Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri Biography

Dante Alighieri was a poet, born on May 29, 1265, in Florence, Italy. Dante is recognized in literature for his most famous work, The Divine Comedy, one of the essential works of the change from medieval to Renaissance thought.

It is deduced by one of his books that speaks of him, that Dante was born in the year of 1265, it is also said that his baptismal name is Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri.

Fruit of the union between Alighiero de Bellincione and Gabriella degli Abati. When Dante was around five and six years old, his mother died. Shortly after his father had a new partner, Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffise; with this new couple, he had two children, Francesco and Tana.

Dante Alighieri saw for the first time his platonic love, Beatriz Portinari when she was eight years old and he was nine; he watched her, it is even said that until the age of eighteen he still had her in his mind. When Dante was twelve years old, he was engaged to Gemma, the daughter of Messer Manetto Donati. In the year 1278, while studying in his hometown, he was a friend of the poet Guido Cavalcanti and was a pupil of Brunetto Latini. In 1285, in the siege of Poggio di Santa Cecilia, Dante was part of it and was defended by the Aretines. Two years later Dante traveled to Bologna.

“Your fame is like the flower; that springs and dies; and the same sun withered that made it born from the bitter earth.” Dante Alighieri

Like several Florentines of that time, Dante became involved in the matter of the Guelphs and Ghibellines; the Guelphs were divided into black Guelphs and White Guelphs. Dante followed the fate of the “white” Guelphs, politically more moderate, but firm in rejecting any interference of the Pope in the business of the Comune. On June 11, 1289, Dante fought in the Battle of Campaldino, with the Florentine Guelph Knights against the Ghibellines of Arezzo. In 1294, he was among the soldiers who escorted the grandson of Carlos I of Sicily, Carlos Martel de Anjou-Sicilia.

In 1290, Beatriz died. Love for Beatriz, apparently, was the reason for his poetry and his life, along with his political passions. A year later, Dante married Gemma, with whom he had several children: Jacob, Pietro, and Antonia. It is said that they had a fourth son whom they named Juan.

Later, in his political career, he became a pharmacist and doctor. He proposed not to practice these professions, but a law issued, requested that the nobility that sought to hold public office should enlist in one of the guilds of Corporazioni di Arti e Mestieri, then in 1295 Dante enrolled in the guild of doctors and apothecaries.

Between 1295 and 1296 he was a member of the Special Council of the People, later he was part of the council that elected the priors. In 1296-1297, between May and September, he was a member of the Council of the One Hundred. In 1298, he participated in the signing of the peace treaty with Arezzo. In the year 1300, he was appointed as ambassador in San Gimignano, to negotiate the visit of representatives of the Güelfa League to Florence. Between June 15 and August 14 of that same year, Dante was elected as one of the six highest magistrates in the city of Florence.

In October 1301, after Dante had opposed sending military troops to help the Pope, Boniface VIII, Dante was elected ambassador to the pontiff, to whom he offered a peace treaty. However, the Pope retained Dante in Rome against his will, with the idea of helping in Florence the “black” Guelph faction, then the pontiff took the city by force in 1301.

Dante was accused of defrauding funds, was fined with a large amount of money, expropriation, exile for two years, and later to death in case he returned to Florence. From this date Dante began a long exile that was to last the rest of his life: he lived in Verona, Padua, Rimini, Lucca, Paris, Umbria, Tuscany. Dante Alighieri was invited to his hometown so that he would swear that he would never step on his land again. In 1318, Prince Guido Novello da Polenta invited Dante to Ravenna and he accepted.

In 1321, Dante Alighieri finished Paradise and died on September 14 at 56 years of age when he returned to Ravenna.