Dante Alighieri is an Italian poet and writer, theologian, and political activist. His contribution to the development of not only Italian, but also world literature is invaluable. He is the author of The Divine Comedy and the creator of the nine circles of hell, heaven and purgatory.

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.

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.

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.

Literature

It is not known for certain when Dante became interested in writing, but the creation of the work “New Life” dates back to 1292. It did not include all the poems written by that time. The book alternated poetry and fragments of prose. This is a kind of confession written by Dante after the death of Beatrice. Also in “New Life” many poems were dedicated to his friend Guido Cavalcanti, by the way, also a poet. Later scholars called this book the first autobiography in the history of literature.

Like his grandfather, Dante became interested in politics at a young age. At the end of the 13th century, Florence was involved in a conflict between the Emperor and the Pope. Alighieri took the side of opponents of papal power. At first, luck “smiled” on the poet, and soon his party managed to rise above the enemy. In 1300 he was elected to the post of prior.

However, a year later the political situation changed dramatically - power passed into the hands of the Pope’s supporters. He was expelled from Florence on a fictitious bribery case. He was also accused of anti-state activities. Dante was fined 5,000 florins, his property was seized, and later a death sentence was imposed. At this time he was outside of Florence, so, having learned about this, he decided not to return to the city. So he began to live in exile.

For the rest of his life, Dante wandered around cities and countries, finding shelter in Verona, Bologna, Ravenna, and even lived in Paris. All subsequent works after “New Life” were written in exile.

In 1304, he began writing the philosophical books “The Feast” and “On Popular Eloquence.” Unfortunately, both works remained unfinished. This is due to the fact that Dante began work on his main work, The Divine Comedy.

It is noteworthy that the poet initially called his work simply “Comedy.” The word “divine” was added to the title by Giovanni Boccaccio, Alighieri’s first biographer.

It took him 15 years to write this work. Dante personified himself with the main lyrical hero. The poem is based on his journey through the afterlife, which he embarks on after the death of his beloved Beatrice.

The work consists of three parts. The first is “Hell,” consisting of nine circles, where sinners are ranked according to the severity of their fall. Dante placed political and personal enemies here. Also in “Hell” the poet left those who, as he believed, lived unchristianly and immorally.

He described “Purgatory” with seven circles that correspond to the seven deadly sins. “Paradise” is performed in nine circles, which are named after the main planets of the solar system.

This work is still shrouded in legends. For example, Boccaccio claimed that after his death, Dante's children could not find the last 13 songs of Paradise. And they discovered them only after the father himself came to his son Jacopo in a dream and told him where they were hidden.

Personal life

Dante's main muse was Beatrice Portinari. He first saw her when he was only 9 years old. Of course, at such a young age he did not realize his feelings. He met the girl only nine years later, when she had already married another man. Only then did he realize how much he loved her. Beatrice was the poet's only love for the rest of his life.

He was such a shy and self-conscious young man that during the entire time he only spoke to his lover twice. And the girl didn’t even suspect his feelings for her. On the contrary, Dante seemed arrogant to her for not talking to her.

In 1290, Beatrice died. She was only 24 years old. The exact cause of her death is unknown. According to one version, she died during childbirth, according to another, she became a victim of a plague epidemic. For Dante this was a blow. Until the end of his days, he loved only her and cherished her image.

A couple of years later he married Gemma Donati. She was the daughter of the leader of the Florentine party, Donati, with whom the Alighieri family was at enmity. Of course, it was a marriage of convenience, and most likely political. True, the couple later had three children - sons Pietro and Jacopo and daughter Antonia.

Despite this, when Dante began to create the Comedy, he thought only about Beatrice, and it was written in glorification of this girl.

Death

The last years of his life, Dante lived in Ravenna under the patronage of Guido da Polenta, he was his ambassador. One day he went to Venice to conclude a peace treaty with the Republic of St. Mark. On the way back, the poet fell ill. Dante died on the night of September 13-14, 1321. The cause of his death was malaria.

Dante Alighieri was buried in the Church of San Francesco in Ravenna, on the territory of the monastery. In 1329, the cardinal demanded that the monks commit the poet's body to public burning. How the monks were able to “extricate themselves” from this situation is unknown, but no one touched the poet’s remains.

For the 600th anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri, it was decided to restore the church. In 1865, builders discovered a wooden box in the wall with an inscription carved on it: “Dante’s bones were placed here by Antonio Santi in 1677.” This discovery became an international sensation. No one knew who this Antonio was, but some suggested that he might well be a relative of the artist.

Dante's remains were transferred to the poet's mausoleum in Ravenna, where they remain to this day.

Bibliography

• 1292 – “New Life”
• 1300 – “Monarchy”
• 1305 – “On popular eloquence”
• 1307 – “Feast”
• 1320 – “Eclogues”
• 1321 – “The Divine Comedy”

The name of the famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri has worldwide fame. Quotes from his works can be heard in a variety of languages, since almost the whole world is familiar with his creations. They have been read by many, translated into different languages, and studied in different parts of the world. In a large number of European countries there are societies that systematically collect, research and disseminate information about his heritage. The anniversaries of Dante's life are among the major cultural events in the life of mankind.

Step into immortality

At the time when the great poet was born, great changes awaited humanity. This was on the eve of a grandiose historical revolution that radically changed the face of European society. The medieval world, feudal oppression, anarchy and disunity were becoming a thing of the past. The emergence of commodity producers took place. The times of power and prosperity of national states were coming.

Therefore, Dante Alighieri (whose poems have been translated into different languages ​​of the world) is not only the last poet of the Middle Ages, but also the first writer of the Modern Age. He tops the list consisting of the names of the titans of the Renaissance. He was the first to begin the fight against violence, cruelty, and obscurantism of the medieval world. He was also among those who were the first to raise the banner of humanism. This was his step into immortality.

The poet's youth

Dante Alighieri, his biography is very closely related to the events that characterized the social and political life of Italy at that time. He was born into a family of native Florentines in May 1265. They represented a poor and not very noble feudal family.

His father worked as a lawyer in a Florentine banking firm. He died very early, during the youth of his later famous son.

The fact that political passions were in full swing in the country, that bloody battles were constantly taking place within the walls of his native city, that Florentine victories were followed by defeats, could not escape the attention of the young poet. He was an observer of the disintegration of Ghibelline power, the privileges of the grandees and the consolidation of Pollanian Florence.

Dante's education took place within the walls of an ordinary medieval school. The young man grew up extremely inquisitive, so his meager, limited school education was not enough for him. He constantly expanded his knowledge on his own. Very early, the boy began to be interested in literature and art, paying special attention to painting, music and poetry.

The beginning of the poet's literary life

But Dante’s literary life begins at a time when the juices of the civil world greedily drank from literature, art, and crafts. Everything that previously could not fully declare its existence burst out. In those forms of art began to appear like mushrooms in a field of rain.

For the first time, Dante tried himself as a poet during his stay in the “new style” circle. But even in those fairly early poems, one cannot help but notice the presence of a violent surge of feelings that shattered the images of this style.

In 1293, the poet’s first book, entitled “New Life,” was published. This collection contained thirty poems, the writing of which dates back to 1281-1292. They had an extensive prose commentary, characterized by an autobiographical and philosophical-aesthetic character.

In the poems of this collection, the poet’s love story was told for the first time. She became the object of his adoration back in the days when the boy was barely 9 years old. This love was destined to last his entire life. Very rarely it found its manifestation in the form of rare chance meetings, fleeting glances of the beloved, in her cursory bows. And after 1290, when death took Beatrice, the poet’s love becomes his personal tragedy.

Active political activity

Thanks to “New Life”, the name of Dante Alighieri, whose biography is equally interesting and tragic, becomes famous. In addition to being a talented poet, he was an outstanding scholar, one of the most educated people in Italy. The breadth of his interests was unusually large for that time. He studied history, philosophy, rhetoric, theology, astronomy, and geography. He also paid special attention to the system of Eastern philosophy, the teachings of Avicenna and Averroes. The great ancient poets and thinkers - Plato, Seneca, Virgil, Ovid, Juvenal - could not escape his attention. Renaissance humanists will pay special attention to their creations.

Dante was constantly nominated by the Florentine commune for honorary positions. He performed very responsible In 1300, Dante Alighieri was elected to a commission consisting of six priors. Its representatives ruled the city.

Beginning of the End

But at the same time, there is a new escalation of civil strife. Then the Guelph camp itself became the center of the height of hostility. It split into “white” and “black” factions, which were very much at odds with each other.

The mask of Dante Alighieri among the Guelphs was white. In 1301, with the support of the pope, the “black” Guelphs seized power over Florence and began to mercilessly deal with their opponents. They were sent into exile and executed. Only Dante's absence in the city saved him from reprisals. He was sentenced to death in absentia. He was expected to be burned immediately after arriving on Florentine soil.

Period of exile from homeland

At that time, a tragic breakdown occurred in the poet’s life. Left without a homeland, he is forced to wander around other cities in Italy. For some time he was even outside the country, in Paris. They were glad to see him in many palazzos, but he did not linger anywhere. He experienced great pain from defeat, and also greatly missed Florence, and the hospitality of the princes seemed humiliating and insulting to him.

During the period of exile from Florence, the spiritual maturation of Dante Alighieri took place, whose biography even before that time was very rich. During his wanderings, hostility and confusion were always before his eyes. Not only his homeland, but the whole country was perceived by him as “a nest of untruth and anxiety.” It was surrounded on all sides by endless strife between city-republics, cruel strife between principalities, intrigues, foreign troops, trampled gardens, ruined vineyards, exhausted, despairing people.

A wave of popular protests began in the country. The emergence of new ideas and the people's struggle provoked the awakening of Dante's thoughts, calling him to search for all sorts of ways out of the current situation.

The maturation of a dazzling genius

During the period of wanderings, hardships, and mournful thoughts about the fate of Italy, Dante's genius matured. At that time, he acted as a poet, activist, publicist and research scientist. At the same time, Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy, which brought him immortal world fame.

The idea of ​​writing this work appeared much earlier. But in order to create it, you need to live a whole human life, filled with torment, struggle, sleepless, sizzling labor.

In addition to the Comedy, other works by Dante Alighieri (sonnets, poems) are also published. In particular, the treatise “The Feast” refers to the first years of emigration. It touches not only on theology, but also on philosophy, morality, astronomy, and natural philosophy. In addition, “The Feast” was written in the national Italian language, which was very unusual at that time. After all, then almost all the works of scientists were published in Latin.

In parallel with the work on the treatise, in 1306 he saw the world and a linguistic work entitled “On Popular Eloquence.” This is the first European scientific study of Romance linguistics.

Both of these works remained unfinished, as new events directed Dante’s thoughts in a slightly different direction.

Unfulfilled dreams of returning home

Dante Alighieri, whose biography is known to many contemporaries, constantly thought about returning. For days, months and years, he tirelessly and persistently dreamed about it. This was especially evident during the work on “Comedy”, when creating its immortal images. He forged Florentine speech and raised it to the national political level. He firmly believed that it was with the help of his brilliant poetic creation that he would be able to return to his hometown. His expectations, hopes and thoughts of return gave him the strength to complete this titanic feat.

But he was not destined to return. He finished writing his poem in Ravenna, where the city authorities granted him asylum. In the summer of 1321, Dante Alighieri’s work “The Divine Comedy” was completed, and on September 14 of the same year the city buried the genius.

Death from believing in a dream

Until the end of his life, the poet firmly believed in peace in his native land. He lived by this mission. For her sake, he went to Venice, which was preparing a military attack on Ravenna. Dante really wanted to convince the leaders of the Adriatic Republic that they should abandon the war.

But this trip not only did not bring the desired results, but also became fatal for the poet. On his way back there was a swampy lagoon area where the scourge of such places “lived” - malaria. It was she who caused the collapse of the poet’s strength within a few days, strained by very hard work. Thus ended the life of Dante Alighieri.

And only after several decades did Florence realize who she had lost in the person of Dante. The government wanted to take the poet's remains from the territory of Ravenna. His ashes to this day remain far from his homeland, which rejected and condemned him, but for which he remains the most devoted son.

The name of the brilliant Italian poet Dante Alighieri is shrouded in a haze of mysticism and mystery. His “Divine Comedy” is the pinnacle of world literature. However, there are so many fatal events in the poet’s fate that his name has more than once been associated with unique historical sensations. The poem itself about hell and heaven is not for the faint of heart, and Dante’s mysteries are for readers with a strong nervous system.

The life of the greatest poet was tragic. Although his creations were recognized as great, they were not accepted by the authorities and the church. Even before the creation of The Divine Comedy, he was sentenced to expulsion from Florence for participating in anti-state activities (Dante at that time was a member of the Council of One Hundred, the city’s governing body, but supported the party of exiles), then in absentia he was generally burned alive. In 1311, just four years after writing “Hell,” he was “forever denied amnesty,” and in 1315, a year before work on “Paradise” began, the sentence “On the death penalty with his sons” was repeated to him. . In a word, the life of him and his family was full of threats and wanderings around Italy.

Ordinary Italians revered and feared him, believing that Dante knew evil spirits. How else would he have created his immortal “Divine Comedy” if, supported by spirits, he himself had not looked into both heaven and hell? It must be said that the poet himself maintained his mystical reputation. This is how another great Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio describes his meeting with Dante: “When Dante’s works were already famous everywhere, especially that part of his comedy, which he entitled “Inferno,” and many men and women knew the poet by his appearance, he was walking down the street one day... and one of the women said, lowering her voice: “Look, there comes a man who descends into hell and returns from there whenever he pleases, bringing news about those who languish there!” To which the other ingenuously replied: “You speak the true truth, look how his beard is curly and his face has darkened from hellish flames and smoke!” Dante smiled, pleased with this opinion of himself, and walked past.”

On September 13 (according to other sources, 14), 1321, Dante ended his mournful journey in Ravenna. It is believed that he died of malaria. His patron, the Duke of Ravenna, buried the poet in the Church of San Francesco on the territory of the monastery. Traditional historiography describes that “the funeral was solemn,” “with great honors.” However, even after his death, the papal throne did not leave the poet alone. Already in 1329, the papal legate, Cardinal Bernardo del Poggetto, arrived in Ravenna and demanded that the monks commit the body of the apostate Dante to public burning, which was almost a sin by the standards of that time. The cardinal explained such an unusual demand by the fact that documents had been found accusing the heretic of secret connections with the damned Order of the Templars.

How the monks and the Duke of Ravenna managed to hush up the accusation is unknown. Most likely, the Duke simply paid off the papal claims. But the monks took their own measures...

Almost two centuries passed, and Florence, which had once expelled Dante, finally recognized the genius of the poet. The great sculptor Michelangelo himself obtained from Pope Leo X the opportunity to solemnly transfer Dante’s remains to his hometown. However, when the coffin arrived from Ravenna to Florence, it turned out that it was... empty. Apparently, two centuries ago, prudent Franciscan monks took the poet’s ashes away from the wrath of the then pope and secretly buried him, presumably in the monastery of their order in Siena. However, when an envoy from Florence arrived to the Franciscans of Siena in 1519, he found nothing there either. In a word, Dante’s Florentine reburial had to be postponed. Pope Leo X was given two versions of what happened: the remains were stolen by unknown people or... Dante himself appeared and took his ashes. Incredibly, the enlightened dad chose the second version! Apparently, he also believed in the mystical nature of the poet Dante.

Centuries passed, and to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the birth of the brilliant poet, it was decided to restore the Church of San Francesco in Ravenna. In the spring of 1865, builders broke through one of the walls and found a wooden box with a carved inscription: “Dante’s bones were placed here by Antonio Santi in 1677.” Who this Antonio was, whether he was related to the family of the painter Raphael (after all, he was also Santi, although he died back in 1520), is unknown, but the find became an international sensation. Dante's remains, in the presence of representatives from different countries, were transferred to Dante's mausoleum in Ravenna, where they still rest.

But if you think it's not time for sensation number two, then you're wrong. True, we had to wait a long time - another century and a half. In 1999, it was decided to carry out a small reconstruction at the National Library of Florence. Workers, moving the shelves, found among the rare books that had fallen to the floor an envelope with... Dante's ashes. Yes, yes, in an envelope measuring 11.5 by 7 centimeters there were ashes and paper in a black frame with the seals of Ravenna confirming: “These are the ashes of Dante Alighieri.” The head of the Italian Society of Dante, Francesco Mazzoni, who was immediately summoned (it is interesting that everyone close to the poet turns out to be a kind of “Franciscans”), was horrified. However, when the mystical awe passed, he tried to think logically: if there is an uncremated body, then where do the ashes come from?! And where did the envelope in the library even come from?! By the way, the workers, superstitiously crossing themselves, swore that they had already sorted through this rack and there was no envelope there. Versions have already spread across the pages of the world's newspapers that the mystical Dante himself planted the envelope in order to joke or scare - here the versions diverged.

Dr. Francesco Mazzoni, of course, knew about Dante’s mystical glory, but still undertook his own investigation. And this is what he found out. In 1865, on the poet’s 600th birthday, the coffin with the discovered remains was put on public display. He stood on the carpet. After the ceremony, the sculptor Enrique Pazzi carefully rolled up the carpet, thinking that there might be particles of ashes left on it and it would be inappropriate to throw them at random. So they burned the carpet. The ashes were sealed in six envelopes. And the venerable notary Saturnino Malagola stamped each one and inscribed without hesitation: “These are the ashes of Dante Alighieri.” And what is also characteristic: after the ceremony, the envelopes were sent from Ravenna to Florence - after all, Dante was from there.

After Dr. Mazzoni's investigation, the Italians remembered that several years ago an envelope with the same inscription was found in the building of the Florentine Senate. True, then it was considered someone’s stupid joke. So now the only thing left to do is find the remaining envelopes. And no mysticism.

However, so no?.. For some reason, Pope Leo X was sure that Dante could come from the other world? Where does he get the basis for such a stunning statement?

It turns out that back in 1322, eight months after his death, the poet did something similar. Then his family grieved greatly, because their breadwinner died suddenly, not having time to send the publisher the ending of the “Divine Comedy” - 35 songs from “Paradise”, for which the publisher promised to pay the family a fee. The sons zealously searched for the manuscript, because they knew that their father had finished it. But he lived in exile and in constant fear of arrest. Therefore, it is not surprising that he hid the manuscript in a safe hiding place.

What happened next is one of the most mysterious stories in the art world. This is what Dante’s eldest son, Jacopo Alighieri, wrote: “Exactly eight months after his father’s death, at the end of the night, he himself appeared to me in snow-white robes... Then I asked... where are the songs hidden that we have been searching in vain for so long? And he... took me by the hand, led me into the upper room and pointed to the wall: “Here you will find what you are looking for!”

Waking up, Jacopo rushed to the wall, threw back the mat and discovered a secret niche where the manuscript lay. It turns out that the great Dante was still able to come from the heavenly world to ours. But if he did this once, then why shouldn’t he come here again? Maybe that’s why Pope Leo X made such a statement at one time?..

During my first visit to Ravenna, the guide Giacomo, who speaks Russian, by the way, better than many Russians, called Dante Alighieri “the Italian Pushkin.”

There is salt in his words, the fact is that it was largely thanks to the author of the “Divine Comedy” that Italian became a full-fledged language, and not a set of dialects, because none other than Dante back in 1306 created the scientific work “On Popular Eloquence” , which became the first full-fledged study of Romance languages ​​in Europe.

Henry Holiday, painting "Dante and Beatrice"

And although, of course, modern Italian schoolchildren studying Dante’s journey through the circles of Hell and the stages of Purgatory in the company of his faithful guide Virgil cannot read The Divine Comedy without explanatory footnotes, Dante’s literary authority in Italy is not subject to discussion. Unlike the same Nevzorov, who publicly declares that all the classics of Russian literature are useless, because they are godlessly outdated, Italians treat Dante’s works with the most sincere respect. Today’s review includes the main Dantean places in Italy.

FLORENCE: DANTE'S HOUSE AND THE CHURCH OF SAINT MARGARETA DE CERCHI

Finding Dante's house in Florence is as easy as shelling pears; signs with the words Casa di Dante are found in every second alley nearby.

Unfortunately, exclaiming: “I see the house where Lenin Dante grew up” would not be entirely correct. The fact is that in this place there really used to be a house belonging to the Alighieri family, where in June 1265 the future creator of the Divine Comedy was born, but time does not spare anything (even the houses of the great Italian poets), so from The original Casa di Dante is no longer left unturned today.

The modern building of the house was erected only in the first decade of the twentieth century, but both inside and out it seems to be a faithful embodiment of the architecture of the late Middle Ages.

The exhibition inside is quite modest: there is a room “like Dante’s”, there are clothes in the style of Dante (of course unoriginal), there is a corner with minzurks, flasks and other tools of alchemists - Alighieri was fond of this noble science.

In the photo: alchemist's tools in Dante's house-museum

There are also interesting illustrations in the house demonstrating how Dante’s contemporaries imagined heaven, purgatory and hell; looking at them is an extremely entertaining activity. Much becomes immediately clear.

In the photo: diagram of the structure of hell in Dante's house-museum

In the photo: the torment of sinners in hell, a painting in Dante's house-museum

The Church of Santa Margherita dei Cerchi, where Dante married his wife Gemma Donati, is another must-see place of pilgrimage for all lovers of the Italian Renaissance. True, the church itself was built long before the Renaissance, in 1032, that is, in the midst of the dark Middle Ages.

In the photo: Church of St. Margaret dei Cerchi

Fans of Dante do not like to remember that the Italian poet married his unloved wife within its stone walls, and for some reason they naively believe that in this church Dante first met the love of his life, Beatrice Portinari. This, by the way, is completely untrue; according to Dante himself, he first saw his Beautiful Lady at the age of nine at a family holiday in her father’s house.

In the photo: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, painting “The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice at the Wedding Feast”

But Beatrice’s marriage to her husband actually took place in the Church of St. Margaret, and Dante’s beloved found eternal peace under the stone arches of this ancient Florentine church: Beatrice died at a very young age even by the standards of the Renaissance, she was only 24 years old. For many years now there has been a tradition - girls and boys leave notes with their most secret requests on the tombstone of Beatrice Portinari.

In the photo: Beatrice's tombstone with notes

An evil mockery of fate, but Dante’s legal wife, Gemma Donati, is also buried in Santa Margherita dei Cerchi, although the location of her grave has not been established by historians.

In the photo: the interior decoration of the Church of St. Margaret is very modest

The church also often hosts exhibitions of children's drawings dedicated to the life of Dante. It is worth noting that sometimes the plots of the creative works of the younger generation are downright phantasmagorical, so in 2011 in the Church of St. Margaret I saw a children’s picture on the theme “Dante and Pinocchio.”

In the photo: an exhibition of children's drawings in the church, in the paintings Dante sometimes even meets Pinocchio

After Florence was captured by the troops of Charles Valois, and power in the republic completely passed into the hands of Dante’s political opponents, the “Black Guelphs,” Alighieri, along with other moderate representatives of the “White Guelph” party, was expelled from his hometown in 1302. He never returned to Florence again.

VERONA. SIGNORIA SQUARE AND PODESTA PALACE

During the years of exile, Dante managed to live in Bolonia, Luniggiana, Casentino, and even spent a year in Paris, but the creator of the Divine Comedy stayed longest in Verona, where he found shelter with the Podesta of the city, Cana Grande I della Scala, the most powerful representative of the Scaliger family.

Can Grande I della Scala was an enlightened ruler; during his rule of Verona, many rejected artists and poets found shelter here, so Dante found himself, in modern terms, in his element, and it was not for nothing that Dante dedicated the third part of the Divine Comedy to Can Grande della Rock.

In the photo: Scaliger Castle in Verona

The Florentine exile lived in the Podesta Palace, that is, in the same palazzo as the representatives of the ruling Scaliger dynasty. Today, in the center of Piazza della Signoria, opposite the Podestà Palace, there is a monument to Dante; the creator of the Divine Comedy sadly looks from a high pedestal at the tourists posing in front of him.

In the photo: Dante's monument in Verona in front of the Podesta Palace

Another Dantean place in Verona is the famous Arena di Verona. The fact is that during the Renaissance, opera divas did not perform on its stage (as today), the Scaligers used the Colosseum to carry out mass executions, often to burn heretics.

Dante was also present at one of the public executions; he described his impressions of visiting this “event” in The Divine Comedy.

RAVENNA. DANTE'S LAST REFERRAL

Dante finished the “Divine Comedy” in Ravenna, an Italian town in the province of Emilia-Romagna, where the lord of the city, Guido da Polenta, gave refuge to the poet.

They say that in recent years his children came to see Dante, but Dante never invited his wife Gemma to Ravenna. The Divine Comedy was completed in the summer of 1321, and on September 14 of the same year the greatest Italian poet passed away.

Until the end of his days, Dante could not completely ignore politics and in the fall of 1321 he went to Venice in order to convince the powerful Venetians not to attack Ravenna. Alas, he did not succeed, and on the way back Alighieri fell ill with malaria, which killed the poet in a few days. In Ravenna, Dante was buried with great honors; the city's podestà, Guido da Polenta, who was a friend of the poet, personally laid a laurel wreath on the deceased's brow.

Dante's tomb, which today is visited by all guests of Ravenna, was erected on the poet's burial site only in 1486, that is, more than a hundred years after the death of Alighieri.

Several decades after the poet's death, the rulers of Florence suddenly realized who they had lost, and began to ask Ravenna to give them Dante's ashes. Ravenna invariably refused all requests, however, in memory of Dante’s hometown, a lamp with Florentine oil burns day and night in the poet’s tomb.

In the photo: Florence - Dante's hometown

Once a year in September, in the month called “Dante’s month,” oil for the funeral lamp is brought to Ravenna from the poet’s beloved Florence, a city where he was never destined to return.

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Yulia Malkova- Yulia Malkova - founder of the website project. In the past, he was the editor-in-chief of the elle.ru Internet project and the editor-in-chief of the cosmo.ru website. I talk about travel for my own pleasure and the pleasure of my readers. If you are a representative of hotels or a tourism office, but we do not know each other, you can contact me by email: [email protected]

On the wall of one of the Florentine palaces there are frescoes painted by the great artist Raphael. On one of them he depicted a man with a sad face, tightly compressed lips and an inquisitive gaze directed into the distance. This is the portrait of Dante Alighieri, who is called the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of the Renaissance.

The poet was born and spent his childhood and youth in Florence. Then it was one of the largest and most developed cities in Italy. But life in Florence was never calm. It was determined by the struggle between two parties - the Ghibellines, who united large feudal lords, and the Guelphs, who expressed the interests of the bourgeoisie.

Dante's aristocratic family sided with the Guelphs. As a boy, he heard stories about the struggle between two opposing factions for power in the city. But at the time when the future great poet was growing up, the situation in Florence was more or less calm. True, this calm did not last long.

Due to circumstances, Dante had to take part in political life early. When a split occurred in the ruling party, Dante was elected to the city government. By this time he was already a famous poet, since his first poems appeared when the author had just turned twenty years old. They were dedicated to a young woman named Beatrice, the same age as Dante and his childhood playmate, who eventually became his only lover.

It was to Beatrice that the poet dedicated his first book, “New Life,” in which sonnets and love songs - canzones - are combined into a coherent narrative about bright youthful love. Thanks to this book, Alighieri Dante became one of the leading artists of the time.

But Dante's love remained unrequited. Beatrice died very young. Her death shocked the poet, and, experiencing the loss, he plunges headlong into political life. Only a long time later, Dante got married and had his own family. G. Boccaccio reports that the poet had seven children - six sons and a daughter.

In 1295, Dante renounced the nobility and was assigned to the guild of apothecaries. In 1300 he was elected prior, i.e. one of the rulers of Florence, after which Dante led the defense of the city from fans of the Pope.

Unfortunately, the pope's supporters won, so Dante had to quickly leave for Rome, where he decided to move. But there he was quickly found and sentenced to be burned at the stake for treason against power. Dante managed to escape abroad, where he traveled through European countries. And, as the author of the first biography of Dante, Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, reports, the poet even visited Paris.

At this time, Dante writes the philosophical work “The Feast”, in which he discusses the hard life of an exile, wealth and nobility, honor and valor.

After an unsuccessful attempt to return to Florence with the help of the German Emperor Henry VII, Dante settled in Ravenna, where he spent the last few years of his life.

It was there that Dante created his main work, which he called a comedy, since he set himself the goal of showing in a symbolic form the path of a person, ending with the union of the hero and his beloved. With the light hand of Giovanni Boccaccio, it began to be called the “Divine Comedy”.

The hero of the poem is Dante himself, who, together with the Roman poet Virgil, first descends into hell, a deep underground funnel, then climbs the mountain of purgatory, where he meets his beloved Beatrice and, finally, ascends to heaven.

Although the poet used the traditional method of “wandering” and “walking” for his time, he turned it into an interesting story about his contemporary life, about the people with whom he met and argued. In addition, Dante included in his poem a number of stories about the most famous heroes of the past - the ancient Greek giants, the cunning Odysseus.

Dante described the other world so vividly, as if he himself had actually been to hell. The poet's humanistic ideas had a huge influence not only on his contemporaries, but also on many subsequent generations. Unlike many other writers and poets of his time, Dante wrote not in Latin, but in Italian - the language of his people. That is why his poem, which was written in a rather rare meter - terzas (stanzas of three lines), immediately gained nationwide popularity.