the daughter of his beloved Beatrice, admirers, friends, last years poet. It was during the period of exile that Dante wrote a work that glorified him for centuries - "Comedy", to the name of which several centuries later, in 1555, the word "Divine" will be added in the Venetian edition. The beginning of work on the poem dates back to about 1307, and Dante wrote the last of the three parts (“Hell”, “Purgatory” and “Paradise”) shortly before his death.

He dreamed of becoming famous with the help of the Comedy and returning home with honors, but his hopes were not destined to come true. Having fallen ill with malaria, returning from a trip to Venice on a diplomatic mission, the poet died on September 14, 1321. The Divine Comedy was the pinnacle of his literary activity, however, his rich and versatile creative heritage is not exhausted by it alone and includes, in particular, philosophical treatises, journalism, and lyrics.

Dante Alighieri - the largest Italian poet, literary critic, thinker, theologian, politician, author of the famous "Divine Comedy". There is very little reliable information about the life of this person; their main source is an artistic autobiography written by him, in which only a certain period is described.

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, in 1265, on May 26, in a well-born and wealthy family. It is not known where the future poet studied, but he himself considered the education received insufficient, therefore he devoted a lot of time to independent education, in particular, the study of foreign languages, the work of ancient poets, among which he gave special preference to Virgil, considering him his teacher and "leader".

When Dante was only 9 years old, in 1274, an event occurred that became a landmark in his life, including his creative one. At the celebration, his attention was attracted by a peer, a neighbor's daughter - Beatrice Portinari. Ten years later, as a married lady, she became for Dante that beautiful Beatrice, whose image illuminated his whole life and poetry. The book entitled A New Life (1292), in which he spoke in poetic and prose lines about his love for this young woman who died untimely in 1290, is considered the first autobiography in world literature. The book glorified the author, although this was not his first literary experience, he began to write in the 80s.

The death of his beloved woman forced him to go headlong into science, he studied philosophy, astronomy, theology, turned into one of the most educated people of his time, although at the same time the baggage of knowledge did not go beyond the medieval tradition based on theology.

In 1295-1296. Dante Alighieri declared himself and as a public, political figure, participated in the work of the city council. In 1300 he was elected a member of the college of six priors that governed Florence. In 1298 he married Gemma Donati, who was his wife until his death, but this woman always played a modest role in his fate.

Active political activity was the reason for the expulsion of Dante Alighieri from Florence. The split in the Guelph party, in which he was a member, led to the fact that the so-called whites, in whose ranks the poet was, were subjected to repression. A charge of bribery was brought against Dante, after which he was forced, leaving his wife and children, to leave his native city so as not to return to it ever again. It happened in 1302.

Since that time, Dante constantly wandered around the cities, traveled to other countries. So, it is known that in 1308-1309. he visited Paris, where he participated in open debates organized by the university. The name of Alighieri was twice included in the list of persons subject to amnesty, but both times it was deleted from there. In 1316, he was allowed to return to his native Florence, but on the condition that he publicly admits the wrongness of his views and repents, but the proud poet did not do this.

Since 1316, he settled in Ravenna, where he was invited by Guido da Polenta, the ruler of the city. Here, in the company of his sons, the daughter of his beloved Beatrice, admirers, friends, the last years of the poet passed. It was during the period of exile that Dante wrote a work that glorified him for centuries - "Comedy", to the name of which several centuries later, in 1555, the word "Divine" will be added in the Venetian edition. The beginning of work on the poem dates back to about 1307, and Dante wrote the last of the three parts (“Hell”, “Purgatory” and “Paradise”) shortly before his death.

He dreamed of becoming famous with the help of the Comedy and returning home with honors, but his hopes were not destined to come true. Having fallen ill with malaria, returning from a trip to Venice on a diplomatic mission, the poet died on September 14, 1321. The Divine Comedy was the pinnacle of his literary activity, but his rich and versatile creative heritage is not limited to it alone and includes, in particular, philosophical treatises, journalism, and lyrics.

(ratings: 4 , average: 3,75 out of 5)

Name: Dante Alighieri

Date of Birth: 1265

Place of Birth: Florence
Date of death: 1321
A place of death: Ravenna

Biography of Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri is a famous literary critic, theologian and poet. He gained worldwide fame thanks to his narrative work The Divine Comedy. In it, the author tried to show how perishable and short-lived life is, and tried to help readers stop being afraid of death and torment in hell.

Everything that is known today about Dante Alighieri is known from his works. He was born in Italy in the city of Florence, and until his death he was devoted to his homeland.

Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about his family. Alighieri hardly mentioned her in his play The Divine Comedy. His mother's name was Bella and she died very early, and that's all we know about her. The father tied the knot for the second time and had two more children. Around 1283, his father died. He left his family a simple but very comfortable estate in Florence and a small house outside the city. During the same period, Dante married Gemma Donati.

A very important role in the life and development of Alighieri as a person was played by his friend and mentor Brunetto Latini. This man had great knowledge, he constantly quoted famous philosophers and writers. It was he who instilled in Dante a love of beauty and light.

Dante was a self-confident person. At the age of eighteen, he declared that he himself had learned to write poetry and now does it perfectly.

Dante Alighieri often mentioned his talented friend Guido Cavalcanti in his works. Their friendship was very complicated. Dante even had to leave Florence with him, since Guido was in exile. As a result, Cavalcanti becomes infected with malaria and dies in 1300. Dante was overshadowed by this event, and paid tribute to his friend, including him in his works. So, in the poem "New Life" Cavalcanti is mentioned many times.

Also, in this poem, Dante described his brightest and first feelings for a woman - Beatrice. Today, experts believe that this girl was Beatrice Portinari, who died very young, at 25 years old. The love of Dante and Beatrice is comparable to the feelings of Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde.

The death of his beloved made Dante take a different look at life, and he began to study philosophy. He read Cicero a lot, and thought about life and death. Also, the writer constantly visited a religious school in Florence.

In 1295, Dante became a member of the guild at a time when the struggle between the Pope and the emperor began. The city was divided into two fronts: the “blacks” were led by Corso Donati, and the “whites”, in which Alighieri was. It was the “whites” who won the battle and drove out the enemies. As time went on, Dante became more and more against the Pope.

"Blacks" once entered the city and staged a real pogrom. Dante was repeatedly summoned to the city council, but he never showed up there. Therefore, he, and several other "whites", were sentenced in absentia to death penalty. He had to run. As a result, he became disillusioned with politics and returned to writing.

Exactly during Jen, when Dante was away from his native city, he began to work on a work that brought him worldwide fame and success - The Divine Comedy.

Alighieri tried in his work to help those who are afraid of death. At that time, this was very relevant, because the soul of the people of that time was torn by horrors before torment in hell.

Dante did not force one not to think about death, and did not claim that hell does not exist. He sincerely believed in both heaven and hell. He believed that only bright, kind feelings and courage would help to get out of hellish torment without injury.

In The Divine Comedy, Dante tells how he tried to write poetry in order to constantly reproduce the image of his beloved Beatrice through the lines. As a result, he began to understand that Beatrice did not die at all, did not disappear, because she is not subject to death, but on the contrary, she is able to save Dante herself. The girl shows the living Dante all the horrors of hell.

As Dante wrote, hell is not a specific place, but a state of mind that at a certain moment can appear in a person and settle there for a long time exactly when a sin is committed.

In 1308 Henry became king of Germany. Dante again plunged headlong into politics. From 1316 to 1317 he lives in Ravenna. In 1321 he went to conclude peace with the Republic of St. Mark. On the way home, Dante contracted malaria and died in September 1321.

Bibliography of Dante Alighieri

Poems and treatises

• 1292 - New life
• 1304-1306 - On popular eloquence
• 1304-1307 - Feast
• 1310-1313 - Monarchy
• 1916 - Messages
• 1306-1321 —
• This is Love
• The question of water and land
• Eclogues
• Flower

Poems of the Florentine period:

• Sonnets
• Canzone
• Ballads and stanzas

Poems written in exile:

• Sonnets
• Canzone
• Poems about the stone lady

On May 21, 1265, one of the founders of the literary Italian, the greatest poet, theologian, politician, who entered the history of world literature as the author of the Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri.

The Alighieri family belonged to the middle-class urban nobility, and his ancestor was the famous knight Kachchagvid, who died in the second crusade in 1147. Full name the legendary poet Durante degli Alighieri, he was born in Florence, the largest Italian economic and cultural center of the Middle Ages, and remained devoted to his hometown all his life. Little is known about the writer's family and life, even the exact date of his birth is questioned by many researchers.

Dante Alighieri was an amazingly confident man. At the age of 18, the young man said that he could write poetry perfectly and that he had mastered this “craft” on his own. Dante was educated within the medieval school programs, and since there was no university in Florence at that time, he had to acquire basic knowledge himself. The author of The Divine Comedy mastered French and Provençal, read everything that came to hand, and little by little his own path as a scientist, thinker and poet began to be drawn before him.

exiled poet

The youth of the brilliant writer fell on a difficult period: at the end of the 13th century, the struggle between the emperor and the pope intensified in Italy. Florence, where the Alighieri lived, was divided into two opposing groups - "blacks" led by Corso Donati and the "whites" to which Dante belonged. Thus began the political activity last poet Middle Ages ”: Alighieri participated in city councils and anti-papal coalitions, where the writer’s oratorical gift was manifested in all its splendor.

Dante was not looking for political laurels, but political thorns soon overtook him: the “blacks” activated their activities and pogromed opponents. On March 10, 1302, Alighieri and 14 other "white" supporters were sentenced to death in absentia. To escape, the philosopher and politician had to flee from Florence. Never again did Dante manage to return to his beloved city. Traveling around the world, he was looking for a place where he could retire and work quietly. Alighieri continued to study and, most importantly, create.

monogamous poet

When Dante was nine years old, a meeting took place in his life that changed the history of all Italian literature. On the threshold of the church, he ran into a little girl next door Beatrice Portinari and fell in love with the young lady at first sight. It was this tender feeling, according to Alighieri himself, that made him a poet. Before last days Dante devoted his life to his beloved poetry, idolizing "the most beautiful of all angels." Their next meeting took place nine years later, by this time Beatrice was already married, her husband was a rich signor Simon de Bardi. But no bonds of marriage could prevent the poet from admiring his muse, she remained "the mistress of his thoughts" all his life. The poetic document of this love was the writer's autobiographical confession " New life”, written at the fresh grave of his beloved in 1290.

Dante himself entered into one of those politically calculated business marriages that were accepted at that time. His wife was Gemma Donati, daughter of a wealthy gentleman Manetto Donati. When Dante Alighieri was expelled from Florence, Gemma remained in the city with the children, preserving the remnants of her father's property. Alighieri does not mention his wife in any of his works, but Dante and Beatrice have become the same symbol of a love couple as petrarch And Laura, Tristan And Isolde, Romeo And Juliet.

Dante and Beatrice on the banks of the Lethe. Cristobal Rojas (Venezuela), 1889. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Italian "Comedy"

The death of Beatrice marked the beginning of Dante's philosophical reflections on life and death, he began to read a lot Cicero attend a religious school. All this served as an impetus for the creation of the Divine Comedy. work of genius, created by the author in exile, and today is traditionally one of the ten most famous books. Dante's poem had a huge impact on the emergence of proper Italian literature. According to researchers, it is this work that summarizes the entire development of medieval philosophy. It also reflects the worldview the greatest poet, That's why " Divine Comedy” is called the fruit of the whole life and work of the Italian master.

The "divine" comedy of Alighieri did not immediately become, as the author of the "Decameron" later dubbed it Giovanni Boccaccio, having come in admiration from what he read. Dante called his manuscript very simply - "Comedy". He used medieval terminology, where comedy is “any poetic work of the middle style with a frightening beginning and a happy ending, written in the vernacular”; Tragedy is “any poetic work of high style with an admiring and calm beginning and a terrible end.” Despite the fact that the poem touches on the "eternal" themes of life and immortality of the soul, retribution and responsibility, Dante could not call his work a tragedy, because it, like all genres of "high literature", had to be created on Latin. Alighieri wrote his Comedy in his native Italian, and even with the Tuscan dialect.

Dante worked on the greatest poem for almost 15 years, having managed to complete it shortly before his death. Alighieri died of malaria on September 14, 1321, leaving behind a significant mark in world literature and marking the beginning of a new era - the early Renaissance.