Dante: The Story of His Life (original) (raw)
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Dante and Renaissance Florence
The Sixteenth Century Journal, 2006
Simon Gilson explores Dante's reception in his native Florence between 1350 and 1481. He traces the development of Florentine civic culture and the interconnections between Dante's principal 'Florentine' readers, from Giovanni Boccaccio to Cristoforo Landino, and explains how and why both supporters and opponents of Dante exploited his legacy for a variety of ideological, linguistic, cultural, and political purposes. The book focuses on a variety of texts, both Latin and vernacular, in which reference was made to Dante, from commentaries to poetry, from literary lives to letters, from histories to dialogues. Gilson pays particular attention to Dante's influence on major authors such as Boccaccio and Petrarch, on Italian humanism, and on civic identity and popular culture in Florence. Ranging across literature, philosophy, and art, across languages and across social groups, this study fully illuminates for the first time Dante's central place in Italian Renaissance culture and thought. simon gilson is Senior Lecturer in Italian at the University of Warwick. He is the author of Medieval Optics and Theories of Light in the Works of Dante (2000) and the co-editor of Science and Literature in Italian Culture: From Dante to Calvino (2004). He has published journal articles on topics related to Dante's scientific interests, the Dante commentary tradition, and his reception in the Italian Renaissance.
Mediterranea, 2022
JOHN C. BARNES UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Dante's was a life of two halves, if unequal ones. From his birth in May or June 1265 until March 1302 he lived, wrote and was politically active as a resident of his native Florence, but from 10 March 1302, when he was sentenced to death as an enemy of a new regime, until his actual decease in September 1321, he secured his comparative safety by remaining outside the jurisdiction of the Florentine state. Although the first 'half' occupied nearly two-thirds of the poet's lifespan, in any biography it is likely to occupy fewer pages than the second-in this case 3-71. 1 Not surprisingly, little is new in these pages: the documentary record is exiguous, especially before the poet's entry into politics in 1295; the only other contemporary evidence lies in the creative writings of Dante and his associates; to these may be added the testimony of early biographers, all of whom wrote after their subject's death; and essentially all avenues were thoroughly explored long ago. The scene has been slightly reset by the appearance, in 2016, of a new Codice diplomatico dantesco (superseding an earlier one published in 1940 and subsequently augmented), that is, an edition, with commentary, of all known documents relating to Dante and his family. 2 The present biography's first section opens with a fluent and largely up-to-date account of Florence's socio-political evolution, which is followed by passages on Dante's family, education, military activity, early writings and participation in
2021
Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet and philosopher. Born in the Republic of Florence (now modern-day Italy), he would write some of the most important poems in Medieval times. Not known specifically for his philosophy, Dante would be involved in political strife, which would see him exiled from his beloved Florence. From this exile, Dante Alighieri would write some of his most important philosophical works and poems, most notably, the Divine Comedy. Dante was born in Florence, and the date of 1265 is used by many scholars. Although much of Dante's upbringing is unknown, some information can be gained by looking into the Divine Comedy, as a sort of self-autobiography. In one example, scholars can deduce the age of
Dante Studies, 2018
The 136th issue of Dante Studies (2018) hosts a new section, the Forum, devoted to new research trends in the field. This first Forum, coordinated by Elisa Brilli, explores the questions of Biography and new Historical Studies in current research on Dante. Brilli’s opening piece on "Dante’s Biographies and Historical Studies" draws a cross-disciplinary state of the art over the last decade and raises five major questions (pp. 133-142: 10.1353/das.2018.0004). The answers tackle all or some of these questions from different angles and traditions of studies. Manuele Gragnolatiand Elena Lombardi focus on Dante’s textual constructions and storytelling ("Autobiografia d’autore," pp. 143-169: 10.1353/das.2018.0005). Giorgio Inglese reflects on his biography (Dante. Una biografia possible) in a new contribution entitled "Una biografia impossibile" (pp. 161-166: 10.1353/das.2018.0006). Giuliano Milani develops a methodological reflection on the possibility of writing "La vita di Dante iuxta propria principia" (pp. 167-175: 10.1353/das.2018.0007). Paolo Pellegrini engages the discussion with the new trend and declares the "De profundis per l’Instant Book" (pp. 176-186: 10.1353/das.2018.0008). Jean-Claude Schmitt challenges Dante Studies by analyzing Dante’s Vita Nova with the approach of historical anthropology ("Dante en rêveur médiéval : « Memoria » funéraire et récit autobiographique, pp. 187-200: 10.1353/das.2018.0009). Mirko Tavoni’s "Dante e il ‘paradigma critico dellacontingenza’" (pp. 201-212: 10.1353/das.2018.0010) offers a theoretical reflection on Tavoni’s critical approach. Finally, David Wallace compares the situation in Dante studies with other research fields, and asks the most uncomfortable question: "Lives of Dante: Why Now?" (pp. 213-222: 10.1353/das.2018.0011). A Bibliography completes the Forum (pp. 223-231: 10.1353/das.2018.0012). This issue also includes the essays by Luca Fiorentini, "Archaeology of the Tre Corone: Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio in Benvenuto da Imola's Commentary on the Divine Comedy" (pp. 1-21), Ronald L. Martinez, "Dante 'buon sartore' (Paradiso 32.140): Textile Arts, Rhetoric, and Metapoetics at the End of the Commedia" (pp. 22-61), Barbara Newman, "The Seven-StoreyMountain: Mechthild of Hackeborn and Dante's Matelda" (pp. 62-92) and Matthew Collins, "The Forgotten Morgan Dante Drawings, Their Influence on the Marcolini Commedia of 1544, and Their Place within a Visually-Driven Discourse on Dante's Poem" (pp. 93-132). Dante Studies is available on print and online on Project Muse. Access to Dante Studies is a primary benefit of membership in the Dante Society of America (https://www.dantesociety.org/). Current members receive both print copies and electronic access to current and recent issues. Individual subscriptions are available only through membership in the Society (https://www.dantesociety.org/membership-and-benefits#Joining\_or\_Renewing). Institutions that wish to subscribe to Dante Studies may place their order online via the JHUP journals website (https://www.press.jhu.edu/journals).
Commentary and Ideology: Dante in the Renaissance
Preface xi duction, and circulation should figure in critical assessments; and that the book itself be treated as an expressive form. The intent is to try to develop a bibliographic code, which, in turn would help us to understand the situation of the critic. The relation then, between chapters 3, 4, and 5, on the one hand, and chapter 6, on the other, is a dynamic one. Critical study along either line informs the other approach. Books not only, as Umberto Eco reminds us, "talk among themselves," they speak in a variety of waysthrough words as well as forms.1 Quotations from the Commedia are taken from the edition by Giorgio Petrocchi, La Commedia secondo I'antica vulgata, 4 vols.
Dante's Education: Latin Schoolbooks And Vernacular Poetics
Oxford University Press, 2024
Reconstructs the kind of education Dante received and how this informed his literary production and interactions with his contemporary readers. Studies the surviving manuscripts and glosses; shows how differently medieval readers approached classical texts compared to how we interpret them today. Explores the influence of medieval school texts on Dante, which has never been systematically studied before
Dante as a Florentine lyrical author
Forum Italicum, 2021
As one of the outstanding authors of medieval literature, Dante Alighieri has enjoyed seven centuries of close scholarly attention.1 The immense success of his Comedy has prompted some modern Dante scholars to assume that such success came easily during his life, even though the Comedy was fully issued only after the poet’s death. Similar claims for rapid success are also made for the Vita nuova and some of Dante’s lyric poetry. However, although much ancient source material has been lost, the surviving evidence does not support the view that success came to Dante during his life. Close scrutiny of the manuscript sources suggests a quite different scenario: Dante as an author had to survive in a dynamic and ruthlessly competitive environment (which, by analogy with the theory of natural selection, may have helped to elicit his finest achievements). His goal was to persuade the highly educated and affluent Florentine upper class to abandon its attachment to the prevailing lyrical school, represented by the authoritative and apparently indomitable Guittone d’Arezzo and his followers. Only then would Dante and the new poets (the Stilnovisti) stand a chance of seeing their work collected in the prestigious and expensive canzonieri. Probably, on the evidence of the surviving collections and other manuscripts (Escorialense, Laur. Martelli 12, etc), Dante did not fully achieve his goal — a situation which changed, dramatically, only after the Comedy was published.