Inspirational Quotations by Dante Alighieri (Italian Poet, Philosopher)

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) was the greatest of Italian poets. His Divine Comedy is one of the most revered and influential literary works in history.

A native of Florence, Dante sought solace in philosophy after the death in 1290 of his lover Beatrice Portinari, the wife of a painter.

Active in Florentine political life during the autonomous city-state’s conflict with the Holy Roman Empire, Dante was sent to the papal court as an emissary in 1301, and, while absent, was sentenced to exile. He never returned to Florence, and died an honored guest of Guido da Polenta, the ruler of Ravenna.

Dante’s principal conventional philosophical work is the Convivio (Banquet; 1304–8,) planned as a series of fourteen treatises of which only four are completed. De Monarchia (Monarchy; 1313) covered Dante’s political theory, which proposes the separation of church and state.

Dante wrote his masterpiece, the Divina Commedia (originally Commedia; ‘Divina‘ was added to its title in the 16th century,) between 1308 and 1321, and finished just before his death. Commedia is recognized as the literary embodiment of the ethical, spiritual, and philosophical ideals of the Late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance.

As a poem in 3 parts and 100 Cantos, Commedia takes the structure of a moral allegory of a soul’s struggle towards redemption. Dante’s voyage takes him through the three regions of the Christian cosmology: hell, purgatory, and heaven. Dante describes hell (Inferno) as an abyss of nine descending circles, beginning with limbo and ending in the frozen lake earmarked for conspirators. The second and third books (Purgatorio and Paradiso) portray the earthly paradise, ending in the beatific vision.

Dante’s vision of hell effected great influence over European art, most prominently in the biblical illustrations of Sandro Botticelli and William Blake.

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