Dante, Tr. Into Engl. Verse, with Engr. After Flaxman

by Dante Alighieri

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Genres: Classics, Poetry, Spirituality

564 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 1947

About the author

Dante Alighieri, or simply Dante (May 14/June 13 1265 – September 13/14, 1321), is one of the greatest poets in the Italian language; with the comic story-teller, Boccaccio, and the poet, Petrarch, he forms the classic trio of Italian authors. Dante Alighieri was born in the city-state Florence in 1265. He first saw the woman, or rather the child, who was to become the poetic love of his life when he was almost nine years old and she was some months younger. In fact, Beatrice married another man, Simone di' Bardi, and died when Dante was 25, so their relationship existed almost entirely in Dante's imagination, but she nonetheless plays an extremely important role in his poetry. Dante attributed all the heavenly virtues to her soul and imagined, in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, that she was his guardian angel who alternately berated and encouraged him on his search for salvation.

Politics as well as love deeply influenced Dante's literary and emotional life. Renaissance Florence was a thriving, but not a peaceful city: different opposing factions continually struggled for dominance there. The Guelfs and the Ghibellines were the two major factions, and in fact that division was important in all of Italy and other countries as well. The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor were political rivals for much of this time period, and in general the Guelfs were in favor of the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported Imperial power. By 1289 in the battle of Campaldino the Ghibellines largely disappeared from Florence. Peace, however, did not insue. Instead, the Guelf party divided between the Whites and the Blacks (Dante was a White Guelf). The Whites were more opposed to Papal power than the Blacks, and tended to favor the emperor, so in fact the preoccupations of the White Guelfs were much like those of the defeated Ghibellines. In this divisive atmosphere Dante rose to a position of leadership. in 1302, while he was in Rome on a diplomatic mission to the Pope, the Blacks in Florence seized power with the help of the French (and pro-Pope) Charles of Valois. The Blacks exiled Dante, confiscating his goods and condemning him to be burned if he should return to Florence.

Dante never returned to Florence. He wandered from city to city, depending on noble patrons there. Between 1302 and 1304 some attempts were made by the exiled Whites to retrieve their position in Florence, but none of these succeeded and Dante contented himself with hoping for the appearance of a new powerful Holy Roman Emperor who would unite the country and banish strife. Henry VII was elected Emperor in 1308, and indeed laid seige to Florence in 1312, but was defeated, and he died a year later, destroying Dante's hopes. Dante passed from court to court, writing passionate political and moral epistles and finishing his Divine Comedy, which contains the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. He finally died in Ravenna in 1321.

Reviews

[Michael B]

You know, I always wondered why you never really see the full Divine Comedy in bookstores, just Inferno. Now that I’ve read it, I have to say that Paradiso is probably the hardest to follow. Hell is just more interesting than Heaven. It’s a lot easier to differentiate the punishments and repentances for the different types of sins than it is to figure out why someone ends up in one circle of Heaven over another.

[Marilyn]

This book belonged to Claire Sanders when she was attending Boston University. It has her name and address printed on the fly leaf:
Claire Sanders
25 Temple Street
Boston 14, Mass

She gave it to Alissa to read for high school but we never did.

Now it sits on my shelf waiting and waiting.

[William Crosby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I varied between 2 and 4 stars. There are a lot of sometimes interesting political, historical and theological issues. If you are an historian or into political science or theology you might like this oft metaphorical romp through hell, purgatory and heaven. For me, it often became too obscure with lots of metaphorical stuff. (For example, I did not like "Pilgrim's Progress" because it just seemed to be one metaphor after another. So now you know my bias.)

Sometimes the narrative did not flow well and could be too turgid. It occasionally reminded me of "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili."

If you are used to reading only James Patterson you will find this a difficult read. Also, in order to understand what was going on better in Dante's world, it would help if you had already read Virgil's "Aeneid," Aquinas' "Summa Theological," and the Greek myths (including Ovid's "Metamorphosis"). Plus, have the Bible ready at hand.

This books seems to get referred to a lot, but I wonder how many people have actually read it (or read it outside of a college setting; in other words, just for fun).