Dantes Inferno - A Religious and Morally Challenging Experience :: Divine Comedy Inferno Essays

Dantes Inferno - A Religious and Morally challenging Experience Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages, was born in Florence, Italy on June 5, 1265. He was born to a middle-class Florentine family. At an archaean age he began to write poetry and became fascinated with lyrics. During his adolescence, Dante fell inlove with a beautiful girl named Beatrice Portinari. He saw her only twice tho she provided much inspiration for his literary masterpieces. Her last at a untested age left him grief-stricken. His first book, La Vita Nuova, was written about her. old before 1294, Dante married Gemma Donati. They had four children. Dante was active in the political and host life of Florence. He entered the army as a youth and held some(prenominal) important positions in the Florence government during the 1290s. During his life, Florence was divided politically between Guelphs and Ghibellines. The Guelphs back up the church and liked to keep things a s they were, unlike the Ghibellines. The Ghibellines were mostly supporters of the German emperor and at the time Dante was born, were relieved of their power. When this change took place, the Guelphs for whom Dantes family was associated took power. Although born into a Guelph family, Dante became more neutral later in life realizing that the church was corrupt, accept it should only be involved in spiritual affairs. At the upset of the century, Dante rose from city councilman to ambassador of Florence. His career ended in 1301 when the ignominious Guelph and their French allies seized control of the city. They took Dantes possessions and sentenced him to be permanently banished from Florence, threatening the death penalty upon him if he returned. Dante spent most of his time in shipping writing new pieces of literature. It is believed that around 1307 he interrupts his unfinished work, Convivio, a facial expression of his love poetry philosophy of the Roman traditio n, to begin The Comedy (later know as The Divine Comedy). He writes a book called De Vulgari Eloquentia explaining his idea to merge a number of Italian dialects to create a new national language. In 1310 he writes De Monarchia presenting Dantes case for a one-ruler world order. Among his works, his reputation rests on his last work, The Divine