Dante Salieri. Dante Alighieri and His Divine Comedy as a Standard of Italian Renaissance Literature - Biography

DANTE Alighieri (Dante Alighieri) (1265-1321), Italian poet, creator of the Italian literary language. In his youth, he joined the school "Dolce style Nuovo" (sonnets in praise of Beatrice, the autobiographical story "New Life", 1292-93, edition 1576); philosophical and political treatises ("Feast", not finished; "On the People's Speech", 1304-07, edition 1529), "Messages" (1304-16). The pinnacle of Dante's work is the poem "The Divine Comedy" (1307-21, edition 1472) in 3 parts ("Hell", "Purgatory", "Paradise") and 100 songs, a poetic encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. He had a great influence on the development of European culture.

DANTE Alighieri(May or June 1265, Florence - September 14, 1321, Ravenna), Italian poet, one of the greatest geniuses of world literature.

Biography

The Dante family belonged to the urban nobility of Florence. The family name Alighieri (in a different voicing of Alagieri) was the first to be worn by the poet's grandfather. Dante was educated at a municipal school, then, presumably, studied at the University of Bologna (according to even less reliable information, he also attended the University of Paris during his exile). He took an active part in the political life of Florence; from June 15 to August 15, 1300, he was a member of the government (he was elected to the post of prior), trying, while acting, to prevent the aggravation of the struggle between the parties of the White and Black Guelphs (see Guelphs and Ghibellines). After an armed coup in Florence and the coming to power of the Black Guelphs, on January 27, 1302, he was sentenced to exile and deprived of civil rights; On March 10, he was sentenced to death for failing to pay a fine. The first years of Dante's exile - among the leaders of the White Guelphs, takes part in the armed and diplomatic struggle with the winning party. The last episode in his political biography is connected with the Italian campaign of Emperor Henry VII (1310-13), whose efforts to establish civil peace in Italy he gave ideological support in a number of public messages and in the treatise "Monarchy". Dante never returned to Florence, spent several years in Verona at the court of Can Grande della Scala, the last years of his life enjoyed the hospitality of the ruler of Ravenna, Guido da Polenta. Died of malaria.

Lyrics

The main part of Dante's lyrical poems was created in the 80-90s. 13th century; with the beginning of the new century, small poetic forms gradually disappear from his work. Dante began by imitating the most influential lyric poet in Italy at that time, Gwittone d'Arezzo, but soon changed poetics and, together with his older friend Guido Cavalcanti, became the founder of a special poetic school, which Dante himself called the school of the "sweet new style" ("Dolce style nuovo" ). Its main distinguishing feature is the ultimate spiritualization of love feeling. Poems dedicated to his beloved Beatrice Portinari, Dante, having provided biographical and poetic comments, collected in a book called "New Life" (c. 1293-95). Actually, the biographical canvas is extremely stingy : two meetings, the first in childhood, the second in adolescence, denoting the beginning of love, the death of Beatrice's father, the death of Beatrice herself, the temptation of a new love and overcoming it.The biography appears as a series of mental states leading to an ever more complete mastery of the meaning of the hero of feeling that has befallen: in as a result, the feeling of love acquires the features and signs of religious worship.

In addition to the "New Life", about fifty more poems by Dante have come down to us: poems in the manner of the "sweet new style" (but not always addressed to Beatrice); the love cycle, known as the "stone" (after the name of the addressee, Donna Pietra) and characterized by an excess of sensuality; comic poetry (poetic squabble with Forese Donati and the poem "Flower", the attribution of which remains doubtful); a group of doctrinal poems (dedicated to the themes of nobility, generosity, justice, etc.).

Treatises

Poems of philosophical content became the subject of commentary in the unfinished treatise "Feast" (c. 1304-07), which is one of the first attempts in Italy to create scientific prose in the vernacular and at the same time the rationale for this attempt - a kind of educational program along with the protection of the vernacular. language. In the unfinished Latin treatise "On Popular Eloquence", written in the same years, the apology of the Italian language is accompanied by the theory and history of literature in it - both of which are absolute innovations. In the Latin treatise "Monarchy" (c. 1312-13), Dante (also for the first time) proclaims the principle of separation of spiritual and secular power and insists on the full sovereignty of the latter.

"The Divine Comedy"

Over the poem "The Divine Comedy" Dante began to work during the years of exile and finished it shortly before his death. Written in tercini, containing 14,233 verses, it is divided into three parts (or canticles) and one hundred cantos (each canticle contains thirty-three songs, and one more is introductory to the whole poem). It was called a comedy by the author, who proceeded from the classification of genres worked out by medieval poetics. The definition of "divine" was given to her by her descendants. The poem tells about Dante's journey through the realm of the dead: the right to see the afterlife during his lifetime is a special favor that saves him from philosophical and moral delusions and imposes on him a certain high mission. Dante, lost in the "gloomy forest" (which symbolizes a specific, although not directly named sin of the author himself, and at the same time - the sins of all mankind, experiencing a critical moment in its history), comes to the aid of the Roman poet Virgil (who symbolizes the human mind, unfamiliar with divine revelation) and leads him through the first two kingdoms beyond the grave - the kingdom of retribution and the kingdom of redemption. Hell is a funnel-shaped failure ending in the center of the earth, it is divided into nine circles, in each of which an execution is performed on a special category of sinners (only the inhabitants of the first circle - the souls of unbaptized babies and righteous pagans - are spared from torment). Among the souls that Dante met and entered into a conversation with him, there are those who are personally familiar to him and there are known to everyone - characters of ancient history and myths, or heroes of our time. In The Divine Comedy they are not turned into direct and flat illustrations of their sins; the evil for which they are condemned is difficult to combine with their human essence, sometimes not devoid of nobility and greatness of spirit (among the most famous episodes of this kind are meetings with Paolo and Francesca in the circle of voluptuaries, with Farinata degli Uberti in the circle of heretics, with Brunetto Latini in circle of rapists, with Ulysses in the circle of deceivers, with Ugolino in the circle of traitors). Purgatory is a huge mountain in the center of the uninhabited ocean-occupied southern hemisphere, it is divided by ledges into seven circles, where the souls of the dead atone for the sins of pride, envy, anger, despondency, avarice and extravagance, gluttony, voluptuousness. After each of the circles, one of the seven signs of sin inscribed by the gatekeeper angel is erased from the forehead of Dante (and any of the souls of purgatory); but also redemptive. On a mountaintop, in an earthly paradise, Dante meets Beatrice (symbolizing divine revelation) and parted ways with Virgil; here, Dante is fully aware of his personal guilt and is completely cleared of it. Together with Beatrice, he ascends to paradise, in each of the eight heavens surrounding the earth (in seven planetary and in the eighth starry) he gets acquainted with a certain category of blessed souls and becomes stronger in faith and knowledge. In the ninth heaven of the Prime Mover, and in the Empyrean, where Beatrice replaces St. Bernard, he is honored with initiation into the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation. Both plans of the poem finally merge, in one of which the path of a person to truth and goodness through the abyss of sin, despair and doubt is presented, in the other - the path of history, which has come to the last frontier and opens towards a new era. And the Divine Comedy itself, being a kind of synthesis of medieval culture, turns out to be the final work for it.

On May 21, 1265, one of the founders of the literary Italian language, the greatest poet, theologian, politician, who entered the history of world literature as the author of the Divine Comedy, was born. Dante Alighieri.

The Alighieri family belonged to the middle-class urban nobility, and his ancestor was the famous knight Kachchagvid, who died in the second crusade in 1147. The full name of the legendary poet is Durante degli Alighieri, he was born in Florence, the largest Italian economic and cultural center of the Middle Ages, and remained devoted to his hometown all his life. Little is known about the writer's family and life, even the exact date of his birth is questioned by many researchers.

Dante Alighieri was an amazingly confident man. At the age of 18, the young man said that he could write poetry perfectly and that he had mastered this “craft” on his own. Dante was educated within the framework of medieval school programs, and since there was no university in Florence at that time, he had to acquire basic knowledge himself. The author of The Divine Comedy mastered French and Provençal, read everything that came to hand, and little by little his own path as a scientist, thinker and poet began to be drawn before him.

exiled poet

The youth of the brilliant writer fell on a difficult period: at the end of the 13th century, the struggle between the emperor and the pope intensified in Italy. Florence, where the Alighieri lived, was divided into two opposing groups - "blacks" led by Corso Donati and the "whites" to which Dante belonged. Thus began the political activity of the “last poet of the Middle Ages”: Alighieri participated in city councils and anti-papal coalitions, where the writer’s oratorical gift was manifested in all its splendor.

Dante was not looking for political laurels, but political thorns soon overtook him: the “blacks” activated their activities and pogromed opponents. On March 10, 1302, Alighieri and 14 other "white" supporters were sentenced to death in absentia. To escape, the philosopher and politician had to flee from Florence. Never again did Dante manage to return to his beloved city. Traveling around the world, he was looking for a place where he could retire and work quietly. Alighieri continued to study and, most importantly, create.

monogamous poet

When Dante was nine years old, a meeting took place in his life that changed the history of all Italian literature. On the threshold of the church, he ran into a little girl next door Beatrice Portinari and fell in love with the young lady at first sight. It was this tender feeling, according to Alighieri himself, that made him a poet. Until the last days of his life, Dante dedicated poems to his beloved, idolizing "the most beautiful of all angels." Their next meeting took place nine years later, by this time Beatrice was already married, her husband was a rich signor Simon de Bardi. But no bonds of marriage could prevent the poet from admiring his muse, she remained "the mistress of his thoughts" all his life. The poetic document of this love was the autobiographical confession of the writer "New Life", written at the fresh grave of his beloved in 1290.

Dante himself entered into one of those politically calculated business marriages that were accepted at that time. His wife was Gemma Donati, daughter of a wealthy gentleman Manetto Donati. When Dante Alighieri was expelled from Florence, Gemma remained in the city with the children, preserving the remnants of her father's property. Alighieri does not mention his wife in any of his works, but Dante and Beatrice have become the same symbol of a love couple as petrarch and Laura, Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet.

Dante and Beatrice on the banks of the Lethe. Cristobal Rojas (Venezuela), 1889. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Italian "Comedy"

The death of Beatrice marked the beginning of Dante's philosophical reflections on life and death, he began to read a lot Cicero attend a religious school. All this served as an impetus for the creation of the Divine Comedy. A brilliant work created by the author in exile, and today is traditionally included in the top ten most famous books. Dante's poem had a huge impact on the emergence of proper Italian literature. According to researchers, it is this work that summarizes the entire development of medieval philosophy. It also reflects the worldview of the greatest poet, so the Divine Comedy is called the fruit of the life and work of the Italian master.

The "divine" comedy of Alighieri did not immediately become, as the author of the "Decameron" later dubbed it Giovanni Boccaccio, having come in admiration from what he read. Dante called his manuscript very simply - "Comedy". He used medieval terminology, where comedy is “any poetic work of the middle style with a frightening beginning and a happy ending, written in the vernacular”; Tragedy is “any poetic work of high style with an admiring and calm beginning and a terrible end.” Despite the fact that the poem touches on the "eternal" themes of life and the immortality of the soul, retribution and responsibility, Dante could not call his work a tragedy, because, like all genres of "high literature", it had to be created in Latin. Alighieri wrote his Comedy in his native Italian, and even with the Tuscan dialect.

Dante worked on the greatest poem for almost 15 years, having managed to complete it shortly before his death. Alighieri died of malaria on September 14, 1321, leaving behind a significant mark in world literature and initiating a new era - the early Renaissance.

DANTE

Alighieri [ital. Dante Alighieri] (May 1265, Florence - 09/13/1321, Ravenna), Italian. poet, thinker.

D. genus. in the family of a poor landowner, a Guelph nobleman. He received his legal education in Bologna. Early became famous as a poet of the "sweet new style" school. From 1295, he was actively involved in the political life of the Florentine Republic. In 1300 he became one of the members of the government of Florence. From 1302 he was a political emigrant. From 1308 to 1313, as a publicist and politician, he actively contributed to the new imp. Henry VII, whose mission he saw in the unification of Italy and the restoration of the greatness of the Roman Empire. After the death of the emperor (1313) and the execution of the top of the Knights Templar (1314), with which D. connected his political projects, he wandered around the North. Italy in search of patronage and spiritual support (possibly visited Paris), leaving no hope of returning to Florence. However, the authorities of Florence in 1315 issued another death sentence that closed D.'s way to his homeland. From 1317 until his death he lived in Ravenna, where he completed the main work of his life - the Divine Comedy.

Major works: the autobiographical story "New Life" (La Vita Nuova, 1292-1293, published in 1576); the unfinished poetic-philosophical work "Feast" (Convivio, 1303-1306); philosophical and political treatises "On popular eloquence" (De vulgari eloquentia, 1304-1307) and "On the monarchy" (De monarchia, 1307-1313); a poem in 3 hours (kantika) and 100 songs "Comedy", later called "The Divine Comedy" (La Divina Commedia, 1307-1321, published in 1472).

D. is considered the creator of the Italian. lit. language and one of the founders of European. Literature of the New Age. D.'s poems, dedicated to Beatrice, her untimely deceased lover, create a new artistic ideal that combines deified and idealized femininity with a specific psychologically and biographically reliable portrait of the Lady, sung by the poet. This ideal reflects not only the courtly tradition, but also the psychological discoveries of St. Francis of Assisi. In philosophical treatises, D. gravitates towards the encyclopedic synthesis of the Middle Ages. learning, masterfully using the legacy of Aristotle, blzh. Augustine, Boethius, Saint-Victorian mysticism, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas.

The treatise "Feast" was conceived as a commentary on the canzones written by D. in the 90s. The object of comments is the poetry of the author himself, and in the course of interpretation, elements of the author's biography, his assessment of contemporaries, political views and emotions are introduced into the text. Such personalization of the text and the belief that the author's "I" is a worthy subject for a scientific treatise are not typical of the Middle Ages. commentator with his reverent "bottom-up" look at the subject of study. It is also unusual that the treatise is written in Italian. language: D. is rightly said to be the creator of the Italian. scientific language. The "Feast" is characterized by a mixture of genres mastered by the Middle Ages. The most indicative in this regard is the book. III, in which D. sets out his understanding of philosophy. "Donna Gentile", the noble lady of the 2nd canzone, is Philosophy, the mistress of Reason. Behind this allegory is a reinterpretation of the events of D.'s personal life, his love for the "compassionate donna", which we know about from the New Life. In order to explain the nature of philosophy, D. draws on an abundance of information from physics, astronomy, psychology, and history. Chapter 14 contains an essay on the sophiology of D., based on the Proverbs of Solomon: starting with Platonic scholasticism, the author, through courtly images, moves on to a mixture of ancient and Christ. vocabulary, depicting "heavenly Athens, where the Stoics, Peripatetics and Epicureans, illuminated by the light of eternal truth, are united by a single thirst" (Convivio. III 14. 15). Further, the author clarifies the hierarchy of Christian spiritual values ​​and correlates them with the intuition of the Higher Femininity, which permeates all of D.'s work. Wisdom is called "the mother of everything and the beginning of every movement ..." (Ibid. III 15. 15). The Eternal Wisdom of the Parables of Solomon merges with them.

Unlike "Feast" lat. D.'s treatise "On Folk Eloquence" gives the impression of integrity, although it also remained unfinished. Perhaps the philosophy of language as a thoughtful whole is first encountered precisely in the work “On Folk Eloquence”. D. clearly distinguishes between natural and cultural, "artificial" language. “The more famous of these two speeches is the folk one” (De vulgari eloquentia. I 1. 4). The criteria for "nobility" (that is, nobility and dignity) of folk speech are as follows: it is natural, lively, general and primary. Secondary speech, for all its refinement and loftiness, does not have the ability to develop and cannot fully fulfill its purpose, that is, be a force that unites people. D. emphasizes that speech is a specifically human quality. Angels and demons understand each other without words: angels perceive their own kind either directly or through reflection in a divine mirror; it is enough for demons to know about the existence and strength of their own kind. Animals of the same breed have the same actions and passions, and therefore they can learn others by themselves. A person is deprived of both types of immediacy. He is driven by the mind, and since the mind is individual, people do not know each other in the likeness of actions and passions. But the mind, separating man from animals, does not join him to the angels, since the soul of people is clothed with a rough shell of the body. Hence the need for a “reasonable and sensible sign” (Ibid. I 3.2), since without rationality a sign can neither exist in thought nor be introduced into other thinking, and without sensual means the transmission of rationality itself is impossible. Speech is such an object: sensual, since it is a sound, and rational, since it means what we have in mind. The theory of the D sign is one of the first semiotic concepts in Europe. At the same time, it is closely connected with the understanding of culture in general. D. sees in speech a fundamental property of a person, on which both the ability to communicate and the connection with the higher spiritual worlds are based (the first word of a person was, according to D., “El” - God) (Ibid. I 4. 4), and, finally, the social unity of mankind. In ch. 7 book. I D. briefly tells about the construction of the Tower of Babel, which people started in order to surpass nature and the Creator. God punished pride by confusing tongues, and thereby destroyed the human community. D. believed that the geographical dispersion of peoples is associated with this socio-linguistic catastrophe. Therefore, the dream of the language of Bud. Italy was for him something more than concern for the perfection of literature. Italy is the heir to the traditions of Rome; according to D., it should also play the role of Rome as a force that unites peoples, as a source of imperial power. The collection of scattered "languages" and the revival of a forgotten first language - such should be, according to D., the goal of culture. Folk speech remains the basis for the search for the original language, since, unlike artificial Latin, it was given by God and retains a living connection with reality. D. discovers that languages ​​are in the process of continuous change caused by changes in spiritual and material life. D. makes an exception for Hebrew, which has been preserved in purity since the time of Adam (however, in the Comedy it is already indirectly assumed that this language is also subject to corruption). According to D., it was not God who spoke first, but Adam, since the impulse to the word was invested in him. The poet reproduces this situation, repeats in his work the action of the first poet Adam, whom God allowed to speak, “so that in explaining such a great gift, He Himself would be glorified” (Ibid. I 5. 2).

D. discovered a living force, which was not noticed behind the artificial constructions of Latin, - the natural folk language, “Volgare” (Italian volgare). Another category is highlighted in the treatise, which is not characteristic of the thinking of classical Christ. Middle Ages - nation. Language turns out to be the substance in which the individual soul of the people materializes; moreover, language makes it possible to see that the nation is not reducible to sociality and religion, to territory and politics. Perhaps, for the first time in the Middle Ages, the motif of the motherland sounded in D. as a special subject of concern and spiritual effort. At the same time, D. is a singer of the "world empire" and the universal truth of Christianity. In his philosophical and poetic works, an awareness of a new cultural and historical reality is revealed - this is the autonomy of the individual, the power of science, the idea of ​​​​the independence and intrinsic value of nature, language, emotionality, and the nation. At the same time, the axiom for D. remains the Middle Ages. the doctrine of the hierarchy of world existence, in which each lower level lives by the gifts of the higher and makes sense to the extent that it is able to reflect the light of higher values. Therefore, the discovery of new entities means only a greater degree of penetration of meaning into matter, or, in theological language, a greater "glory".

Op. "On the Monarchy" D. seeks to prove 3 main points: for the earthly happiness of mankind, an empire is necessary; power to the emperor is given directly by God; Rome. the people rightfully assumed the role of imperial power. D. believes that the origin of the state was due to the fall of Adam. Mankind was in the grip of sensual passions, of which the most dangerous is greed, and therefore had to create a social structure that protects people from themselves, from their destructive self-interest. However, this is a common place of the Middle Ages. D.'s worldview is significantly corrected. A person, even in his nature not spoiled by sin, is a political, social being, a swarm always strives for communication and living together. Just like Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, D. considers the formation of a state-va a natural process. The state, consequently, does not bear the stamp of an ancient curse and can be a form of a happy life. The sin of Adam makes itself felt in the fact that the greed of people infects the state itself, which loses the functions of justice from this and enters into a selfish struggle with other states and with its citizens. Therefore, the thinker believes, a third force is needed, which would unite society and the state. Only the monarchy can claim the role of a reconciling 3rd force. The unlimited power of the Dante emperor - a ruler who has little in common with the absolute monarch of the national state of the XVII-XVIII centuries - is based on law, morality, divine sanction, on the nature of the world order. In fact, it is more limited than any other power. The emperor stands above passions, he has no private interest, everything belongs to him and, therefore, nothing in particular, to which he could be addicted. With some reservations, this image can be compared with the Aristotelian monarch, with the Platonic philosophers and guards, with the podest (the ruler of the Italian commune), but not with the monarch of the New Age. D. argues that the empire as a legal establishment precedes the one who exercises power, i.e. the emperor, who, because of this, cannot divide the empire into parts, limit his power and pass it on by inheritance. Constantine is the first Christ. emperor - committed, thus, an illegal act when he gave the Church power over a large area in Italy. D. believed that this mistake of Constantine (the forgery of the “gift” (see Art. Konstantinov’s gift) was not yet known to D.) played a fatal role in the penetration of worldly interests into church life. D. emphasizes the dependence of the emperor on ideal principles, arguing that “not citizens exist for the sake of the consuls and not the people for the sake of the king, but, on the contrary, the consuls for the citizens and the king for the people” (De monarchia. I 12.11). As the supreme judge and legislator, the emperor is obliged to intervene in those disputes that cannot be resolved due to the equality of the rights of the disputants (such are disputes between sovereign states), and his business is to take care of everyone and the state as a whole. If laws and power are not used for the common good, then they lose their legal character, because the very nature of the law is perverted (Ibid. II 5. 2-3). Not only justice and order, but also freedom is the subject of the emperor's concern. Freedom is “the greatest gift that God has placed in human nature, because through it we find happiness here as people and through it we find happiness there as gods” (Ibid. I 12. 6). D. concludes that living under the rule of the monarch is the most free. After all, freedom is the existence of people for their own sake, and not for something else; but this state can only be ensured by the monarch, who has no other interests other than the fulfillment of duty. Only he can protect people from perverted state. systems, to-rye subjugate the people. With t. sp. D., not only democracy, oligarchy and tyranny, but also the monarchy, if it does not represent a world empire, is a usurpation of power. A healthy form of power for D. is the coincidence of the universal and the individual in the person of the emperor. The spiritual support of the monarch must be a philosopher (Ibid. III 16); for otherwise the danger of arbitrariness and tyranny would be too great. The main tasks of the monarch are the protection of freedom, the establishment of relations between the political elements of the empire and the establishment of peace. Only peace can give humanity that state, which in Scripture is called “the fullness of times” (Eph 1:10; Gal 4:4), that is, prosperity and harmony. Only in a peaceful society can justice, legality and truth find their place - social virtues, which D. valued above all else. But peace is possible when a person most accurately reproduces the pattern set by God the ruler of the world, and for this it is necessary that he renounce self-interest, relying on the universal principle in himself. Monarchy, according to D., is an ideal system for such an overcoming of false individuality, since in it a person is subject to only one principle and this principle realizes the universal ideal without sacrificing freedom (De monarchia. I 8-9). "On the Monarchy" is perhaps the first treatise on the world peace, which was recognized by the political thought of Europe.

Peace and justice for D. are not only social categories. These are also natural and supernatural (theological) concepts. The world was created as the embodiment of a good intention, the foresight of nature is not inferior to the foresight of man, and therefore natural processes and historical events seem to correspond to each other in their internal order. “... The order established by nature must be preserved by law” (Ibid. II 6. 3), otherwise human society will fall out of the world order. An important consequence of these Dante's considerations was the idea of ​​a radical separation of the functions of pope and emperor. D. takes an unprecedented position in the old dispute about the "two swords". He does not agree with those who interpreted the gospel text (Lk 22:36-38) as an indication that Peter (the Church) has two swords (secular and spiritual power), of which he hands the secular sword to the emperor as a vassal. D., thus, opposed the concept of theocracy that prevailed in his time, which was substantiated, for example, by Thomas Aquinas. Thomas urged emperors to obey the pope as to Christ Himself. D. insists that the emperor is directly before God, receives from Him sanctions for power and bears full responsibility. The Pope, from his point of view, is not the vicar of Christ, but of Peter. And although the monarch must show him respect, similar to the respect of God the Son for God the Father, they are equal exponents of God's will.

A special role in clarifying the status of the world monarch is played by D. his doctrine of Rome. D. sings of the mission of Rome, linking the earthly kingdom and the Heavenly Kingdom, which became, as it were, the social matter of the Incarnation, since its jurisdiction then extended to Palestine. He notices that at the time when Christ was born, peace and prosperity reigned in the empire (which indicated the ideal goal of the state), and draws attention to the simultaneity of the birth of the "Mary's root", that is, the lineage of the Virgin Mary, and the foundation Rome. D. sees in Rome the consecrated flesh of the state, which began its journey with conquest, but must end with the affirmation of the universal power of love. There is no doubt that D. imagined the world state-in with the center in Rome not as the domination of the Italic nation, although he was proud of the remnants of the preserved continuity. As the chosen one of Israel was rethought by Christianity as the union of God with the spiritual "Israel", with believers, so D. tries to rethink the mission of Rome as the ideal power of justice. Such an idealization was possible, since the political structure of the world empire seemed to him in the form of an equal union of independent cities and kingdoms, in the internal affairs of which the emperor does not interfere, remaining the supreme guardian of law. D. not only defends the autonomy of secular power, but also preserves the purity of the spiritual authority of the Church. After all, God builds His relationship with believers not on the strength of the law, but on the basis of faith, giving people freedom. A clear distinction between spiritual and political power will allow, according to D., to protect himself from abuse. Spiritual authority opens the meaningful world of truth and the way to salvation, but it should not embody these ideals by resorting to political power. The power of the politician gives legal forms of action and the power to protect them, but cannot prescribe the choice of moral values. D.'s utopia differs sharply from the theocratic teachings of bliss. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas; it opposes the theories of the French. lawyers who fought for the principle of national independence of the state and did not recognize the world empire; it, finally, in contrast to the purely political concepts of the separation of secular and spiritual power of Occam and Marsilius of Padua, contains a positive religion. and moral ideal, the image of the world monarch. Catholic The church reacted to Op. "On the Monarchy" is much harsher than the "Divine Comedy": in 1329 it was condemned, and in 1554 it was included in the Index of Forbidden Books. Not enough tradition. for the Church and not innovative enough for French lawyers. king, this theory was forgotten, but in the XIX century. turned out to be consonant with conservative thought.

"Comedy" D. is a grand literary. a mystery telling about the author's journey in 1300 through 3 other worlds: hell, purgatory and paradise. D. creates pictures of 9 circles of the infernal funnel, 9 levels of the mountain of purgatory, 9 heavenly worlds and the Paradise Rose in the Empyrean, from which D. contemplates the Pres. Trinity. Guided by successive guides - Virgil, Beatrice and Bernard of Clairvaux, the hero learns the structure of the world, the laws of posthumous retribution, meets and talks with numerous characters of history and modernity. During the journey-pilgrimage, the author-hero re-experiences his life, being cleansed and transformed. That. "Comedy" in the symbol of wandering shows both the path of historical humanity and the path of inner self-deepening and salvation. In the theological aspect, D.'s attempt to reconcile opposing currents within the Catholic Church is interesting. Churches (for example, Dominicans and Franciscans are depicted as 2 wheels, on the axis of which the chariot of the Church is approved) (La Divina Commedia. Paradis. 11. 12) and transform earthly conflicts into harmonic round dances of thinkers. With unprecedented boldness for the Middle Ages, D. combines in the mystical event he sang the fate of a particular earthly person with the fate of history and the universe, while remaining within the framework of Christ. humanism.

If lit. the fate of the Comedy was triumphant, its theological aspect has been questioned more than once. But in the end, the conformity of the Comedy with the dogma and tradition of Catholicism was generally recognized. Comedy was not included in the Index of Banned Books, and after a wave of criticism and attacks caused by the ideology of the Counter-Reformation, the kard approach took hold. Robert Bellarmina, who in his work “On the Contradictions of the Christian Faith” (1613), leaving D.’s heretical motives in the shade, interpreted the dubious passages of the “Comedy” in an orthodox spirit. "Comedy" is rightly considered not only an encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. spirituality, but also one of the greatest creations of Europe. civilization.

In Russian D.'s culture enters the era of romanticism (together with the pan-European return of the great Italian from relative oblivion). Romantic consciousness associates with D. their favorite topics: the role of genius in history; national and world in literature; creation of modern epic; building an integral worldview based on artistic intuition; the symbol as a universally synthetic expressive means. Romantics were impressed by moral pathos, political passionarity and deep sincere religiosity D. V. A. Zhukovsky and K. N. Batyushkov - the pioneers of Russian Dantology - closely studied the "Comedy" and, as the researchers showed, considered its translation. Following them, P. A. Katenin made the first attempt at commenting on the “Comedy” and in his translation experiments outlined that stylistic strategy for mixing the spoken language with the bookish and “high”, which the best Russian will follow in the future. translators.

From the 30s. 19th century Russian begins to actively form. scientific dentistry. In the works of N. I. Nadezhdin (dissertation “On the origin, nature and fate of poetry called romantic”, 1830), S. P. Shevyrev (dissertation “Dante and his age”, 1833-1834), in the articles of N. A. Polevoy, A. V. Druzhinin reflected a sharp controversy, which led at that time Russian. romantic aesthetic. The topics of controversy went far beyond the actual aesthetic topic, and D.'s legacy allowed polemicists to make natural transitions from literature to politics and social history. Indicative in this respect are the controversies of Polevoy, Nadezhdin and Shevyryov, for the self-determination of their position both the legacy of A. S. Pushkin and the legacy of D. Rus were equally relevant. academic science, through the works of the historian P. N. Kudryavtsev (“Dante, his age and life”, 1855-1856), linguists F. I. Buslaev and A. N. Veselovsky laid the foundations for the historical and cultural analysis of the phenomenon of D.

For Russian Literature D.'s work, starting with Pushkin and N.V. Gogol, becomes a constant resource of ideas, images, creative impulses, allusions and correlations. An artist who dared to take on the mission of a prophet and judge, who built a grandiose generalizing picture of the world with the help of poetry, turns out to be for the Russian. writers as a kind of reference point in the landscape of world literature. In the works of the Golden Age, we find both attempts to directly reproduce the poetics of D. ("Dreams" by A. N. Maikov), and its indirect reflection (for example, "Notes from the House of the Dead" and the novels of F. M. Dostoevsky).

A special era in the development of D. in Russia is the Silver Age and times adjacent to it. The romantic understanding of D. as a genius-seer, a wanderer to other worlds, preserved in symbolism in a “removed” form, on the whole gives way to the image of D. as a master theurgist, practitioner and politician who does not turn away from the problems of his time. Dante's motifs permeate the lyrics of V. Ya. Bryusov, Vyach. I., A. A. Blok, A. Bely. Coming from Vl. S. Solovyov’s tradition of the philosophy of unity (E. N. Trubetskoy, S. L. Frank, S. N., L. P. Karsavin, priest Pavel Florensky, A. F. Losev) also constantly keeps D. in the field of his cultural consciousness. The Silver Age is characterized by an extended reading of Dante's heritage, which is not limited to the Comedy. Yes, Vl. Solovyov not only picks up the Sophian motives of D., but also directly relies on the political teaching of his Op. "On Monarchy". Vyach. Ivanov, as can be seen from his constant and systematic appeals to the legacy of D., essentially considers the life of the poet, his scientific works, artistic creations, and political asceticism as a single symbolic body. In the poem "Man" Vyach. Ivanov - with an obvious eye on the "Comedy" - undertakes his own experience of building a "supertext" about the fate of the world and humanity. For such Silver Age thinkers as Vl. Solovyov, Vyach. Ivanov, Ellis, D. S. Merezhkovsky, a well-known role in their steady interest in D., in his “pre-Trident” religion. attitude, also played the opportunity to overcome the mediastinum between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The impulse of the Silver Age lives on in subsequent decades. Acmeists create their own D.: the “Dante layer” is obvious in the poetry of A. A. Akhmatova; one of the most penetrating interpretations of D. is given by O. E. Mandelstam (“Conversation about Dante”, 1933); M. L. Lozinsky, the author of the famous translation of the Comedy, also belonged to the circle of acmeists. The impressive experience of coordinating the cosmology of D. and modern. science is carried out by the priest. P. Florensky ("Imaginations in Geometry", 1922). A subtle analysis of Dante's early work is given by A. M. Efros (Young Dante, 1934). The character of some esoteric world history is D. by A. Bely in the manuscript of the 20-30s. 20th century "The History of the Formation of the Self-Conscious Soul" and in Merezhkovsky's extensive work "Dante" (1939).

Cit.: Opere di Dante: testo critico della società dantesca italiana / A cura di M. Barbi et al. Firenze, 1921; Tutte le opera / A cura di F. Chiapelli. Mil., 1965; La Divina Commedia / A cura di D. Mattalia. Mil., 1986. Vol. 1-3; fav. Russian trans.: Sobr. cit.: In 5 volumes / Per. from Italian, commentary: M. L. Lozinsky. St. Petersburg; M., 1996; Sobr. cit.: In 2 volumes / Per. from Italian, intro. Art. and commentary: M. L. Lozinsky. M., 2001; New Life / Per. from Italian: A. Efros, commentary: S. Averintsev and A. Mikhailov. M., 1965, 1985; Small works. M., 1968; Monarchy / Per. from Italian: V.P. Zubov, commentary: I.N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov. M., 1999; Divine Comedy / Per. from Italian: M. L. Lozinsky. M., 2004; The same / Per. from Italian: D. Minaev. M., 2006.

Lit .: Zaitsev B.K. Dante and his poem. M., 1922; Dunbar H. F. Symbolism in Medieval Thought and its Consummation in the Divine Comedy. New Haven, 1929; Efros A. M. Young Dante // Dante Alighieri. New life. M., 1934. S. 9-64; Ledig G. Philosophie der Strafe bei Dante und Dostojewski. Weimar, 1935; Dzhivelegov A. K. Dante Alighieri: Life and work. M., 19462; Guardini R. Der Engel in Dantes Gottlicher Komödie. Munch., 19512; idem. Das Light bei Dante. Munch., 1956; idem. Landschaft der Ewigkeit. Munch., 1958; Batkin L.M. Dante and his time. M., 1965; Dante and the Slavs. M., 1965; Elina N. G. Dante. M., 1965; Charity A. C. Events and Their Afterlife: The Dialectics of Christian Typology in the Bible and Dante. Camb., 1966; Golenishchev-Kutuzov I. N. Dante. M., 1967; he is. Creativity of Dante and world culture. M., 1971; Mandelstam O. E. Talk about Dante. M., 1967; Gilson E. Dante and Philosophy. Gloucester (Mass.), 1968; Alekseev MP The first acquaintance with Dante in Russia // From classicism to romanticism: From the history of the international. ties rus. liters. L., 1970. S. 6-62; Encyclopedia Dantesca. R., 1970-1976. Vol. 1-5; Blagoy D. D. Il gran "padre (Pushkin and Dante) // Dante Readings. M., 1973. S. 9-64; Boccaccio D. Life of Dante // He. Small Works. L., 1975. S. 519-572; Gabrieli F. Dante and Islam // Arabic medieval culture and literature. M., 1978. S. 203-208; Losev A. F. Aesthetics of the Renaissance. M., 1978. S. 197-204; Andreev M. L. Time and Eternity in the Divine Comedy // Dante's Readings, 1979, pp. 156-212; Belza, I. F. Some problems of interpretation and commentary on the Divine Comedy, Ibid. Dante's Echoes of The Bronze Horseman, Ibid., 1982, pp. 170-182; Anderson W. Dante the Maker, L.; Boston, 1980; Boyde P. Dante Philomythes and Philosopher: Man in the Cosmos, Camb. , 1981; Nardi B. Dante e la cultura medievale. R., 1983; Ilyushin A. A. Above the line of the "Divine Comedy" // Dante Readings. 1985. P. 175-234; Shichalin Yu. A. About some images of the Neoplatonic Origin in Dante // Western European Medieval Literature, Moscow, 1985, pp. 98-100; Lotman Yu. Notes on artistic space // Proceedings on sign systems. Tartu, 1986. Issue. 19. S. 25-43; Asoyan A. A. Dante and Russian literature of the 1820-1850s. Sverdlovsk, 1989; he is. "Honor the highest poet...": The fate of Dante's "Divine Comedy" in Russia. M., 1990; Dobrokhotov A. L. Dante Alighieri. M., 1990; Khlodovsky R. I. Anna Akhmatova and Dante // Dante Readings. 1993. S. 124-147; Zelinsky F.F. Homer - Virgil - Dante // He. From the life of ideas. M., 1995. T. 4: Revivalists. Issue. 1. S. 58-79; Ivanov V. I. From draft notes about Dante // Vyacheslav Ivanov: Materials and research. M., 1996. S. 7-13; Takho-Godi E. A. Dante and K. K. Sluchevsky // Dantovskie readings. 1996. S. 69-94; Shishkin A. B. Flaming heart in the poetry of Vyacheslav Ivanov and Dante's vision of the "Blessed Wife" // Ibid. pp. 95-114; Merezhkovsky D.S. Dante. Tomsk, 1997; Auerbach E. Dante is a poet of the earthly world. M., 2004; Sergeev K. V. Theater of Destiny Dante Alighieri: Introduction. into the practical anatomy of genius. M., 2004; Eliot T. S. Dante. What does Dante mean to me // He. Favorites. M., 2004. Vol. 1/2: Religion, culture, literature. pp. 296-315.

Dante Alighieri
(1265-1321)

An outstanding Italian poet, whose huge figure, according to F. Engels, determines the end of the feudal Middle Ages, the beginning of the modern capitalist era. He entered the history of world literature as "the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times" (F. Engels), the author of "New Life" (1292-1293) and "The Divine Comedy" (1313-1321).

Dante was born in Florence into a noble family that belonged to the Guelph Party, one of the most influential Florentine political parties. She expressed the interests of the urban bourgeoisie and focused on the pope. The second influential party was the Ghibelline party, which defended the interests of the feudal lords and was guided by the emperor. Since Florence at that time was the most developed and wealthy city of fragmented Italy, it was here that a fierce struggle took place between the bourgeoisie, which was gradually gaining strength, and supporters of feudal society.

Dante from a young age participated in the political struggle on the side of the Guelphs, which influenced the formation of his active and active nature. At the same time, while studying law at the University of Bologna, he was fond of Dante's poetry. He was especially influenced by the school of the “sweet new style”, founded by Guido Guinicelli, teacher of literature at the University of Bologna. It was him that Dante called his teacher and father. The lyrics of the "sweet new style" school combined the experience of Provencal chivalric poetry with its refined cult of service to the Lady and the tradition of Sicilian poetry, saturated with reflections and philosophical examination of beauty.

Dante's early works (30 poems, of which 25 sonnets, 4 canzones and one stanza), united by a prose text, made up a collection called "New Life" (Vita nuova). The works of this collection carry all the elements of the "sweet new style" - philosophy, rhetoric, mystical symbolism and elegance of form. But at the same time, the assembly becomes the first achievement of the new Renaissance literature - a real hymn to life and love. Its very name is symbolic. It can be interpreted as "new", "updated", "young" and can have several semantic meanings. Firstly, the change of one period of life by another (real plan). Secondly, an update associated with the cult of the lady of the heart and meaningful in accordance with the norms of love etiquette characteristic of Provencal culture (a plan for stylizing life events: “New Life” is an autobiographical story about Dante’s love story for Beatrice). And, thirdly, spiritual rebirth in the religious sense (higher, philosophical plane).
It is interesting to note that already in Dante's debut work, renewal has a stepwise system - from earthly reality (the first meeting of nine-year-old Dante with eight-year-old Beatrice in the first chapter) through purification to the contemplation of paradise in the last chapters, where, after Beatrice's death, he leans on the symbolism of the number nine , proves that she was "a miracle whose root is in a strange trinity." This semantic ambiguity, this unceasing movement of the soul from the earthly to the heavenly, the divine, will signify the content and structure already in the years of exile.

The fact is that Dante not only loves in poetry, but also, being a man of integrity and strong passions, a man with a developed civic consciousness, becomes a prominent political figure. The Guelphs came to power in Florence, and in 1300 Dante was elected one of the seven members of the college of priors, which ruled the city commune. However, in the context of the intensification of the social struggle, the unity of the Guelph party did not last long, and it split into two warring groups - the “whites”, who defended the independence of the commune from the papal curia, and the “blacks”, supporters of the pope.
With the help of papal power, the "black" Guelphs defeated the "whites" and began to massacre them. Dante's house was destroyed, and he himself was sentenced to be burned. Saving his life, Dante leaves Florence in 1302, to which he will never be able to return. During the first years of exile, he lives in hope of the defeat of the "blacks", tries to establish ties with the deaths, but quickly disillusioned with them, proclaims that from now on he himself "creates a party" by himself. Remaining a supporter of a united Italy, Dante pins his hopes on the German emperor Henry VII, who soon dies.

In exile, the poet fully learns how bitter another's bread is and how difficult it is to climb the stairs of strangers. He has to live in patrons - like-minded people, sort out their libraries, serve as a secretary, for some time (approximately 1308-1310) he moves to Paris.

Florence offers Dante to return to his native city, subject to the fulfillment of a humiliating image of repentance, which Dante resolutely refuses. In 1315, the Florentine lordship again sentences him to death, and Dante forever loses hope of returning to Florence, but does not stop his social and political activities for Italy without wars and without papal power.

He does not stop his literary activity. In his work of the period of recognition, new features appear, in particular, passionate didacticism. Dante acts as a philosopher and thinker, driven by the desire to teach people, to open the world of truth to them, to contribute to the moral improvement of the world with his works. His poetry is filled with moral maxims, fabulous knowledge, and eloquence. In general, journalistic motives and genres prevail.

Until 1313, when he came close to creating the Divine Comedy, Dante wrote the moral and philosophical treatise The Feast (1304-1307) and two treatises in Latin On the Folk Language and Monarchy. "Feast", like "New Life", combines prose texts and poems. Grandiose in design (14 philosophical canzones and 15 prose commentary treatises), it unfortunately remained unfinished: 3 canzones and 4 treatises were written. Already in the first canzone, Dante proclaims that his goal is to make knowledge accessible to a wide range of people, and therefore the “Feast” was written not in the traditional Latin language for the people of that time, but in the Italian language-Volgara accessible to all people. He calls it “bread for all,” bread “with which thousands will be satisfied… It will be a new light, a new sun that will rise where the usual has set; and it gives light to those who are in darkness, for the old sun no longer shines on them.”

The "Feast" widely presents the philosophical, theological, political and moral problems of that time. Medieval in plot and manner of teaching - yes, philosophy appears here in the form of a noble donna - Dante's work bears the expressive features of the Renaissance day. First of all, it is the exaltation of the human personality. According to the deep conviction of the poet, the nobility of a person does not depend on wealth or aristocratic origin, but is an expression of wisdom and spiritual perfection. The highest form of the perfection of the soul is knowledge, "in it lies our highest bliss, we all naturally strive for it."

The challenge of the Middle Ages is his call: “Love the light of knowledge!”, Addressed to those in power, those who stand above the peoples. This call foreshadows the glorification of the thirst for knowledge as one of the noblest human qualities in the Divine Comedy. In the 26th song of Inferno, Dante brings the legendary Odysseus (Ulysses) onto the stage and portrays him as a tireless and courageous seeker of new worlds and new knowledge. In the words of the hero, addressed to his extremely tired and exhausted companions, lies the conviction of the poet himself.

His reflections on the fate of fragmented Italy and polemical attacks against her enemies and unworthy rulers are full of the Renaissance spirit; “Oh, my poor country, what pity for you squeezes my heart, every time I read, every time I write something about public administration!” or (addressing the now forgotten kings Charles of Naples and Frederick of Sicily): “Think about it, enemies of God, you - first one, then the second - seized the rule over all of Italy, I appeal to you, Charles and Frederick, and before you, other rulers and tyrants ... It would be better for you, like swallows, to fly low above the ground, like hawks, circle in an unattainable height, looking from there at great meanness.

The treatise "On the Folk Language" is the first linguistic work in Europe, the main idea of ​​which is the need to create a single literary language for Italy and its dominance over numerous dialects (Dante has fourteen of them). Dante's civic position is reflected even in purely philological work: he introduces political meaning into his scientific judgments, linking them with the important idea of ​​the country's unity. The pathos of the unity of Italy is also imbued with the unfinished treatise "Monarchy", which crowns his political journalism. This is a kind of political manifesto of Dante, in which he expresses his views on the possibility of building a just and humane state capable of ensuring universal peace and personal freedom of every citizen.

If Dante had not written anything else, his name would have entered the history of world literature forever anyway. And yet, his world fame is associated primarily with the last work - the poem "The Divine Comedy" (1313-1321). In it, Dante brought together all the experience of the mind and heart, artistically rethought the main motives and ideas of his previous works in order to say his word "for the benefit of the world, where goodness is persecuted." The purpose of the poem, as the poet himself noted, "is to tear those living in this life out of the state of junk and lead them to a state of bliss."

Dante called his work "Comedy", explaining that, according to the norms of medieval poetics, any work of the middle style with a frightening beginning and a happy ending, written in a folk language, has this effect. Giovanni Boccaccio, the author of The Decameron and the first biographer of Dante, called Dante's poem "Divine Comedy" in his book "The Life of Dante", expressing his admiration for the artistic perfection of the form and the richness of the content of the work.

The poem consists of three parts: "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise". Each part (kanthika) in turn has 33 songs, to which an introduction is attached, and the poem thus has 100 songs. The form of the poem's verse is also determined by the number 3. Here Dante canonizes the form of the tercine, taking it as the basis for the architectonics of the Divine Comedy. Such a structure, on the one hand, repeats the Christian model of the political world, which is divided into three spheres - Hell - Purgatory - Paradise, and on the other hand, it obeys the mystical symbolism of the number 3.

The compositional structure, however, perfectly matches the idea of ​​the poem: through visions common in the religious literature of the Middle Ages - a journey in the afterlife to depict a person's path to moral perfection. Dante here relies not only on religious literature, but also on the experience of Homer, who sent Odysseus to the kingdom of the dead, and on the most authoritative example for him, Virgil, in whom Aeneas also ascends Tartarus to see his father.

At the same time, Dante goes much further than his predecessors. The most important artistic feature of his work is that the poet himself becomes a traveler in the other world. It is he who is “halfway through the earthly world”, having become entangled in life’s disagreements, which he compares with a gloomy, harsh and wild forest inhabited by ferocious predators, and seeks salvation. Dante's favorite poet Virgil comes to the rescue. He becomes Dante's guide and leads him through hell and purgatory, in order to pass him on to his beloved Beatrice, in whose illumined accompaniment Dante ascends to heaven.

A characteristic feature of the poem is the extreme semantic richness. Almost every image in it has several meanings. Direct, immediate meaning, behind which lies the allegorical, and that, in turn, can be either purely allegorical, or moral, or similar (spiritual). So, predators crossed Dante's road in the wild forest, these are the usual panther, she-wolf and lion. In the allegorical sense, the panther means voluptuousness, as well as oligarchy; lion - neglect, violence, as well as tyranny; she-wolf - greed, as well as the worldly power of the Roman church. At the same time, they are all symbols of fear, embarrassment, confusion in front of some hostile forces. In allegorical terms, Dante is the embodiment of the soul, Virgil is the mind, Beatrice is the highest wisdom. Hell is a symbol of evil, paradise is love, goodness and virtue, purgatory is the transition from one state to another, higher, and the journey through the afterlife itself means the path to salvation.
The combination in the poem of a purely medieval picture of the world with its well-established ideas about the afterlife and the atonement of earthly sins with an extremely frank, passionate and emotionally colored attitude of the poet to the images and events he painted elevates it to the level of a brilliant innovative work. Representing a grandiose synthesis of medieval culture, The Divine Comedy simultaneously carries the mighty spirit of a new culture, a new type of thinking, which heralds the humanistic era of the Renaissance.

A socially active person, Dante is not satisfied with abstract moralization: he transfers his contemporaries and predecessors to the other world with their joys and experiences, with their political preferences, with their actions and deeds, and creates a strict and inexorable judgment on them from the position of a humanist sage . He acts as a comprehensively educated person, which allows him to be a politician, theologian, moralist, philosopher, historian, physiologist, psychologist and astronomer. According to the best Russian translator of Dante's poem M.L. Lozinsky, "The Divine Comedy" is a book about the Universe and to the same extent a book about the poet himself, which will forever remain for centuries as an ever-living example of a brilliant creation.

Who is Dante Alighieri?

Durante degli Alighieri (Italian Durante deʎʎ aliɡjɛːri, Dante's short name (Italian Dante, Brit. dænti, Amer. dɑːnteɪ; from 1265 - 1321.), was one of the main Italian poets of the Late Middle Ages. His "Divine Comedy", originally was called simply "Comedy" (modern Italian: Commedia), and later Boccaccio dubbed it "Divine." "Divine Comedy" is considered the greatest literary work written in Italian, and also - a masterpiece of world literature.

During the Late Middle Ages, the vast majority of poetry was written in Latin, which means it was available only to a wealthy and educated audience. In De vulgari eloquentia (On popular eloquence), however, Dante defended the use of jargon in literature. He himself would have written works in the Tuscan dialect, such as "The New Life" ("New Life") (1295) and the aforementioned "Divine Comedy"; this choice, though highly unorthodox, set an extremely important precedent that would later be followed by Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio. As a result, Dante was instrumental in creating the national language of Italy. Dante also had great importance for his native country; his portrayals of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven provided inspiration for much of Western art, and influenced the work of John Milton, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Alfred Tennyson, to name a few. In addition, the first use of a cross three-line rhyming scheme, or tercin, is attributed to Dante Alighieri.

Dante has been called the "Father of the Italian language" and one of the greatest poets of world literature. In Italy, Dante is often referred to as "il Sommo Poeta" ("The Supreme Poet"); he, Petrarch and Boccaccio are also called "Three Fountains" or "Three Crowns".

Biography of Dante

Childhood Dante Alighieri

Dante was born in Florence, Republic of Florence, present-day Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown, although it is believed to be around 1265. This can be deduced from the autobiographical allusions in The Divine Comedy. Its first chapter, "Inferno", begins: "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" ("Half of earthly life"), implying that Dante was about 35 years old, since the average life span, according to the Bible (Psalm 89: 10, Vulgate) is 70 years; and since his imagined journey to the underworld took place in 1300, he was most likely born around 1265. Some of the verses in the "Paradiso" section of the Divine Comedy are also a possible clue that he was born under the sign of Gemini: "As I twirled with the eternal twins, I saw, from the hills to the estuaries, the barn that makes us so ferocious "(XXII 151-154). In 1265, the sun is in Gemini roughly between May 11 and June 11 (Julian).

Dante Alighieri family

Dante claimed that his family descended from the ancient Romans ("Inferno", XV, 76), but the earliest relative could be a man named Cacciugaida degli Elisha ("Paradiso", XV, 135), born no earlier than 1100 . Dante's father, Alagiero (Alighiero) di Bellincione, was from the White Guelphs, who were not repressed after the Ghibelline victory at the Battle of Montaperti in the mid-13th century. This suggests that Alighiero or his family may have been saved due to their authority and status. Although, some suggest that the politically inactive Aliguiero had such a low reputation that he should not even be exiled.

The Dante family had allegiance to the Guelphs, a political alliance that supported the papacy and was involved in complex opposition to the Ghibellines, who in turn were backed by the Holy Roman Emperor. The poet Bell's mother is probably a member of the Abati family. She died when Dante was not yet ten years old, and Alighiero soon remarried Lapa di Chiarissimo Chialuffi. It is not known whether he actually married her, as widowers were socially restricted from such activities. But, this woman definitely bore him two children, Dante's half-brother - Francesco and half-sister - Tana (Gaetana). When Dante was 12 years old, he was forced to marry Gemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati, a member of the influential Donati family. Arranged marriages at this early age were quite common and included a formal ceremony, including contracts made before a notary. But, by this time, Dante had fallen in love with another, Beatrice Portinari (also known as Bice), whom he first met when he was only nine years old. For many years after his marriage to Gemma, he wanted to meet Beatrice again; he wrote several sonnets dedicated to Beatrice, but never mentioned Gemma in any of his poems. The exact date of his marriage is unknown: there is only information that before his exile in 1301, he had three children (Pietro, Jacopo and Antonia).

Dante took part in the battle against the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289). This victory led to the reformation of the Florentine Constitution. In order to take any part in public life, one had to enter one of the many commercial or craft guilds in the city. Dante joined the guild of doctors and apothecaries. In later years, his name is sometimes recorded among the speakers and voters in the various councils of the republic. Much of the records of such meetings in 1298-1300 have been lost, so the true extent of Dante's participation in the councils of the city is uncertain.

Gemma bore Dante several children. Although, some later argued that it is likely that his descendants are only Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia. Antonia later became a nun, taking the name Sister Beatrice.

Education Dante Alighieri

Not much is known about Dante's education; he probably studied at home or at school at the church (monastery) in Florence. It is known that he studied Tuscan poetry and admired the compositions of the Bolognese poet Guido Gvinicelli, whom he described in chapter XXVI of Purgatory as his "father" - at a time when the Sicilian school (Scuola Poetica Siciliana), a cultural group from Sicily, became famous in Tuscany. Following his interests, he discovered the Provencal poetry of the troubadours (Daniel Arnaut), Latin writers of classical antiquity (Cicero, Ovid, and especially Virgil).

Dante said that he first met Beatrice Portinari, daughter of Folco Portinari, at the age of nine. He claimed to have fallen in love with her "at first sight", probably without even speaking to her. He saw her often after the age of 18, often exchanging greetings on the street, but he never knew her well. In fact, he set an example of so-called courtly love, a popular phenomenon in French and Provençal poetry of previous centuries. The experience of such love was then typical, but Dante expressed his feelings in a special way. It is in the name of this love that Dante left his imprint in Dolce stil novo (Sweet new style of writing, a term Dante coined himself). He also joined other poets and writers of the time in exploring aspects of love (Amore) that no one had previously explored. Love for Beatrice (like Petrarch for Laura, only a little differently) will be a reason for writing poetry and an incentive for life, sometimes for political passions. In many of his poems, she is portrayed as a demigod who constantly watches over him and gives spiritual guidance, sometimes harshly. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante sought refuge in Latin literature. He read: The Chronicle of the Congress, The Delian Philosophy of Boethius, and passages from Cicero. He then devoted himself to philosophical studies in religious schools such as the Dominican in Santa Maria Novella. He took part in the debate that the two main mendicant orders (Franciscans and Dominicans) directly or indirectly captured Florence, citing the doctrines of the mystics and St. Bonaventure, as well as the interpretation of this theory by Thomas Aquinas.

At the age of 18, Dante met Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Chino da Pistoia and soon Brunetto Latini; together they became the leaders of "Dolce stil novo". Brunetto was later mentioned in the "Divine Comedy" ("Inferno", XV, 28). His words to Dante are mentioned: Without saying anything more on this subject, I go with Ser Brunetto, and I ask who his most famous and most distinguished companions are. About fifty of Dante's poetic commentaries are known (so-called rhymes), others are included later in "Vita Nuova" and "Convivio". Other studies or conclusions, from the "New Life" or "Comedy", concern painting and music.

Political views of Dante Alighieri

Dante, like most Florentines of his time, was drawn into the conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibillens. He fought at the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289), with the Florentine Guelphs against the Ghibellines of Arezzo; in 1294 he was one of the escorts of Charles Martell of Anjou (grandson of Charles I of Naples; more commonly referred to as Charles of Anjou) while living in Florence. To further advance his political career, Dante became a pharmacist. He did not intend to practice in this area, but a law issued in 1295 required nobles applying for public office to be registered with one of the guilds of arts or crafts. Therefore, Dante joined the guild of apothecaries. This profession was suitable, since at that time books were sold in pharmacies. In politics, he achieved little, however, in the city for several years, he held various positions where political unrest reigned.

After the victory over the Ghibillens, the Guelphs split into two factions: the White Guelphs (Guelfi Bianchi), an association led by Vieri de Cerchi, joined by Dante, and the Black Guelphs (Guelfi Neri), led by Corso Donati. Although the split was initially over family differences, ideological differences also arose based on opposing views of the Pope's role in Florentine matters. The Black Guelphs supported the Pope, while the White Guelphs wanted more freedom and independence from Rome. The Whites took power and expelled the Blacks. In response, Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of Florence. In 1301, Charles of Valois, brother of King Philip IV of France, was to visit Florence as peacemaker of Tuscany, appointed by the Pope. But the city government had treated the papal ambassadors badly a few weeks earlier, demanding independence from papal influence. Charles was believed to have received other unofficial instructions, so the council sent a delegation to Rome to ascertain the pope's intentions. Dante was one of the delegates.

Expulsion of Dante from Florence

Pope Boniface quickly dismissed the other delegates, while Dante offered to stay in Rome. Meanwhile (November 1, 1301), Charles of Valois captured Florence with the Black Guelphs. In six days they destroyed most of the city and killed many of their enemies. A new power of the Black Guelphs was installed and Cante de Gabrielli da Gubbio was appointed head of the city. In March 1302, Dante, who belonged to the White Guelphs, along with the Gherardini family, was sentenced to exile for two years and had to pay a large fine. He was accused by the Black Guelphs of corruption and financial fraud while serving as abbot of the city (the highest position in Florence) for two months in 1300. The poet was still in Rome in 1302 when the Pope, who supported the Black Guelphs, "invited" Dante to stay. Florence under the Black Guelphs believed that Dante was a fugitive. Dante did not pay the fine, partly because he believed he was not guilty, and partly because all of his assets in Florence had been seized by the Black Guelphs. He was doomed to eternal exile; if he returned to Florence without paying a fine, he could be burned at the stake. (In June 2008, almost seven centuries after his death, the city council of Florence passed a resolution to overturn Dante's sentence.)

He took part in several attempts by the White Guelphs to regain power, but they failed due to treachery. Dante was upset by these events, he was also disgusted by the civil strife and stupidity of his former allies and vowed to have nothing to do with it. He went to Verona as a guest of Bartolomeo I della Scala and then moved to Sarzana in Liguria. Later, he is supposed to have lived in Lucca with a woman named Gentukka, who provided him with a comfortable stay (Dante mentioned her gratefully in Purgatory, XXIV, 37). Some speculative sources claim that he visited Paris between 1308 and 1310. Also, there are other, less reliable sources that take Dante to Oxford: these statements first appear in Boccaccio's book, which refers to several decades after Dante's death. Boccaccio was inspired and impressed by the wide knowledge and erudition of the poet. Obviously, Dante's philosophy and his literary interests deepened in exile. During the period when he was no longer busy day by day with the affairs of the internal politics of Florence, he began to manifest himself in prose works. But, there is no real evidence that he ever left Italy. Dante's endless love for Henry VII of Luxembourg, he confirms in his residence "under the mines of the Arno, not far from Tuscany" in March 1311.

In 1310, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg entered Italy with 5,000 troops. Dante saw in him a new Charles, who would restore the office of the Holy Roman Emperor to its former glory and cleanse Florence of the Black Guelphs. He wrote to Henry and several Italian princes demanding that they destroy the Black Guelphs. Mixing religion and private concerns in his letters, he referred to the worst wrath of God against his city and offered several specific targets, which were also his personal enemies. It was during this time that he wrote to the absolute monarchs, proposing a universal monarchy under Henry VII.

During his exile, Dante conceived the writing of the Comedy, but the date is uncertain. In this work he was much more confident, and it was of a larger scale than anything else he produced in Florence; he most likely returned to this type of activity after realizing that his political activities, which had been central to him until his exile, had been stopped for some time, perhaps forever. Also, the image of Beatrice returns to him with new strength and with a wider meaning than in the "New Life"; in "Feast" (1304-1307) he declared that the memory of this youthful love belongs to the past.

Even in the early stages of the creation of the poem, when it was in the process of being developed, Francesco da Barberino mentioned it in his "Documenti d" Amore "(" Lessons in Love "), written probably in 1314 or early 1315. Remembering the image of Virgil , Francesco speaks favorably that Dante inherits the Roman classics in a poem called "Commedia", and that he describes in the poem (or part of it) the underworld; that is, hell. A brief remark does not give conclusive indications that he himself read at least "Inferno" ("Hell") or that this part was published at that time. But, this indicates that the composition had already been composed and that the outlines of the work were made several years before. (It was assumed that Francesco's knowledge Barberino in Dante's writings also underlies some passages in his Officiolum (1305-1308), a manuscript that only saw the world in 2003.) We know that Inferno was published around 1317; this is determined by the lines quoted, interspersed in the fields of owls records from Bologna, but there is no certainty whether all three parts of the poem were published in full, or only a few passages. "Paradiso" ("Paradise") is believed to have been published posthumously.

In Florence, Baldo di Aguglione pardoned and returned most of the White Guelphs from exile. However, Dante went too far in his cruel letters to Arrigo (Henry VII) and his sentence was not overturned.

In 1312, Henry attacked Florence and defeated the Black Guelphs, but there is no evidence that Dante took part in this war. Some say that he refused to participate in the attack on his own city; others believe that he became unpopular with the White Guelphs, and so his tracks were carefully covered up. Henry VII died (of a fever) in 1313, and with him died Dante's last hope of seeing Florence again. He returned to Verona, where Cangrande I della Scala allowed him to live in safety and probably in prosperity. Cangrande was admitted to Dante's "Paradise" (Paradiso, XVII, 76).

During the period of exile, Dante corresponded with the Dominican theologian Nicholas Brunacci (1240-1322), who was a student of Thomas Aquinas at the School of Santa Sabina in Rome, and later in Paris and the School of Albertus Magnus in Cologne. Brunacci became a lecturer at the School of Santa Sabina, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, and then served in the papal curia.

In 1315, in Florence, the Uguccione della Fagiola (military officer in control of the city) declared an amnesty for those who were in exile, including Dante. But for this, Florence demanded a public penance in addition to a heavy fine. Dante refused, preferring to remain in exile. When Uguccione captured Florence, Dante's death sentence was commuted to house arrest, on the condition that, upon returning to Florence, he swears never to enter the city. He refused such an offer, and his death sentence was confirmed and extended to his sons. He hoped for the rest of his life that he would be asked to return to Florence on honorable terms. For Dante, exile was tantamount to death because it stripped him of much of his identity and heritage. He described his pain from exile in "Paradiso", XVII (55-60), where Cacciaguida, his great-great-grandfather, warns him of what to expect: As for the hope of returning to Florence, he describes it as an already accepted impossibility ( Paradiso, XXV, 1-9).

Death of Dante

Alighieri accepted an invitation from Prince Guido Novello da Polenta to Ravenna in 1318. He completed Paradise, and died in 1321 (aged 56) on his way back to Ravenna from a diplomatic mission in Venice, possibly from malaria. He was buried in Ravenna in the church of San Pier Maggiore (later called San Francesco). Bernardo Bembo, praetor of Venice, erected a grave for him in 1483. Some poems by Bernardo Canaccio, a friend of Dante, dedicated to Florence were written on the grave.

Dante's legacy

The first official biography of Dante, The Life of Dante Alighieri (also known as the Small Treatise in Praise of Dante), was written after 1348 by Giovanni Boccaccio; Although some statements and episodes of this biography have been recognized as unreliable by modern researchers. An earlier account of Dante's life and work was included in the New Chronicle by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani.

Florence eventually came to regret Dante's exile, and the city repeatedly sent requests for the return of his remains. The guardians of the body in Ravenna refused, and at some point things went so far that Dante's bones were hidden in the false wall of the monastery. However, a tomb for him was built in Florence in 1829, in the Basilica of Santa Croce. This grave was empty from the very beginning, and Dante's body was left in Ravenna, far from the land he loved so much. On his gravestone in Florence is written: "Onorate l" altissimo poeta" - which roughly translates as: "Honor the greatest poet" This is a quote from the fourth canto in "Inferno", which depicts Virgil among the great ancient poets, spending eternity in limbo The next strict says: "L" ombra sua torna, ch "era dipartita" ("His spirit, which has left us, will return"), these are eloquent words over an empty tomb.

On April 30, 1921, in honor of the 600th anniversary of Dante's death, Pope Benedict XV promulgated an encyclical titled "In praeclara summorum", calling him one "of the many famous geniuses that the Catholic faith can boast", as well as "pride and glory humanity."

In 2007, Dante's face was reconstructed as part of a joint project. Artists from the University of Pisa and engineers from the University of Bologna in Forla built a model that conveys Dante's features, which are somewhat different from the earlier representation of his appearance.

2015 was the 750th anniversary of Dante's birth.

The work of Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso); first his guide is the Roman poet Virgil, and then Beatrice, the object of his love (of whom he also writes in "La Vita Nuova"). While the theological subtleties presented in other books require a certain amount of patience and knowledge, Dante's depiction of "Hell" is understandable to most modern readers. "Purgatory" is perhaps the most lyrical of the three movements, according to more contemporary poets and artists than "Inferno"; "Paradise" is the most saturated with theology, and it is in it, according to many scholars, that the most beautiful and mystical moments of the "Divine Comedy" appear (for example, when Dante looks into the face of God: "all" alta Fantasia Qui Manco possa "-" in this lofty moment, opportunity failed my ability to describe, "Paradiso, XXXIII, 142).

With all the seriousness of its literary growth and range, both stylistic and thematic, in its content, "Commedia" soon became a cornerstone in the establishment of the Italian literary language. Dante was more knowledgeable than most of the early Italian writers who used various Italian dialects. He understood the need to create a single literary language, beyond the Latin written form; in this sense, Alighieri is a harbinger of the Renaissance, with his attempts to create a vernacular literature that could compete with earlier classical authors. Dante's deep knowledge (within his time) of Roman antiquity, and his apparent admiration for certain aspects of pagan Rome, also point to the 15th century. Ironically, while he was widely revered after his death, Comedy fell out of fashion among writers: too medieval, too crude and tragic, stylistically inaccurate, which the High and Late Renaissance demanded of literature.

He wrote a comedy in a language he called "Italian". In a sense, it is an amalgamated literary language, which is mainly based on the regional dialect of Tuscany, but with some elements of Latin and other regional dialects. It deliberately aimed to win over readers throughout Italy, including laymen, priests and other poets. By creating a poem with an epic structure and a philosophical purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest grade of expression. In French and Italian, he sometimes signs "la langue de Dante" ("Dante's language"). By publishing in his native language, Dante, as one of the first Roman Catholics in Western Europe (including such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio), broke the standards of publishing only in Latin (the language of liturgy, history and science in general, but often also of lyric poetry). ). This breakthrough allowed more literature to be published to a wider audience, setting the stage for higher levels of literacy in the future. However, unlike Boccaccio, Milton or Ariosto, Dante did not become an author read throughout Europe until the Romantic era. For the Romantics, Dante, like Homer and Shakespeare, was a prime example of the "original genius" who sets his own rules, creates characters of uncertain status and depth, and goes far beyond any imitation of the forms of the early masters; and who, in turn, cannot truly be surpassed. Throughout the 19th century, Dante's reputation grew and solidified; and by 1865, the 600th anniversary of his birth, he had become one of the great literary icons of the Western world.

Modern readers often wonder how such a serious work can be called "Comedy". In the classical sense, the word comedy refers to works that reflect belief in an ordered universe that not only has happy events or a funny ending, but also the influence of a providential will that orders all things for the highest good. In this sense of the word, as Dante himself wrote in a letter to Cangrande I della Scala, the progress of the pilgrimage from hell to heaven, the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the moral confusion of the pilgrim and ends with the vision of God.

Dante's other works include: Convivio ("The Banquet"), a collection of his long poems with an (unfinished) allegorical commentary; "Monarchy", a short treatise on political philosophy in Latin that was condemned and burned after Dante's death by the papal legate Bertando del Poggetto, who argued for the need for a universal or global monarchy in order to establish universal peace in this life, and propagated these monarchical relations to the Roman Catholics in as a guide for everlasting peace; on "De vulgari eloquentia" ("On the eloquence of the people"), - popular literature, Dante was partly inspired by "Razos de trobar" by Raymond Waidel de Bezaudun; and "La Vita Nuova" ("The New Life"), the story of his love for Beatrice Portinari, which also served as a symbol of salvation in the "Commedia". "Vita Nuova" contains many love poems by Dante in Tuscan, which was not unprecedented; the vulgar language he used regularly for lyrical works before and during the whole of the thirteenth century. However, Dante's commentaries on his own work are also written in the native language, as are the Vita Nuova and the Feast instead of the almost universally used Latin.