Dante+Alighieri's+La+Commedia

 , [|Sandro Botticelli] c.1495.
 * Dante Alighieri and his //Divina Commedia// **

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Wrote //[|La Divina Commedia],//c.1307. || //[|Convivio]//, written c.1304-7. //[|De Monarchia]//, written c.1312-3. || = = Dante Alighieri’s verse in //La Divina Commedia// truly broke the rules of tradition, in a literal, political and philosophical sense, evolving the common themes of [|medieval poetry]. Not only that, he changed the way people viewed [|Italy] through his words, confronting the political concerns of his time and issues on morality within Florence and predominantly [|Rome].
 * = Born ||= c.May/June 1265, [|Florence]. ||
 * = Died ||= September 14, 1321 (aged approx. 56), [|Ravenna]. ||
 * = Career ||= Member of the (White) [|Guelph Political Party of Florence], c.1289-1302.
 * = Other Important Works ﻿ ||= //[|Vita Nuova]//, written 1295.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The Birth of Italian Literature = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">As the twelfth century bought a renewal of aesthetics and intellectualism in [|French], [|German] and [|Latin literature], the [|Italian vernacular] was seen as more or less an embryonic speech, therefore cast aside as a literary language. Credit for the foundation of [|Italian literature] goes to Dante, for he did much to mould elevate Italian as the language of poetry and prose. He, most likely knowing Italy was neither politically nor culturally united, proved Italian is a vernacular capable of expressing the same authoritative and poetic language as Latin.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Dante's Poetic Revolution = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The extensiveness of Dante’s //Commedia// are filled with humorous and realistic verse unlike poetry before his. The seriousness within the //Commedia// is portrayed in a religious and political sense which is to be discussed later. More notably in the //[|Inferno]// in Canto XXIII Dante brings a vibe, where he comes across two hypocrites, sinners forced to crawl, due to their punishment of wear lead clothing. They then look to the walking pace of Dante, and perceive him to be “… racing there through all this murky air... ” What truly makes //La Divina Commedia// stand out among most poetry before its time is that it breaks away from the long-established idea of poetry around and before the fourteenth century.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> ////Oil on Canvas, by [|Domenico di Michelino], 1465.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Politics and the Papacy = <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Some aspects within the //Commedia// omit countless contemplations and ideas focusing on the political tribulations in Florence and the [|Papacy] in Rome. Dante’s reigning political party of Florence, White Guelphs (a faction opposed to [|Pope Boniface VIII]) was eventually overthrown by Pope Boniface VIII and [|Charles of Valois] as, gave their obvious preference to the Black Guelphs (a faction endorsing Boniface), which led to Dante's exile in 1302. Dante projects his antagonism in the //Inferno// in Canto XIX, when Dante comes across Pope Boniface VIII in the depths of hell and reveals his convictions of [|simony]within the church. “Are you there Boniface? /Are you so sick of owning things already? /Till now, you’ve been hardly afraid to cheat... ” In addition to spite Florentine political officials, the original title of the //Divina Commedia// speaks of sarcasm and bitterness; a gibe towards those who exiled him; //The Comedy of Dante Alighieri, a Florentine by birth, not by conduct//. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"> media type="youtube" key="3fh04bxcsgU" height="315" width="420"

=<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">A Pathway to the Renaissance = <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">It has been alleged by countless scholars that Dante is somewhat precursor to the imminent [|Italian Renaissance]. This is somewhat true through his employment of classical figures and the writings of various classical authors. In //Inferno//’s first circle of hell (limbo), we are confronted with the likes of [|Lucan], [|Ovid], [|Cicero] and more importantly [|Aristotle], whom Dante obscurely refers to as the “the master of those who think and know .”Aristotelian thought comes into Dante’s way of constructing the justice in hell.With the help of Aristotle’s //[|Nicomachean Ethics]//, in Canto XXVIII of //Inferno//, a French Baron of the twelfth century [|Bertran de Born] exclaims,“Since persons so closed-linked I put apart/so I, alas, now bear my brain/thus severed from its root in this great trunk. /So see me in the //contrapasso//.” Aristotle too uses the term //contrapasso// in this //Ethics//, meaning reciprocity to describe retributive justice i.e. an eye for an eye. Dante’s employment of classical sources in his //Commedia// gave some idea that it was possibly him who was the forerunner of the Renaissance culture.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;"> Sandro Botticelli's //[|Chart of Hell]//, c.1480-95. =<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">Dante's Legacy = <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">The poetry of Dante Alighieri showed no boundaries in its time. Combining his tradition of using Italian instead of Latin and his remarkable technique of combining reveries with realism created a foundation which gave way to the Florentine Renaissance. More importantly as Dante believed Italy was faulted by the church, he needed to reinstate the fact that Europe could be redeemed if they followed the right path.