Dante's Inferno in The Divine Comedy. Why did Dante put lovers in hell? The legend of Francesca and Paolo The personal life of the poet
In the fifth ditch of the eighth circle of hell (21st song), Dante and Virgil meet a group of demons. Their leader, Khvostach, says that there is no further road - the bridge is destroyed:
To go out all the same, if you like,
Go with this shaft, where the trail is,
And you will freely exit with the near comb.Twelve hundred and sixty six years old
Yesterday, five hours late,
Leak since there is no road here Here and below, Mikhail Lozinsky's translation is cited unless otherwise noted..
The words of the demon surprise with their exaggerated detail - why would Dante and readers know about the time of the collapse of a bridge with an accuracy of up to an hour? Meanwhile, these stanzas contain the key to one of the main mysteries of the Divine Comedy - the chronology of Dante's journey, about which Dante does not speak directly anywhere, but which can be reconstructed on the basis of hints scattered here and there .
In the first tercene of "Hell" it is said that Dante was lost in a gloomy forest, "having passed half of his earthly life." It can be assumed that we are in the region of 1300 from the birth of Christ: in the Middle Ages, it was believed that life lasts 70 years See King David's psalm: "The days of our years are seventy years" (89:10)., and Dante was born in 1265. We subtract 1266 years from 1300, which Khvostach speaks of, and it turns out that the bridge collapsed approximately at the end of Christ's earthly life. Let us recall the Gospel, where it is written that at the time of Jesus' death there was a strong earthquake - judging by everything, it destroyed the bridge. If we add to these considerations the message of the Evangelist Luke that Christ died at noon, and count five hours ago, it becomes clear that the conversation about the bridge takes place at 7 am on March 26, 1300 - 1266 years later and five hours to the day after the death of Christ on the cross (Dante thought it happened on March 25, 34).
Taking into account all the other time indications of the Comedy (changes of day and night, the arrangement of stars), we can establish that Dante's journey to the afterlife lasted a week from March 25 to March 31, 1300 An alternative point of view ties it to the Easter week of 1300 - from April 8 to April 14; but the principle of establishing the chronology does not change, it’s just that the countdown is not from the “historical” date of the death of Christ, but from the church calendar - Good Friday..
This date was not chosen by chance. In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII announced the first jubilee year in the history of the church: it was promised that every hundred years every believer who made a pilgrimage to Rome and visited the cathedrals of St. Peter and the Apostle Paul would receive a full remission of sins. It is likely that in the spring of the jubilee year, Dante went to Rome to visit the graves of the apostles - in any case, the lines of the 18th song sound like an eyewitness description:
So the Romans, to the influx of the crowd,
In the year of the anniversary, did not lead to congestion,
Divided the bridge into two paths,And one by one people are coming to the cathedral
Looking towards the castle wall
And on the other they go towards, uphill.
It was there, in jubilee Rome, that a wonderful pilgrimage to the afterlife could take place. The day the pilgrimage began, March 25, carries a number of other meanings: on March 25, the Lord created the world; On March 25, nine months before Christmas, Christ incarnated. In addition, in Florence, it was from this day that the countdown of the new year began.
Dante started the "Comedy" a few years after the supposed date of the afterlife journey (the first drafts may date back to 1302, but full-fledged work on the poem lasted from 1306-1307 until the poet's death). Working on a poem from the "future", Dante fills it with impressive prophecies and predictions.
2. The mystery of St. Lucia
Illustration by Gustave Doré for Canto II "Ada". 1900 edition Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library / University of Toronto In the second song of "Hell" Virgil tells who sent him to help Dante, who was dying in a gloomy forest. It turns out that these were three beautiful women:
... At the three blessed wives
You found the words of protection in heaven
And a wondrous path is foreshadowed for you.
The three blessed wives are the Virgin Mary, Saint Lucia and Beatrice. Mary (who, however, is not named) told about the trouble of the poet Saint Lucia, and she called Beatrice. Beatrice is Bice Portinari, who died 10 years before the time of the Comedy, the love of young Dante, to whom he dedicated the New Life « New life» - the first book of Dante, written in the 90s of the XIII century, where the love story of the poet and Beatrice is told in prose and verse.. Beatrice was not afraid to descend from paradise to limbo Limbo- the first circle of Dante's hell, where the souls of unbaptized babies and virtuous people who died before the coming of Christ are located. to Virgil and pray for his help. The attention of Mary, the main intercessor for people before the Lord, to Dante is also quite understandable, but what does Saint Lucia have to do with it?
Saint Lucia in folk tradition was considered the patroness of vision and helped with eye diseases. Such a “saint” is associated with the etymology of her name: Lucia is derived from the Latin lux, lucis - “light”.. Dante's special relationship with Saint Lucia is due to the serious problems with his eyesight that he received in his youth due to diligent reading. Dante talks about it in "Feast" "Pir" - Dante's philosophical treatise, written around 1304-1307.: "Having tired my eyesight with persistent reading, I so weakened my visual abilities that all the luminaries seemed to me surrounded by some kind of haze." It is possible that Beatrice was also an admirer of Saint Lucia: the house in which she lived after her marriage was adjacent to the Church of Saint Lucia. So the saint perfectly suited the role of mediator between Mary, Beatrice ascended to heaven, and Dante.
The choice of this character reflects general principle"Comedies": being a grandiose theological, philosophical and poetic canvas, it is at the same time a story about the individual life of the author, where each poetic decision is associated with his feelings, passions and details of the earthly path.
3. The secret of the Muslims
Illustration by Gustave Doré for Canto XXVIII "Ada" by Dante Alighieri. 1900 edition Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library / University of Toronto In the 28th song of "Hell" Dante meets the prophet Muhammad and righteous caliph Ali, who endure eternal torment as "sowers of discord and schism": in Dante's time, it was believed that Mohammed was a Catholic prelate who broke away from the true faith, so for Dante he is a schismatic. The unflattering depiction of the prophet (the description of his torment is one of the most physiological in the Comedy) earned Dante the reputation of an enemy of Islam (Comedy is even banned in Pakistan).
Like a barrel without a bottom, perforated through and through -
From the mouth to where the feces exit,
Inwardly, one of them was revealed to the eye.Intestines hung disgustingly between the knees,
One could see the heart and stomach sack,
Stuffed with gum, stained with feces Translation by Alexander Ilyushin..
However, Dante's attitude to Islam is much more complex and subtle. In limbo, among the heroes and sages of Antiquity, famous Muslims meet: Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and the fighter with, Avicenna Avicenna(c. 980 - 1037) - a medieval Persian physician, philosopher and scientist. and Averroes Averroes(1126-1198) - medieval Andalusian Arabic-speaking philosopher, physician and mathematician.. These three are the only inhabitants of limbo who were born after the coming of Christ.
In addition, it is believed that the entire structure of the poem can reflect the story of the night journey and ascension of the Prophet (isra and miraj), during which Muhammad appeared before Allah, and also visited heaven and hell, where he saw the bliss of the righteous and the torment of sinners . In the medieval Arab tradition, there were many descriptions of the miraj - their similarity with the Comedy was first substantiated by the Spanish Arabist Miguel Asin-Palacios in 1919. Later versions of these texts in Romance languages became known, describing in detail the journey of the Prophet and spread across Europe from Arabic Spain. These findings made the hypothesis of Dante's acquaintance with this Arabic tradition much more plausible - and today it is recognized by most Dante scholars.
4. The Secret of Epicurus
Illustration by Gustave Doré for Canto X "Ada". 1900 edition Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library / University of Toronto All in the same limbo, Dante meets many ancient philosophers:
Then, looking at the low slope,
I saw: the teacher of those who know
Surrounded by a wise family I mean Aristotle..Socrates sits closest to him
And Plato with him; the whole host honors the omniscient;
Here is the one who thinks the world is randomThe famous philosopher Democritus;
Here Diogenes, Thales with Anaxagoras,
Zeno, and Empedocles, and Heraclitus...
Epicurus is not on this list, and this is no coincidence: a completely different place is prepared for him in the Comedy - Dante will see his grave in the sixth circle of hell, where heretics reside:
Here is a cemetery for those who once believed,
Like Epicurus and all who are with him,
That souls with flesh perish without return.
Epicurus (341-270 BC) lived before the advent of Christianity and therefore could not be considered a heretic in the full sense of the word. Epicurus' accusations of godlessness, common in the Middle Ages, originate in the speeches of the Apostle Paul against Epicureanism and continue in the writings of the first Christian apologists: for example, Lactantius reproached Epicurus for denying divine providence and the immortality of the soul, for destroying religion and preaching depravity. This anachronism is consonant with the general medieval anti-historicism: the Middle Ages sculpts historical characters in its own way, turning ancient heroes into knights, and philosophers into Christian thinkers and erasing the differences between eras. This is not alien to Dante.
5. The mystery of the broken vessel
At the beginning of the 19th ode, Dante retells a vague biographical episode: shortly before the time of the Comedy, he broke a vessel with baptismal water in the Florentine baptistery of San Giovanni, saving a child drowning in it:
Everywhere, and along the channel, and along the slopes,
I saw an innumerable number
Rounded wells in grayish stone.They look exactly the same
Like those in my beautiful San Giovanni,
Where the sacrament of baptism is performed.I, saving the lad from suffering,
Broke one of them last year...
Indeed, in the time of Dante, in the Florentine Baptistery, depressions were made around the baptismal spring, where large earthenware vessels with holy water were placed. According to the philologist Marco Santagata, this episode is inserted into the text of the poem for two reasons. On the one hand, Dante wanted to give an explanation for his action, which may have caused a scandal (this is indicated by the words with which he ends his story: “And here is the seal, in defense against whispers!” - which means: let this evidence convince dit people not to listen to false rumors).
At the same time, Dante's story is reminiscent of the Old Testament parable of the prophet Jeremiah and the earthen jar. Obeying the will of the Lord, the prophet buys an earthen jar and breaks it in front of the elders: just as a man breaks an earthen vessel, the Lord can crush the people of Israel if people violate the commandments of the Lord and worship idols.
Breaking a jug of holy water, Dante reproduces the gesture of the prophet. Jeremiah rebelled against the idolatry of the people of Israel, and Dante in the Comedy rebelled against contemporary idolatry - the simony of the church Simony- purchase of church positions. In the broad sense of the word, this is the name given to the predominance of material interests over spiritual interests in the affairs of churchmen.. In the 19th song, Dante unleashes anger on the popes, who exchange the spiritual for the material and lead the world to destruction:
O Simon the sorcerer, O ill-fated host,
You, that the shrine of God, Good
A pure bride, in terrible greedCorrupted for the sake of gold and silver,
Now about you, who are executed in the third gap,
It's time to ring the trumpet!
Dante had already vaguely hinted at his prophetic gift. In the New Life, having reached the moment of Beatrice's death, Dante refuses to talk about her: "It does not befit me to talk about this, since I would exalt myself, which is especially reprehensible" (Dante alludes to a mystical vision that happened to him at the time of Beatrice's death). The contemporary Danish scholar Mirko Tavoni brings this episode closer to the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians: 14 years after the event, the apostle tells how he was “caught up” (that is, taken up) to heaven. Paul kept silent about this miracle before, so as not to exalt himself and not be proud of such a divine sign. Dante is also endowed with a special gift and also does not want to talk about it directly, so as not to praise himself.
6. The mystery of living people in hell
Illustration by Gustave Doré for Canto XVIII "Ada". 1900 edition Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library / University of Toronto In the 18th song, Dante meets a friend:
As I walked forward my gaze fell
For one; and I exclaimed: "Somewhere
I already fed his eyes with his face.I became, trying to recognize who it is,
And the good leader, stopping with me,
I was not forbidden to catch up with him.Scourged, hiding his appearance,
bowed his brow; but the labor was wasted;
I said: "You, with bowed head,When you don't wear someone else's appearance, -
Venedico Cacchanemico. How
Did you deserve a condiment so cool?”
Venedico dei Cacchanemici - a prominent politician of the second half of XIII century, leader of the Bolognese Guelphs In the XIII century between the papacy and the German emperors there was a fierce struggle for dominance in the Italian peninsula. The supporters of the pope were called Guelphs and stood up against the Ghibellines, the supporters of the emperor. In 1289, after the battle of Campaldino, in which Dante took part, the Ghibellines were expelled from Florence and the city became the fiefdom of the Guelphs. But the political conflicts did not end there. Soon the Guelphs themselves were divided into two factions - white and black. Whites sought greater political and economic independence from the papacy, while blacks, representing the interests of the wealthiest families in the city, supported papal intervention in the internal affairs of Florence. After the division, Dante joined the White Guelphs.. It was after his party came to power that Dante was forced to leave Bologna, where he spent several years of exile. The expulsion of Dante from his native Florence happened a few years earlier. In Florentine political life, he actively participated from about 1295, and in 1300 he was even elected one of the seven members of the college of priors. But his political career cost him dearly: when the black Guelphs came to power in Florence, Dante was immediately sentenced to death. The poet, who was at that time outside the city, will never return to his homeland.. This explains Dante's personal dislike for Venediko.
In 1300, when the action of the Comedy unfolds, the historical Venediko was still alive - he will die only in 1303. Dante writes this song around 1307-1308 - and either forgets the exact time of the death of the Bolognese, or deliberately neglects the chronology in order to get even with his enemy.
But if this case allows a double interpretation, then in other places Dante deliberately goes to some tricks to put people in hell, during the action of the Comedy - at the end of March 1300 - still alive. For example, in the 19th song, the poet settles scores with the hated Pope Boniface VIII He supported the black Guelphs, so Dante believed that the exile was the result of the political intrigues of Boniface. who died only in 1303. Dante meets Pope Nicholas III, who is suffering eternal torment for the sin of simony, and turns to him. But the soul of the sinful pope takes the poet for Boniface:
How, Boniface, - he answered, -
Are you here already, are you here so early?
Thus, Dante indicates that the soul of Boniface has already been destined for a place in hell.
Another living dead is Branca Doria, a Genoese who pays for the betrayal of a guest. He also ended up in hell long before his historical death in 1325 (a few years after the death of Alighieri himself). The souls of such traitors are thrown into hell immediately after the commission of villainy, and a demon enters the body. Therefore, it seems alive that "Branca d'Oria is alive, well, he eats and drinks and sleeps and wears dresses."
7. Mystery of the centaurs
Illustration by Gustave Doré for Canto XII "Ada". 1900 edition Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library / University of Toronto In the seventh circle of hell, Dante and Virgil first of all meet the guard - the half-man, half-bull Minotaur:
... And on the edge, over the descent to the new abyss,
Spread out lay the shame of the Cretans,Conceived of old imaginary cow.
Like a bull struck to death with an axe,
Tearing his lasso, but unable to run
And only jumps, stunned by pain,So the Minotaur rushed about, wild and vicious ...
Going even lower, they see centaurs with their "double nature" and harpies "with broad wings, with a maiden face."
The presence of mythological characters of pagan Antiquity in Dante's Christian hell no longer surprises the reader, because the guards of the previous circles were the carrier of the souls of the dead through the Styx Charon, the king of Crete Minos, guarding the gates of hell Cerberus, the god of wealth Plutos. Dante again acts in the middle-of-the-century, adapting Antiquity to his needs: pagan monsters turn into hellish demons, and the mythical rivers Acheron, Styx and Phlegeton flow on the map of hell.
But the Minotaur, centaurs and harpies are united not only by ancient origin: they are also connected by a dual nature, combining human and animal. Why is it important? Because Dante builds his hell by imitating Aristotle. Let us recall the words of Virgil at the end of the 11th ode:
Don't you remember the saying
From Ethics, which is most pernicious
Three heaven-hated attraction:
Incontinence, malice, violent bestiality?
And that intemperance is the lesser sin before God
And he doesn't punish him that way?
The first circles are reserved for the sins of intemperance, then the rapists come, in the very depths there are deceivers and traitors.
Ancient hybrid monsters are in the seventh circle, the circle of rapists, and represent an allegorical representation of the sins of this part of hell: the animal element, manifested in the vices of sinners languishing here, is physically manifest in them.
This is just one of the many instances of Dante's use of allegory: each element, whether historical character or a mythological monster, acquires, in addition to a specific poetic, an additional allegorical meaning. This allegorism of Dante is typical of the Middle Ages, and yet his idea of man anticipates the ideas of the Neoplatonists of the Italian Renaissance. Neoplatonists- Italian humanists of the 15th century, who turned to the philosophical ideas of Plato, breaking with the Aristotelianism of medieval scholasticism. The central figures of the Renaissance Italian Neoplatonism are Marsilio Ficino and Gio van ni Pico della Mirandola.: a person is halfway between animals and God and can approach the divine pole, relying on the mind given to him, or sink to the state of an animal (it is significant that the adjective bestiale- "animal" - is used by Dante only in relation to human behavior and always in a very negative way).
In the last circle of hell before us
In the darkness the surface of the lake shone
Under the icy hard layers.
On these ices would fall harmlessly,
Like pyx, the bulk of the stone peak,
Without crushing their eternal crystal.
And like frogs, emerging from the mud,
Among the swamps are sometimes seen, -
So in the lake of that gloomy valley
Countless sinners in a crowd,
Bent over, naked sat
Under the icy, transparent crust.
Their lips turned blue from the cold,
And the tears on the cheeks froze,
And there was no blood in the pale body.
Their cloudy eyes drooped in such sadness,
That my thought is numb with fear,
When I remember how they trembled,
And the sun's ray has not warmed me since then.
And so earth's axis too close:
A foot slips, cold blows in my face ...
Then I saw deep in the darkness
Two sinners: stricken with madness,
One grabbed the other and brutally
He sunk his teeth into a crushed skull,
And gnawed it, and flowed out in streams
From a black wound, the brain is bloody.
And I asked with trembling lips,
Who does he eat? raising
Your reddened face and hair
Wiping the lips of the unfortunate victim,
He answered: "I am the ghost of Ugolino,
And this shadow is Ruggier; native land
The villain cursed ... He was the reason
All my torments: he imprisoned in fetters
Me with the children, persecuted by fate.
The prison vault crushed like a lead coffin;
Through its crack more than once in the clear firmament
I saw how a new month was born -
When I had a terrible dream:
Dogs hunted the old wolf;
Ruggier drove them with a whip, and the unfortunate beast
With a crowd of their wolf cubs through the gray dust
Dragged a trail of blood, and he fell
And the hounds sank their fangs into him.
Hearing the children cry, I woke up:
In a dream, full of foreboding longing,
They begged for bread, and crowded
Involuntarily horror before trouble is in my chest.
Don't you have a spark of regret?
Oh if you don't cry for me
What are you crying about! .. In the midst of languor
The hour when food was brought to us,
Long gone; no sound, no movement...
In the mute walls - everything is quiet, as in the grave.
Suddenly a heavy hammer struck behind the doors...
I understood everything: the entrance to the prison was blocked.
And intently insane eyes
I looked at the children in front of me
They sobbed silent tears.
But I was silent, bowing my head;
My Anzelmuccio to me with sweet caress
Whispered: "Oh, how do you look, what's wrong with you? .."
But I was silent, and it was so hard for me,
That I couldn't cry or pray
So the first day passed, and it came
Second morning: meek morning day
Flashed again, and in a quivering flicker
Recognizing their pale, thin faces,
I gnawed my hands to drown out the suffering.
But the children rushed to me, sobbing,
And I was quiet. We spent in silence
Two more days ... Earth, dumb earth,
Oh, why didn't you swallow us! ..
He fell at my feet, weakening,
My poor Gaddo, groaning dejectedly:
“Father, oh where are you, have pity on me!”
And the death of his torment stopped.
As son after son fell in succession,
I saw with my own eyes,
And here is one, one under eternal darkness
Over dead, cold bodies -
I called the children; then exhausted
I grope, with powerless hands,
When the vision has already faded in the eyes,
I searched for their corpses, tormented by horror,
But hunger, hunger conquered torment! .. "
And he fell silent, and again, tireless,
Grabbed the skull with his teeth in wild anger
And gnawed at him, the implacable executioner:
So the greedy dog gnaws and gnaws at the bones.
Dante Alighieri - the greatest and famous person, born in the Middle Ages. His contribution to the development of not only Italian, but also the entire world literature cannot be estimated. To date, people often search for Dante Alighieri's biography in summary. But to be interested in such a superficial interest in the life of such a great man who made a huge contribution to the development of languages is not entirely correct.
Biography of Dante Alighieri
Speaking about the life and work of Dante Alighieri, it is not enough to say that he was a poet. The area of his activity was very extensive and multifaceted. He was interested not only in literature, but also in politics. Today Dante Alighieri, whose biography is filled with interesting events is called a theologian.
Beginning of life
The biography of Dante Alighieri began in Florence. Family legend, which for a long time was the basis of the Alighieri family, said that Dante, like all his relatives, was a descendant of a great Roman family, which laid the foundation for the founding of Florence itself. Everyone considered this legend true, because the grandfather of Dante's father was in the ranks of the army that participated in the Crusade under the command of the Great Conrad the Third. It was this ancestor of Dante who was knighted, and soon died tragically during the battle against the Muslims.
It was this relative of Dante, whose name was Kachchagvida, who was married to a woman who came from a very rich and noble family - Aldigieri. Over time the name known kind began to sound a little different - "Alighieri". One of the children of Cacchagvid, who later became Dante's grandfather, often endured persecution from the lands of Florence in those years when the Guelphs constantly fought battles with the peoples of the Ghibellines.
Biography Highlights
Today you can find many sources that briefly talk about the biography and work of Dante Alighieri. However, such a study of the personality of Dante will not be entirely correct. A brief biography of Dante Alighieri will not be able to convey all those seemingly unimportant biographical elements that so strongly influenced his life.
Speaking about the date of birth of Dante Alighieri, no one can say the exact date, month and year. However, it is generally accepted that the main date of birth is the time that Bocaccio named, being a friend of Dante, - May 1265. The writer Dante himself wrote about himself that he was born under the Gemini zodiac, which suggests that the time of Alighieri's birth is the end of May - the beginning of June. What is known about his baptism is that this event took place in 1266, in March, and his name at baptism sounded like Durante.
Education Dante Alighieri
Another important fact that is mentioned in all short biographies Dante Alighieri, was his education. The first teacher and mentor of the young and still unknown Dante was a popular writer, poet and at the same time a scientist - Brunetto Latini. It was he who laid the first poetic knowledge in the young head of Alighieri.
And today the fact remains unknown where Dante received his further education. Scientists studying history unanimously say that Dante Alighieri was very educated, knew a lot about the literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages, was well versed in various sciences, and even studied heretical teachings. Where could Dante Alighieri get such wide knowledge? In the biography of the poet, this has become another mystery that is almost impossible to solve.
For a long time scientists from all over the world tried to find the answer to this question. Many facts indicate that Dante Alighieri could have received such extensive knowledge at the university, which was located in the city of Bologna, since it was there that he lived for some time. But, since there is no direct evidence of this theory, it remains only to assume that it is so.
The first steps in creativity and tests
Like all people, the poet had friends. His closest friend was Guido Cavalcanti, who was also a poet. It was to him that Dante devoted a huge number of works and lines of his poem "New Life".
At the same time, Dante Alighieri is known as a fairly young public and politician. In 1300 he was elected to the post of prior, but soon the poet was expelled from Florence along with his comrades. Already on his deathbed, Dante dreamed of being on his native land. However, throughout his life after his exile, he was never allowed to visit the city, which the poet considered his homeland.
Years spent in exile
The expulsion of their hometown made Dante Alighieri, whose biography and books are filled with bitterness from separation from his native land, a wanderer. At the time of such large-scale persecutions in Florence, Dante was already one of the famous lyric poets. His poem "New Life" had already been written by this time, and he himself worked hard on the creation of "Feast". Changes in the poet himself were very noticeable in his further work. Exile and long wandering left an indelible imprint on Alighieri. His great work "The Feast" was supposed to be the answer to the 14 canzones already accepted in society, but it was never completed.
Development in the literary path
It was during his exile that Alighieri wrote his most famous work, Comedy, which began to be called "divine" only years later. Alighieri's friend, Boccaccio, greatly contributed to the change of name.
There are still many legends about Dante's Divine Comedy. Boccaccio himself claimed that all three canticles were written in different cities. The last part, "Paradise", was written in Ravenna. It was Boccaccio who said that after the poet died, his children for a very long time could not find the last thirteen songs that were written by the hand of the great Dante Alighieri. This part of the "Comedy" was discovered only after one of the sons of Alighieri dreamed of the poet himself, who told where the manuscripts were. Such a beautiful legend is actually not refuted by scientists today, because there are a lot of oddities and mysteries around the personality of this creator.
The personal life of the poet
In the personal life of Dante Alighieri, everything was far from ideal. His first and last love was the Florentine girl Beatrice Portinari. Having met his love back in Florence, as a child, he did not understand his feelings for her. Meeting Beatrice nine years later, when she was already married, Dante realized how much he loved her. She became for him the love of his life, inspiration and hope for a better future. The poet was shy all his life. During his life, he spoke only twice with his beloved, but this did not become an obstacle for him in love for her. Beatrice did not understand, did not know about the feelings of the poet, she believed that he was simply arrogant, therefore he did not talk to her. This was precisely the reason that Portinari once felt a strong resentment towards Alighieri and soon stopped talking to him at all.
For the poet, this was a strong blow, because it was under the influence of the very love that he felt for Beatrice that he wrote most of his works. Dante Alighieri's poem "New Life" was created under the influence of Portinari's words of greeting, which the poet regarded as a successful attempt to attract the attention of his beloved. And Alighieri completely devoted his “Divine Comedy” to his only and unrequited love for Beatrice.
tragic loss
Alighieri's life changed a lot with the death of his beloved. Since at the age of twenty-one Bice, as the girl was affectionately called by her relatives, was married to a rich and influential person, it remains surprising that exactly three years after her marriage, Portinari died suddenly. There are two main versions of death: the first is that Bice died during a difficult childbirth, and the second is that she was very ill, which eventually led to her death.
For Alighieri, this loss was very big. For a long time without finding his place in this world, he could no longer feel sympathy for anyone. Based on the awareness of his precarious position, a few years after the loss of the woman he loved, Dante Alighieri married a very rich lady. This marriage was created solely by calculation, and the poet himself treated his wife absolutely coldly and indifferently. Despite this, in this marriage, Alighieri had three children, two of whom eventually followed the path of their father and became seriously interested in literature.
Death of a great writer
Death overtook Dante Alighieri suddenly. In 1321, at the end of the summer, Dante went to Venice to finally make peace with the famous church of St. Mark. During his return to his native land, Alighieri suddenly fell ill with malaria, which killed him. Already in September, on the night of the 13th to the 14th, Alighieri died in Ravenna, without saying goodbye to his children.
There, in Ravenna, Alighieri was buried. The famous architect Guido da Polenta wanted to build a very beautiful and rich mausoleum for Dante Alighieri, but the authorities did not allow this, because the poet spent a huge part of his life in exile.
To date, Dante Alighieri is buried in a beautiful tomb, which was built only in 1780.
by the most interesting fact what remains is that the well-known portrait of the poet has no historical basis and reliability. This is how Bocaccio represented him.
Dan Brown in his book "Inferno" writes a lot of biographical facts about the life of Alighieri, which are really recognized as reliable.
Many scholars believe that Beatrice's beloved was invented and created by time, that such a person never existed. However, no one can explain how, in this case, Dante and Beatrice could become a symbol of great and unhappy love, standing on the same level as Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde, no one can.
Perhaps this story would not have reached us, dissolving without a trace in the past, like many other similar stories, if Dante Alighieri, expelled from Florence for political reasons, had not found shelter in Ravenna with Guido da Polenta, the nephew of Francesca da Rimini.
Beautiful beauty Francesca dreamed of love. But who cares about the dreams of a young girl, if the honor and dignity of two noble families are at stake?
Between the families of Rimini and Ravenna there was a long-standing enmity. There was only one way to settle discord in medieval Italy - to intermarry. And the fathers of noble families decided to marry their children. Of the four sons of Rimini, Father Francesca chose the eldest. Giovanni, nicknamed the Cripple, was distinguished by a ferocious disposition and terrible appearance, and it is unlikely that Francesca would have willingly agreed to marry him. So that the deal would not be upset, it was decided to resort to tricks. To conclude a marriage contract, Giovanni's younger brother, the handsome Paolo, was sent to Ravenna.
Francesca liked the young man, and she happily left her father's house. And only when she arrived at the Rimini estate, she realized that she had been cruelly deceived, her husband was not the handsome and kind Paolo, but the cruel cripple Giovanna. However, the love that broke out between Francesco and Paolo did not go out.
According to the customs of that time, Giovanno, Lord Pesaro, was obliged to live at the place of his service, and his family was supposed to be outside the city, in the family castle. This castle became a prison for Francesca and at the same time a place of secret meetings with her beloved.
The legend says that once Giovanno, having suspected something was wrong, did not leave the castle, but waited for some time and broke into his wife's bedroom at the moment when she secretly met with Paolo. There was a secret exit in the room, but Paolo did not have time to use it. The enraged deceived husband, drawing a dagger, rushed at his brother. Francesca stepped between her husband and her beloved, taking the mortal blow upon herself. This did not save Paolo, the next blow killed him.
So says the legend. Historical facts testify to something else. Francesca by that time was no longer a young beautiful maiden, she raised a daughter from her first marriage. And there were no secret meetings between her and Paolo. Whilst away the time reading books, she sometimes read them together with younger brother husband. It was at this moment that Giovanna caught them and, taking a friendly kiss as evidence of treason, without hesitation, killed both.
This did not prevent Dante from placing the dead in hell, where, at the behest of the author, they circled, without opening their arms, in an eternal whirlwind of devilish fire. The love passion that led to death united them forever after death.
But even Dante, having prepared for them the torments of hell, did not say anything about a long relationship and adultery. Details about the secret meetings in the room with a secret passage appeared later, when the tragedy Francesca da Rimini by Gabriele D'Annunzio was published.
The moral foundations of the Middle Ages were such that all love was considered sinful. Dante did not look for and did not want to look for excuses for his beloved. But his mention in the Divine Comedy about the torments of Francesca and Paolo in hell allowed the emergence of a beautiful legend about love, the plot of which formed the basis of the works of many musicians, artists and writers.
Dante does not say how he passed from the second circle to the third, probably because he wanted to hint to the reader that his soul, even after the return of feelings in him, was so strongly shaken by the sad fate of two lovers that he did not pay any attention to the path, now they passed. It awakened in him only at the sight of a new execution. Streckfuss.
Gluttons (i miseri profani) are executed in this circle. “Rain, this blessed gift of heaven, fecundating the earth, is here in the darkness, inaccessible to sunlight, produces nothing but disgusting filth and stench: the gifts of heaven are squandered in vain for voluptuaries, sinners are immersed in filth: didn’t the same thing happen to them in life? They are unable to rise from it; trying in vain to free themselves from it, they only turn from side to side; if they happen to rise, they immediately fall again (vv. 91-93) and, moreover, head forward, the receptacle of their spiritual forces: she became so heavy that she herself bends them to the ground. Save and Strekfuss.
Like Charon and Minos, Virgil's Cerberus is turned into a demon whose three-headed image ends in a gigantic worm or snake. The worm that sharpens the world is also called Lucifer (Ada XXXIV, 107). He is with a triple mouth, with a thick belly, with a strong (in authentic: with a black and greasy beard, with red eyes - a real personification of gluttony. He is saturated with dirt: this expresses the value of what voluptuaries seek to satisfy their desires, for the sake of which they forget about the highest purpose of man is about the development of higher spiritual forces.The bark of Cerberus deafens sinners; this is the voice of their evil conscience, for which, in their filth, they would willingly wish to be deaf forever.
Imitation of Virgil, Aen. VI, 420.
Cui vates, horrere videns jam colla colubris,
Helle soporatam et medicatis frugibus offam
Objieit Ille fame rabida tria guttura pandeni
Gorripit objectam, atque immanla terga resolvit
Pusus bumi, totoque ingens extenditur antro.
Despite the fact that the sinners punished in this circle have a human form and seem to be real beings, they are so insignificant that they cannot be distinguished from the fetid filth in which their soul has sunk. Like dirt, Dante tramples them under his feet, paying as much attention to them as he does to real dirt. Kannegisser. - In general, however, let us note that Dante's shadows in hell are not yet completely freed from the earth, their essence is still connected with some materiality; in purgatory they are more spiritual; Finally, in Paradise, souls are no longer called shadows, but lights, for they are eternally surrounded by the light of joy that quickens them.
Chiacco is either an abbreviation for Giacopo, Jacob, or a nickname, which in the Florentine dialect means pig. It is unbelievable that Dante, in addressing this sinner, used the spoken word in a mocking tone, with the deep participation that he takes in his fate. Anyway, this play on words Chiacco, Jacob, and chiacco, pig, sharply characterizes the representative of sin, which is punished here. This Giacopo or Chiacco, according to the ancient commentators, was a true judge and a cheerful conversationalist, pleasant in society. It is mentioned by Boccaccio Decamer. IX, 8.
For a clear understanding of Ciacco's prediction, it is necessary to know the political state of Florence at that time, especially since this historical information will later serve us as the key to explaining many places in the Dante poem. At the end of the thirteenth century, Florence, having expelled the Ghibelline party, was at last able to enjoy peace for a while; but this calm was of short duration. Pistoia at that time was part of the Guelphian Union in Tuscany, having the same popular government as Florence. One of the most famous families of this city, the Cancelleri, was divided into two lines: the members of one named themselves after their mother, Bianchi, white, the members of the other, in opposition to her, called themselves black. These parties have long been at enmity with each other and often came into bloody clashes; in 1300 their enmity flared up with renewed vigor. Amadore, one of the Black Party, quarreled and wounded his relative Vanni (from the White Party). Father Amadore, a man of a peaceful nature, sent his son to the wounded father to apologize for his temper; but this latter, instead of listening to excuses, ordered Amadora to be seized, and, saying that such insults were decided by the sword, and not by words, cut off his right hand. This villainy immediately divided the whole city: some took the side of the Blacks, others of the Whites. But the strife was not limited to Pistoia alone, but immediately spread to Florence, where the hostile spirit of the Guelphs and Ghibellines was still imperfectly suppressed. In Florence, members of the old noble family of Donati (under the leadership of Messer Corso) took the side of the Blacks, and the new noble house of Cherki (under the command of Messer Viero) took the side of the Whites. Troubles and bloody fights spread throughout the city. At this time, Florence was ruled by priors, who were elected annually by 6 people, each for two months. Wanting to stop the unrest, they, according to legend, on the advice of Dante, who was prior of Florence from June 15 to August 15 of the past year, expelled the leaders of both parties from the city: the Blacks to Perugia, the Whites to Sarzana. This was in February 1301. At that time, the Blacks turned to Pope Boniface VIII with a request to send them a third-party ruler to establish order in them. Meanwhile, the Whites, as less guilty, were soon called back, under the pretext that the climate of Sarzana was harmful to them, and indeed many of them died from diseases. Returning to the city, in June 1301 they managed to expel the rest of the Black party, who retired to their leaders in Perugia. Whether Dante took any part in these party intrigues is very doubtful: the only thing that is certain is that at that time he was used for political affairs and was sent as an ambassador to Boniface VIII. Meanwhile, Boniface, benevolent to the Blacks, as to the true Guelphs, sent, probably through their own intrigues, Charles of Valois, brother french king Philip the Fair, to Florence under the guise of a peacemaker. The authorities of the city received him with honor and, after taking an oath of inviolable obedience to the laws of the republic, authorized him to reform and calm the republic. Soon, however, he brought an armed army into the city. The Blacks took advantage of this moment, burst into the city and devastated it with fire and sword for five days in a row. Karl did not take decisively any measures to stop these troubles and only took care to get more money by all means that depended on him; at the same time, under various pretexts, he expelled from the city all the citizens hostile to him, by the way, our poet with many Whites. However, many of this party remained in their homes even after the departure of Charles from Florence (in 1302), and only in 1304 were they finally expelled. Philaletes and Weghele (Dante's Lebeu und Werke, 1852, 117 and e).
