A Brief History of Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri was and still remains a literary genius whose impact resounds with glory his profound knowledge and influence simply cannot be overstated he found immortality in the supremacy of his works which few others have accomplished we will be talking today about the life that he lived the influence he had and how the meaning that he found in life was written into his works Dante was born in Florence although we are unsure about the exact date we do know is around the Year 1265 not many facts were known about Dante's early life however the information we do know is pulled out of his many famous words with that being said Dante had claimed that his parents were descendants of early Romans his parents were a Leggero and Bela his father a Leggero was a white wealth which is a supporter of the Pope while the main opposition was in the Ghibellines whose loyalties were with the Holy Roman Empire while alig euro is a Guelph a major battle took place between the Guelph's and Ghibellines that was the Battle of Monteverde the overall result of this battle led the gibbelins to victory leaving the Guelph's to retreat with this shift of power a Leggero could have been exiled however he wasn't from this we can learn that Dante's family had somewhat of a status but not to the point where it would have forced them out of the country Dante's mother Bella died when he was only 10 so not much is known about her at the age of 12 donto has promised in marriage to Gemma demon Neto to Noddy promising into a marriage at such an early age was very common during this time by the time he had made this promise dante claimed to be in love with another woman named Beatrice Portinari looking through his works he had made mention of first meeting her at the age of 9 from this point in his biography the time of major events in his life are very vague however we do know some important pieces of information at one point dante fought alongside the influential Guelph's in the cavalry at the Battle of compel Dino the Guelph's arose victorious this was a major turning point in such a way that it helped to reform the Florentine Constitution the battle helped to bring power back into the hands of the Pope concerning Dante's education there are very few details however it was thought that he studied at a chapter school that may have possibly been attached to a church or monastery we do know that while there he studied Tuscan poetry his interest later him to discover Provencal poetry of the troubadours and the Latin writers of classical antiquity which included Cicero Ovid and Virgil it was at this point in Dante's life that he fought with the Guelph's as they became victorious over florence after their rising to power however the gwelf split into two main groups the white Guelph's and the black Guelph's at first their allies eventually conflict arose while the white Wells wanted more freedom from Rome the black Wells wanted to strengthen ties with the Pope initially the white wolves expelled the black wolves which caused tension as a result the Pope initiated a military occupation in Florence tension continued to rise as the papal ambassadors were being treated after issues between the two factions of Guelph's multiple delegates were sent to Rome to dispute issues Dante was one of them while in Rome the Pope sent all delegates except for Dante back to Florence however before the white wolfs could return the black twelfths attacked as a result a black wealth government arose in florence dante was in jeopardy he was sentenced to a two-year exile and been given a large fine in 1301 as time passed dante refused to pay the fine though he never returned back to florence from rome it was at this point when dante began work on the Divine Comedy being away from any business he had in Florence Dante was able to focus on his writings and poetry with which we will later go into detail while many of his works were completed during this time we were unfortunately left without a lot of dates never returning back to Florence dante was invited back to Ravenna in 1318 by the prince this was the closing chapter of his life because while returning to Ravenna right after finishing paradise of the Divine Comedy he passed away in 1321 life in the time of Dante was very conflict oriented with the struggling between the Guelph's and Ghibellines providing much of that strain however beyond all of that Italy had been progressively transitioning it to a new age with the Renaissance waiting in the wings Dante finished his tenure in the tail end of the medieval period Dante's influence was very important to historical advancements by choosing to write his poems in Italian rather than Latin 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 of Western ear for several centuries Dante's works were extremely influential to the start of the humanism movement which was a literary and cultural movement that started in Italy during the late 14th century the architecture of Dante's time was marked by the Gothic period structures stood upright by use of flying buttresses and God essence was delivered into each brick this attitude of reverence for God for understanding and feeling his presence really marked this period with a sense of purpose and duty Dante conveyed this sense most dramatically in the Divine Comedy with a symbolic meaning behind each layer of prose constructing such a monumental world was a true tenant of his period while the Pope held a grandeur of power in Rome Dante's Florence was influenced by a love for Rome's antiquity attempts to match Florence with Rome's excellence were brought on by the city's structuring as a republic the economy was incredibly successful after adopting a gold coining system and the Florentine Society was held with pride the need for someone such as Dante with his genius and influence became apparent from the impacts that he made he was a proprietor of Dolce Steel novo or sweet new style it was a literary movement involving high intellect and prose for the wonders of life and love with this dante put the long-term wheels in motion his overall influence added fuel to the fire of romanticism which would shape the course of arts history in Europe during the Renaissance Dante's works are many and varied but these are the ones which have had the biggest impact de monarchia was written in 1312 and 1313 it is a treatise on the relationship between the secular and spiritual authorities portrayed by the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope this work dealt specifically with the corruptible nature of man's body and the incorruptible nature of man's soul while the Pope had rain over the eternal life the spiritual aspect the Holy Roman Emperor dealt with things that were bound by time on earth dante concluded that neither the holy roman emperor or the pope had more power over the other even though they were both divinely appointed they were both necessarily separated another great work of Dante's was devil girl eloquent yet this book was not fully finished as it was abandoned after chapter 14 of book 2 it was written in the years 13:02 to 1305 and was influenced by rhetorical works by classical writers the main goal of this piece was to speak on how many languages evolved from one this was due to man's ignorance as referred to in the story of the Tower of Babel Dante makes a distinction between the European languages of the time putting those of the Germanic origin in the north the Greek to the east the romantic of the South Dante saw the gramatica the static language with unchanging rules that comprised every single one of the natural languages aside from Dante's discourses was his poetry and la Vita Nuova was comprised in 12.95 as a collection of Dante's previous poetry's adding commentary to each one of his poems Dante wound up having forty-two brief chapters surrounding thirty-one poems this was one of Dante's more personal pieces and it really allowed one to peer into his mind and heart much like st. Augustine's Confessions a major focus in this piece of work was that romantic love leads to a capacity for divine love who is written in Italian unlike most poetry of the day another collection of Dante's works was made in 1307 with convivial rather than having a focus of love this time around Dante shifted to philosophy introducing it to the Italian language for the first time this collection had rationalistic outlook on the nature of nobility for example it was full of reflective thoughts it is noted that Dante changed a lot of his views that he spoke of in this collection when it came to the Divine Comedy and speaking of the Divine Comedy since it is Dante's most famous work it is one that could be spoken of for hours upon hours we'll try to keep it short here the Divine Comedy was written between 1304 and 1321 and was Dante's greatest work he was written as a verse style poem and was set in the Easter week of 1300 it's full of unbelievable occurrences that serve as powerful thematic tools with this work Dante constructed an afterlife in three realms Inferno Purgatorio and Paradiso each plane holds a specific destination for the dead and is built within the order of nine plus one in the case of the most famous Inferno there are nine circles of hell through which the roman poet virgil leads dante to witness unrepentant sinners of Hell that have fates befitting of their earthly vices dante learns the lessons of each wailing soul as he sees the damning justice of god once they emerge from satan's dwelling place they continue their journey into the second book of the comedy purgatory Oh purgatory is a mountain which houses the repentant souls of sinners it is a mark of God's love and willingness to rehabilitate those who are truly sorry for their wrongdoing Dante traverses this place again with Virgil and learns the lasting effects of sin and how one must work to be rid of them once reaching the top of the mountain purgatory Dante meets his love Beatrice she causes Dante to admit his own guilt as a sinner and he repents it is then that they enter into heaven the third book Paradiso sends Dante with Beatrice through the spheres of heaven Dante is amazed when meeting some of the holiest figures in history and when he is tested on what he's learned of the natures of love faith and hope he uses his newfound knowledge to proceed into the light of God the novel ends with Dante becoming one with God's love being enveloped in his mystery forever Dante's worldview was heavily influenced by the works of Aristotle and Ptolemy seeing the world hierarchically like pseudo-dionysius he worked to witness and understand the astronomical aspects of the universe serving the stars and the relations of the Sun the moon and the earth Dante sensed much beyond him and wrote incredible amounts of information on the subject of man's place in this world he wrote 53 short poems with the fourth of them being about the moon stars planets spheres and the Sun finding harmony in the cosmos Dante believed that humanity is closely linked to the chords struck by the heavens once we move beyond our physical lives for Dante our souls are placed in categories based upon the astrological principles of the universe the Divine Comedy is his attempt to outline or represent these principles and his work creates a timeless world which speaks deeply on the outlook of mankind Dante was ruled by the numbers schemes and hierarchy of the world around him feeling a strong connection with the cosmos he attributed much of his genius to the Stars specifically to his native sign of Gemini his prose reveled in the heavenly order of it all and went so far as to mirror God's creation through the way in which it was written without Dante Alighieri this world would be a very different place his works gave meaning to a changing world and with a level of artistry that has seldom been matched he continues to be a figure which history must never forget

Channel: Nick TV

Views: 125,664

Keywords: Dante, Alighieri, Dante Alighieri (Poet), Dolce Stil Novo

Id: Ti8YbrscO6U

Length: 13min 49sec (829 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 03 2012