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Date and Place of birth: b. c. May 21-June 20, 1265, Florence, Italy
d. Sept. 13/14, 1321, Ravenna
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Life and Works:
DANTE
ALIGHIERI. Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher,
and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La
commedia, later named La
divina commedia.
Divine
Comedy, a great work of medieval literature, is a profound Christian vision
of man's temporal and eternal destiny. On its most personal level, it draws
on the poet's own experience of exile from his native city of Florence; on its
most comprehensive level, it may be read as an allegory, taking the form of
a journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise. The poem amazes by its array
of learning, its penetrating and comprehensive analysis of contemporary problems,
and its inventiveness of language and imagery. By choosing to write his poem
in Italian rather than in Latin, Dante decisively influenced the course of literary
development. Not only did he lend a voice to the emerging lay culture of his
own country, but Italian became the literary language in western Europe for
several centuries.
In addition to poetry Dante
wrote important theoretical works ranging from discussions of rhetoric to moral
philosophy and political thought. He was fully conversant with the classical
tradition, drawing for his own purposes on such writers as Virgil, Cicero, and
Boethius. But, most unusual for a layman, he also had an impressive command
of the most recent scholastic philosophy and of theology. His learning and his
personal involvement in the heated political controversies of his age led him
to the composition of De monarchia, one of the major tracts of medieval political
philosophy.
Individual works:
La commedia (1472); Vita nuova (1576).
Lyric poetry:
Canzoni e madrigali di Dante, di Mess. Gino da Pistoja e di Giraldo Novello
(1518); Rime di diversi antichi autori toscani in dieci libri (1532).
Treatises:
Convivio di Dante Alighieri fiorentino (1490); De vulgari eloquentia libri duo
(1577); Dantis Aligherii Florentini Monarchia (1740).
Latin eclogues:
I versi latini di Giovanni del Virgilio e di Dante Allighieri (1845).
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