Biography

Dante Alighieri (Italian: Dante Alighieri), full name Durante degli Alighieri (second half of May 1265 - on the night of September 13-14, 1321) - the greatest Italian poet, thinker, theologian, one of the founders of the literary Italian language, and politician. The creator of the “Comedy” (later receiving the epithet “Divine”, introduced by Boccaccio), which provided a synthesis of late medieval culture.

In Florence

According to family legend, Dante's ancestors came from the Roman family of Elisei, who participated in the founding of Florence. Cacciaguida, Dante's great-great-grandfather, participated in the crusade of Conrad III (1147-1149), was knighted by him and died in battle with the Muslims. Cacciaguida was married to a lady from the Lombard family of Aldighieri da Fontana. The name "Aldighieri" was transformed into "Alighieri"; This is how one of the sons of Kachchagvida was named. The son of this Alighieri, Bellincione, Dante's grandfather, who was expelled from Florence during the struggle of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, returned to hometown in 1266, after the defeat of Manfred of Sicily at Benevento. Alighieri II, Dante's father, apparently did not take part in the political struggle and remained in Florence.

Exact date birth Dante unknown. According to Boccaccio, Dante was born in May 1265. Dante himself reports about himself (Comedy, Paradise, 22) that he was born under the sign of Gemini. Modern sources most often give dates for the second half of May 1265. It is also known that Dante was baptized on May 26, 1265 (on the first Holy Saturday after his birth) under the name Durante.

Dante's first mentor was the then famous poet and the scientist Brunetto Latini. The place where Dante studied is unknown, but he gained extensive knowledge of ancient and medieval literature, the natural sciences, and was familiar with the heretical teachings of that time. Dante's closest friend was the poet Guido Cavalcanti. Dante dedicated many poems and fragments of the poem “ New life».

The first act mention of Dante Alighieri as public figure dates back to 1296 and 1297, already in 1300 or 1301 he was elected prior. In 1302 he was expelled along with his party of white Guelphs and never saw Florence again, dying in exile.

Years of exile

The years of exile were years of wandering for Dante. Already at that time he was a lyric poet among the Tuscan poets of the “new style” - Cino from Pistoia, Guido Cavalcanti and others. His “La Vita Nuova (New Life)” had already been written; his exile made him more serious and strict. He starts his “Feast” (“Convivio”), an allegorical scholastic commentary on the fourteen canzones. But “Convivio” was never finished: only the introduction and interpretation to the three canzones were written. The Latin treatise on the popular language, or eloquence (“De vulgari eloquentia”), is also unfinished, ending at the 14th chapter of the second book.

During the years of exile, three cants of the Divine Comedy were created gradually and under the same working conditions. The time at which each of them was written can only be approximately determined. Paradise was completed in Ravenna, and there is nothing incredible in Boccaccio’s story that after the death of Dante Alighieri, his sons for a long time could not find the last thirteen songs, until, according to legend, Dante dreamed of his son Jacopo and told him where they lay.

There is very little factual information about the fate of Dante Alighieri; his trace has been lost over the years. At first, he found shelter with the ruler of Verona, Bartolomeo della Scala; The defeat in 1304 of his party, which tried by force to achieve installation in Florence, doomed him to a long wandering around Italy. He later arrived in Bologna, in Lunigiana and Casentino, in 1308-1309. ended up in Paris, where he spoke with honor at public debates, common in universities of that time. It was in Paris that Dante received the news that Emperor Henry VII was going to Italy. The ideal dreams of his “Monarchy” were resurrected in him with new strength; he returned to Italy (probably in 1310 or early 1311), seeking renewal for her and the return of civil rights for himself. His “message to the peoples and rulers of Italy” is full of these hopes and enthusiastic confidence, however, the idealistic emperor died suddenly (1313), and on November 6, 1315, Ranieri di Zaccaria of Orvietto, King Robert’s viceroy in Florence, confirmed the decree of exile regarding Dante Alighieri, his sons and many others, condemning them to execution if they fell into the hands of the Florentines.

From 1316-1317 he settled in Ravenna, where he was summoned to retire by the lord of the city, Guido da Polenta. Here, in the circle of children, among friends and fans, the songs of Paradise were created.

Death

In the summer of 1321, Dante, as the ambassador of the ruler of Ravenna, went to Venice to conclude peace with the Republic of St. Mark. On the way back, Dante fell ill with malaria and died in Ravenna on the night of September 13-14, 1321.

Dante was buried in Ravenna; the magnificent mausoleum that Guido da Polenta prepared for him was not erected. The modern tomb (also called the “mausoleum”) was built in 1780. The familiar portrait of Dante Alighieri lacks authenticity: Boccaccio depicts him with a beard instead of the legendary clean-shaven one, however, in general, his image corresponds to our traditional idea: an elongated face with an aquiline nose, large eyes , wide cheekbones and a prominent lower lip; always sad and thoughtfully focused.

Brief chronology of life and creativity

1265 - Dante is born.
1274 - first meeting with Beatrice.
1283 - second meeting with Beatrice.
1290 - death of Beatrice.
1292 - creation of the story “New Life” (“La Vita Nuova”).
1296/97 - the first mention of Dante as a public figure.
1298 - Dante's marriage to Gemma Donati.
1300/01 - Prior of Florence.
1302 - expelled from Florence.
1304-1307 - “Feast”.
1304-1306 - treatise “On Popular Eloquence.”
1306-1321 - creation of the Divine Comedy.
1308/09 - Paris.
1310/11 - return to Italy.
1315 - confirmation of the expulsion of Dante and his sons from Florence.
1316-1317 - settled in Ravenna.
1321 - how the ambassador of Ravenna goes to Venice.
On the night of September 13 to September 14, 1321, he dies on the way to Ravenna.

Personal life

In the poem “New Life,” Dante sang his first youthful love, Beatrice Portinari, who died in 1290 at the age of 24. Dante and Beatrice became a symbol of love, like Petrarch and Laura, Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet.

In 1274, nine-year-old Dante fell in love with a girl of eight years old, the daughter of a neighbor, Beatrice Portinari, at a May festival - this is his first biographical memory. He had seen her before, but the impression from this meeting was renewed in him when nine years later (in 1283) he saw her again as a married woman and this time became interested in her. Beatrice becomes the “mistress of his thoughts” for the rest of his life, a wonderful symbol of that morally uplifting feeling that he continued to cherish in her image, when Beatrice had already died (in 1290), and he himself entered into one of those business marriages, according to political calculation , which were accepted at that time.

Dante Alighieri's family sided with the Florentine Cerchi party, which was at war with the Donati party. However, Dante Alighieri married Gemma Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati. The exact date of his marriage is unknown, the only information is that in 1301 he already had three children (Pietro, Jacopo and Antonia). When Dante Alighieri was expelled from Florence, Gemma remained in the city with her children, preserving the remnants of her father's property.

Later, when Dante Alighieri composed his “Comedy” in glorification of Beatrice, Gemma was not mentioned in it even a single word. IN last years he lived in Ravenna; his sons, Jacopo and Pietro, poets, his future commentators, and his daughter Antonia gathered around him; only Gemma lived away from the whole family. Boccaccio, one of the first biographers of Dante Alighieri, summarized it all: that Dante Alighieri married under coercion and persuasion, therefore in long years exile, I never thought to call my wife to come to me. Beatrice determined the tone of his feelings, the experience of exile - his social and political views and their archaism.

Creation

Dante Alighieri, a thinker and poet, constantly looking for a fundamental basis for everything that happened in himself and around him, it was this thoughtfulness, thirst for general principles, certainty, internal integrity, passion of the soul and boundless imagination that determined the qualities of his poetry, style, imagery and abstractness .

Love for Beatrice acquired a mysterious meaning for him; he filled every work with it. Her idealized image occupies a significant place in Dante's poetry. Dante's first works date back to the 1280s. In 1292, he wrote a story about the love that renewed him: “The New Life” (“La Vita Nuova”), composed of sonnets, canzones and a prose story-commentary about his love for Beatrice. “A New Life” is considered the first autobiography in the history of world literature. Already in exile, Dante writes the treatise “The Feast” (Il convivio, 1304–1307).

Alighieri also created political treatises. Later, Dante found himself in a whirlpool of parties, and was even an inveterate municipalist; but he had a need to understand the basic principles political activity, so he writes his Latin treatise “On Monarchy” (“De Monarchia”). This work is a kind of apotheosis of the humanitarian emperor, next to which he would like to place an equally ideal papacy. Dante Alighieri the politician spoke in his treatise “On the Monarchy”. Dante the poet was reflected in the works “New Life”, “The Feast” and “The Divine Comedy”.

"New life"

When Beatrice died, Dante Alighieri was inconsolable: she had nurtured his feelings for so long, she became so close to his the best sides. He recalls the story of his short-lived love; her last idealistic moments, on which death left its mark, involuntarily drown out the rest: in the choice of lyrical plays inspired by different time love for Beatrice and giving the outline of a Renewed life, there is an unconscious intentionality; everything really playful is eliminated, such as sonnet about a good wizard; it didn't fit with the general tone of the memories. “Renewed Life” consists of several sonnets and canzones, interspersed with a short story, like a biographical thread. There are no facts as such in this biography; but every sensation, every meeting with Beatrice, her smile, refusal of greetings - everything receives serious significance, which the poet thinks about as a secret that has happened to him; and not over him alone, for Beatrice is generally love, lofty, uplifting. After the first spring dates, the thread of reality begins to get lost in the world of aspirations and expectations, mysterious correspondences of the numbers three and nine and prophetic visions, lovingly and sadly, as if in an anxious consciousness that all this will not last long. Thoughts of death that came to him during his illness involuntarily take him to Beatrice; he closed his eyes and delirium begins: he sees women, they walk with their hair down and say: you too will die! Terrible images whisper: you are dead. The delirium intensifies, Dante Alighieri no longer knows where he is: new visions: women walk, grief-stricken and crying; the sun darkened and the stars appeared, pale, dim: they, too, shed tears; birds fall dead in flight, the earth trembles, someone passes by and says: don’t you really know anything? your sweetheart has left this world. Dante Alighieri cries, a host of angels appears to him, they rush to heaven with the words: “Hosanna in the highest”; there is a light cloud in front of them. And at the same time, his heart tells him: your sweetheart has really died. And it seems to him that he is going to look at her; women cover it with a white veil; her face is calm, as if it says: I have been honored to contemplate the source of the world (§ XXIII). One day, Dante Alighieri began writing a canzone in which he wanted to depict the beneficial influence of Beatrice on him. He began and probably did not finish, at least he reports only a fragment from it (§ XXVIII): at this time the news of Beatrice’s death was brought to him, and the next paragraph of the “Renewed Life” begins with the words of Jeremiah (Lamentations I): “how lonely the once crowded city stands! He became like a widow; the great among the nations, the prince over the regions, became a tributary.” In his affect, the loss of Beatrice seems to him public; he notifies eminent people of Florence about it and also begins with the words of Jeremiah (§ XXXI). On the anniversary of her death, he sits and draws on a tablet: the figure of an angel comes out (§ XXXV).

Another year has passed: Dante is sad, but at the same time seeks consolation in the serious work of thought, reads with difficulty Boethius’s “On the Consolation of Philosophy”, hears for the first time that Cicero wrote about the same thing in his discussion “On Friendship” (Convivio II, 13 ). His grief subsided so much that when one young beautiful lady looked at him with compassion, condoling with him, some new, unclear feeling awoke in him, full of compromises with the old, not yet forgotten. He begins to assure himself that the same love that makes him shed tears resides in that beauty. Every time she met him, she looked at him in the same way, turning pale, as if under the influence of love; it reminded him of Beatrice: after all, she was just as pale. He feels that he is beginning to look at the stranger and that, whereas before her compassion brought tears to him, now he does not cry. And he comes to his senses, reproaches himself for the unfaithfulness of his heart; he is hurt and ashamed. Beatrice appeared to him in a dream, dressed in the same way as the first time he saw her as a girl. It was the time of year when pilgrims passed through Florence in droves, heading to Rome to venerate the miraculous image. Dante returned to his old love with all the passion of mystical passion; he addresses the pilgrims: they go thinking, perhaps about the fact that they left their homes in their homeland; from their appearance one can conclude that they are from afar. And it must be from afar: they walk through an unknown city and do not cry, as if they do not know the reasons for the common grief. “If you stop and listen to me, you will leave in tears; so my yearning heart tells me, Florence has lost its Beatrice, and what a person can say about her will make everyone cry” (§XLI). And “Renewed Life” ends with the poet’s promise to himself not to speak anymore about her, the blessed one, until he is able to do it in a manner worthy of her.

"Feast"

Dante’s feeling for Beatrice appeared so highly elevated and pure in the final melodies of “The Renewed Life” that it seems to prepare the definition of love in his “Feast”: “this is the spiritual unity of the soul with the beloved object (III, 2); rational love, characteristic only of man (as opposed to other related affects); this is the desire for truth and virtue” (III, 3). Not everyone was privy to this intimate understanding: for most, Dante was simply an amorous poet who dressed ordinary earthly passion with its delights and downfalls in mystical colors; he turned out to be unfaithful to the lady of his heart, he could be reproached for inconstancy (III, 1), and he felt this reproach as a heavy reproach, as a shame (I, 1).

The treatise “The Feast” (Il convivio, 1304–1307) became the poet’s transition from the chanting of love to philosophical themes. Dante Alighieri was a religious man and did not experience those acute moral and mental fluctuations, reflected in the “Symposium”. This treatise occupies a middle place in the chronological sense in the development of Dante's consciousness, between the New Life and the Divine Comedy. The connection and object of development is Beatrice, at the same time a feeling, an idea, a memory, and a principle, united in one image.

Dante's philosophical studies coincided with the period of his grief over Beatrice: he lived in a world of abstractions and allegorical images that expressed them; It is not for nothing that the compassionate beauty raises the question in him: is it not in her that love that makes him suffer for Beatrice. This fold of thoughts explains the unconscious process by which the real biography of the Renewed Life was transformed: the Madonna of Philosophy prepared the way, returned to the apparently forgotten Beatrice.

"The Divine Comedy"

Analysis of the work

When in the 35th year (“at half life path") questions of practice surrounded Dante with their disappointments and inevitable betrayal of the ideal, and he himself found himself in their whirlpool, the boundaries of his introspection expanded, and questions of public morality took a place in him along with questions of personal success. Considering himself, he considers his society. It seems to him that everyone is lost in the dark forest of delusions, like he himself in the first song of the Divine Comedy, and everyone’s path to the light is blocked by the same symbolic animals: the lynx - voluptuousness, the lion - pride, the she-wolf - greed. The latter in particular has taken over the world; maybe someday a liberator will appear, a saint, a non-covetous one, who, like a greyhound dog (Veltro), will drive her into the bowels of hell; this will be the salvation of poor Italy. But the paths of personal salvation are open to everyone; reason, self-knowledge, science lead a person to an understanding of the truth revealed by faith, to divine grace and love.

This is the same formula as in the "Renewed Life", corrected by the Convivio worldview. Beatrice was already ready to become a symbol of active grace; but reason and science will now be presented not in the scholastic image of the “Madonna of Philosophy”, but in the image of Virgil. He led his Aeneas into the kingdom of shadows; now he will be Dante's guide while he, a pagan, is allowed to go to deliver him into the hands of the poet Statius, who in the Middle Ages was considered a Christian; he will lead him to Beatrice. So, in addition to wandering in the dark forest, walking through the three afterlife kingdoms is added. The connection between one and the other motive is somewhat external, educational: wandering through the abodes of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise is not a way out of the vale of earthly delusions, but edification by examples of those who found this way out, or did not find it, or stopped halfway. In an allegorical sense, the plot of the “Divine Comedy” is a person, since, acting righteously or unrighteously by virtue of his free will, he is subject to rewarding or punishing Justice; the purpose of the poem is to "lead people from their distressed state to a state of bliss." This is what it says in the message to Can Grande della Scala, the ruler of Verona, to whom Dante allegedly dedicated the last part of his comedy, interpreting its literal and hidden allegorical meaning. This message is suspected of being Dantean; but already the oldest commentators on comedy, including Dante’s son, used it, although without naming the author; one way or another, the views of the message were formed in the immediate vicinity of Dante, in a circle of people close to him.

Afterlife visions and walks are one of the favorite subjects of the old apocrypha and medieval legend. They mysteriously tuned up the imagination, frightened and beckoned with the rough realism of torment and the monotonous luxury of heavenly dishes and shining round dances. This literature is familiar to Dante, but he read Virgil, thought about the Aristotelian distribution of passions, the church ladder of sins and virtues - and his sinners, hopeful and blessed, settled down in a harmonious, logically thought-out system; his psychological instinct told him the correspondence of crime and righteous punishment, poetic tact - real images that far left behind the dilapidated images of legendary visions.

The entire afterlife turned out to be a complete building, the architecture of which was calculated in every detail, the definitions of space and time are distinguished by mathematical and astronomical accuracy; the name of Christ rhymes only with itself or is not mentioned at all, as well as the name of Mary, in the abode of sinners. There is conscious, mysterious symbolism throughout, as in “Renewed Life”; the number three and its derivative, nine, reign unchallenged: a three-line stanza (terza), three edges of the Comedy; excluding the first, introductory song, there are 33 songs for Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, and each of the cants ends with the same word: stars (stelle); three symbolic wives, three colors in which Beatrice is clothed, three symbolic beasts, three mouths of Lucifer and the same number of sinners devoured by him; threefold distribution of Hell with nine circles, etc.; the seven ledges of Purgatory and the nine celestial spheres. All this may seem petty if you don’t think about the worldview of time, a brightly conscious, to the point of pedantry, feature of Dante’s worldview; all this can only stop an attentive reader from reading the poem coherently, and all this is connected with another, this time poetic sequence, which makes us admire the sculptural certainty of Hell, the picturesque, deliberately pale tones of Purgatory and the geometric outlines of Paradise, turning into the harmony of heaven.

This is how the scheme of the afterlife was transformed in the hands of Dante, perhaps the only medieval poet who mastered a ready-made plot not for external literary purposes, but to express his personal content. He himself got lost halfway through his life; before him, a living person, not before the spirit seer of the old legend, not before the writer of the edifying story or the parodist of the fabliaux, the regions of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise unfolded, which he populated not only with traditional images of the legend, but also with faces of living modernity and recent times. He carries out judgment over them, which he carried out over himself from the height of his personal and social criteria: relations of knowledge and faith, empire and papacy; he executes their representatives if they are unfaithful to his ideal. Dissatisfied with modernity, he seeks its renewal in the moral and social norms of the past; in this sense, he is laudator temporis acti in the conditions and relationships of life, which Boccaccio sums up in his Decameron: some thirty years separate him from the last songs of the Divine Comedy. But Dante needs principles; look at them and walk past! - Virgil tells him when they pass by people who have not left a memory on earth, on whom Divine Justice and Mercy will not look, because they were cowardly, unprincipled (Hell, III, 51). No matter how highly tuned Dante’s worldview may be, the title of “singer of justice” that he gives himself (De Vulg. El. II, 2) was self-delusion: he wanted to be an unwashed judge, but passion and partisanship carried him away, and his afterlife is full of injustice condemned or exalted beyond measure. Boccaccio talks about him, shaking his head, how he used to get so angry in Ravenna when some woman or child scolded the Ghibellines that he was ready to throw stones at them. This may be an anecdote, but in Canto XXXII of the Inferno, Dante pulls the traitor Bocca’s hair to find out his name; promises another under a terrible oath (“may I fall into the depths of the hellish glacier,” Hell XXXIII. 117) to cleanse his frozen eyes, and when he identified himself, he does not fulfill the promise with conscious malice (loc. cit. v. 150 et seq. Hell VIII, 44 et seq.). Sometimes the poet gained an advantage in him over the bearer of the principle, or personal memories took possession of him, and the principle was forgotten; the best flowers of Dante's poetry grew in moments of such oblivion. Dante himself apparently admires the grandiose image of Capaneus, silently and gloomily prostrated under the fiery rain and in his torment challenging Zeus to battle (Hell, p. XIV). Dante punished him for pride, Francesca and Paolo (Hell, V) - for the sin of voluptuousness; but he surrounded them with such poetry, was so deeply moved by their story, that participation bordered on sympathy. Pride and love are passions that he himself recognizes as his own, from which he is cleansed, ascending along the ledges of the Purgatory Mountain to Beatrice; she has become spiritualized into a symbol, but in her reproaches to Dante in the midst of the earthly paradise one can feel the human note of “Renewed Life” and the infidelity of the heart caused by a real beauty, not by Madonna-philosophy. And pride did not leave him: the self-awareness of a poet and a convinced thinker is natural. “Follow your star and you will achieve a glorious goal,” Brunetto Latini tells him (Inferno, XV, 55); “The world will listen to your broadcasts,” Kachchiagvida tells him (Paradise, XVII, 130 et seq.), and he himself assures himself that they will still call him, having withdrawn from the parties, because they will need him (Hell, XV, 70).

Throughout the work, Dante repeatedly mentioned emperors and kings: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, his cousin William II of Sicily, Manfred of Sicily, Charles I of Anjou, etc.

Impact on culture

The Divine Comedy program covered the whole life and general issues knowledge and gave answers to them: this is a poetic encyclopedia of the medieval worldview. On this pedestal grew the image of the poet himself, early surrounded by legend, in the mysterious light of his Comedy, which he himself called a sacred poem, meaning its goals and objectives; The name Divine is accidental and belongs to a later time. Immediately after his death, commentators and imitators appear, descending to semi-popular forms of “visions”; terzino comedies were sung already in the 14th century. in the squares. This comedy is simply Dante's book, el Dante. Boccaccio reveals a number of his public interpreters. Since then it has continued to be read and explained; the rise and fall of Italian popular consciousness was expressed by the same fluctuations in the interest that Dante aroused in literature. Outside Italy, this interest coincided with the idealistic currents of society, but it also corresponded to the goals of school erudition and subjective criticism, which saw in the Comedy whatever it wanted: in the imperialist Dante - something like a Carbonara, in Dante the Catholic - a heresiarch, a Protestant, a man tormented by doubts. The newest exegesis promises to turn towards the only possible path, lovingly addressing commentators close to Dante in time, who lived in the zone of his worldview or who assimilated it. Where Dante is a poet, he is accessible to everyone; but the poet is mixed in him with the thinker. As stated in the Newest philosophical dictionary, Dante’s poetry “played a large role in the formation of Renaissance humanism and in the development of the European cultural tradition as a whole, having a significant impact not only on the poetic-artistic, but also on the philosophical spheres of culture (from the lyrics of Petrarch and the Pleiades poets to the sophiology of V.S. Solovyov).”

When writing this article, material from Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron (1890-1907).

Russian translations

A. S. Norova, “Excerpt from the 3rd song of the poem Hell” (“Son of the Fatherland”, 1823, No. 30);
his, “Predictions of D.” (from the XVII song of the poem Paradise.
“Literary sheets”, 1824, L "IV, 175);
his, “Count Ugodin” (“News Liter.”, 1825, book XII, June).
"Hell", trans. from Italian F. Fan-Dim (E. V. Kologrivova; St. Petersburg. 1842-48; prose).
"Hell", trans. from Italian the size of the original by D. Mina (M., 1856).
D. Min, “The First Song of Purgatory” (Russian Vest., 1865, 9).
V. A. Petrova, “The Divine Comedy” (translated with Italian terzas, St. Petersburg, 1871, 3rd ed. 1872; translated only Hell).
D. Minaev, “The Divine Comedy” (LPts. and St. Petersburg. 1874, 1875, 1876, 1879, translated not from the original, in terzas).
“Hell”, canto 3, trans. P. Weinberg (“Vestn. Evr.”, 1875, No. 5).
“Paolo and Francesca” (Hell, wood. A. Orlov, “Vestn. Evr.” 1875, No. 8); “The Divine Comedy” (“Hell”, presentation by S. Zarudny, with explanations and additions, St. Petersburg, 1887).
"Purgatory", trans. A. Solomon (“Russian Review”, 1892, in blank verse, but in the form of terza).
Translation and retelling of Vita Nuova in the book by S., “Triumphs of a Woman” (St. Petersburg, 1892).
Golovanov N. N. “The Divine Comedy” (1899-1902).
M. L. Lozinsky “The Divine Comedy” (1946 Stalin Prize).
Ilyushin, Alexander Anatolyevich. (“The Divine Comedy”) (1995).
Lemport Vladimir Sergeevich “The Divine Comedy” (1996-1997).

Dante in art

In 1822, Eugene Delacroix painted the painting “Dante’s Boat” (“Dante and Virgil in Hell”). In 1860, Gustave Doré illustrated Hell and Heaven. The illustrations for The Divine Comedy were done by William Blake and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

In the work of A. A. Akhmatova, the image of Dante occupied a significant place. In the poem “Muse”, Dante and the first part of the “Divine Comedy” (“Hell”) are mentioned. In 1936, Akhmatova wrote the poem “Dante”, in which the image of Dante the exile appears. In 1965, at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 700th anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri, Anna Akhmatova read “The Tale of Dante”, where, in addition to Alighieri’s own perception, she cites mention of Dante in the poetry of N. S. Gumilyov and the treatise of O. E. Mandelstam "Conversation about Dante" (1933).

The name of the famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri has worldwide fame. Quotes from his works can be heard in a variety of languages, since almost the whole world is familiar with his creations. They have been read by many, translated into different languages, have been studied in different parts of the planet. In a large number of European countries there are societies that systematically collect, research and disseminate information about his heritage. The anniversaries of Dante's life are among the major cultural events in the life of mankind.

Step into immortality

At the time when I was born great poet, great changes awaited humanity. This was on the eve of a grandiose historical revolution that radically changed the face of European society. The medieval world, feudal oppression, anarchy and disunity were becoming a thing of the past. The emergence of commodity producers took place. The times of power and prosperity of national states were coming.

Therefore, Dante Alighieri (whose poems have been translated into different languages ​​of the world) is not only the last poet Middle Ages, but also the first writer of the New Age. He tops the list consisting of the names of the titans of the Renaissance. He was the first to begin the fight against violence, cruelty, and obscurantism of the medieval world. He was also among those who were the first to raise the banner of humanism. This was his step into immortality.

The poet's youth

Dante Alighieri, his biography is very closely connected with those events that characterized social and political life Italy at that time. He was born into a family of native Florentines in May 1265. They represented a poor and not very noble feudal family.

His father worked as a lawyer in a Florentine banking firm. He died very early, during the youth of his later famous son.

The fact that political passions were in full swing in the country, that bloody battles were constantly taking place within the walls of his native city, that Florentine victories were followed by defeats, could not escape the attention of the young poet. He was an observer of the disintegration of Ghibelline power, the privileges of the grandees and the consolidation of Pollanian Florence.

Dante's education took place within the walls of an ordinary medieval school. The young man grew up extremely inquisitive, so the meager, limited school education. He constantly expanded his knowledge on his own. Very early, the boy began to be interested in literature and art, paying special attention to painting, music and poetry.

The beginning of the poet's literary life

But literary life Dante begins at a time when literature, art, and crafts greedily drank the juices of the civil world. Everything that previously could not fully declare its existence burst out. In those forms of art began to appear like mushrooms in a field of rain.

For the first time, Dante tried himself as a poet during his stay in the “new style” circle. But even in those fairly early poems, one cannot help but notice the presence of a violent surge of feelings that shattered the images of this style.

In 1293, the poet’s first book, entitled “New Life,” was published. This collection contained thirty poems, the writing of which dates back to 1281-1292. They had an extensive prose commentary, characterized by an autobiographical and philosophical-aesthetic character.

In the poems of this collection, the poet’s love story was told for the first time. She became the object of his adoration back in the days when the boy was barely 9 years old. This love was destined to last his entire life. Very rarely it found its manifestation in the form of rare chance meetings, fleeting glances of the beloved, in her cursory bows. And after 1290, when death took Beatrice, the poet’s love becomes his personal tragedy.

Active political activity

Thanks to “New Life”, the name of Dante Alighieri, whose biography is equally interesting and tragic, becomes famous. In addition to being a talented poet, he was an outstanding scholar, one of the most educated people in Italy. The breadth of his interests was unusually large for that time. He studied history, philosophy, rhetoric, theology, astronomy, and geography. He also paid special attention to the system of Eastern philosophy, the teachings of Avicenna and Averroes. The great ones could not escape his attention ancient poets and thinkers - Plato, Seneca, Virgil, Ovid, Juvenal. Special attention their creations will be paid attention to by the humanists of the Renaissance.

Dante was constantly nominated by the Florentine commune for honorary positions. He performed very responsible In 1300, Dante Alighieri was elected to a commission consisting of six priors. Its representatives ruled the city.

Beginning of the End

But at the same time, there is a new escalation of civil strife. Then the Guelph camp itself became the center of the height of hostility. It split into “white” and “black” factions, which were very much at odds with each other.

The mask of Dante Alighieri among the Guelphs was white. In 1301, with the support of the pope, the “black” Guelphs seized power over Florence and began to mercilessly deal with their opponents. They were sent into exile and executed. Only Dante's absence in the city saved him from reprisals. He was sentenced to death in absentia. He was expected to be burned immediately after arriving on Florentine soil.

Period of exile from homeland

At that time, a tragic breakdown occurred in the poet’s life. Left without a homeland, he is forced to wander around other cities in Italy. For some time he was even outside the country, in Paris. They were glad to see him in many palazzos, but he did not linger anywhere. He experienced great pain from defeat, and also greatly missed Florence, and the hospitality of the princes seemed humiliating and insulting to him.

During the period of exile from Florence, the spiritual maturation of Dante Alighieri took place, whose biography even before that time was very rich. During his wanderings, hostility and confusion were always before his eyes. Not only his homeland, but the whole country was perceived by him as “a nest of untruth and anxiety.” It was surrounded on all sides by endless strife between republican cities, cruel strife between principalities, intrigues, foreign troops, trampled gardens, ruined vineyards, exhausted, despairing people.

A wave of popular protests began in the country. The emergence of new ideas and the people's struggle provoked the awakening of Dante's thoughts, calling him to search for all sorts of ways out of the current situation.

The maturation of a dazzling genius

During the period of wanderings, hardships, and mournful thoughts about the fate of Italy, Dante's genius matured. At that time, he acted as a poet, activist, publicist and research scientist. At the same time, Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy, which brought him immortal world fame.

The idea of ​​writing this work appeared much earlier. But in order to create it, you need to live a whole human life, filled with torment, struggle, sleepless, sizzling labor.

In addition to the Comedy, other works by Dante Alighieri (sonnets, poems) are also published. In particular, the treatise “The Feast” refers to the first years of emigration. It touches not only on theology, but also on philosophy, morality, astronomy, and natural philosophy. In addition, “The Feast” was written in the national Italian language, which was very unusual at that time. After all, then almost all the works of scientists were published in Latin.

In parallel with the work on the treatise, in 1306 he saw the world and a linguistic work entitled “On Popular Eloquence.” This is the first European Scientific research Romance linguistics.

Both of these works remained unfinished, as new events directed Dante’s thoughts in a slightly different direction.

Unfulfilled dreams of returning home

Dante Alighieri, whose biography is known to many contemporaries, constantly thought about returning. For days, months and years, he tirelessly and persistently dreamed about it. This was especially evident during the work on “Comedy”, when creating its immortal images. He forged Florentine speech and raised it to the national political level. He firmly believed that it was with the help of his brilliant poetic creation that he would be able to return to his hometown. His expectations, hopes and thoughts of return gave him the strength to complete this titanic feat.

But he was not destined to return. He finished writing his poem in Ravenna, where the city authorities granted him asylum. In the summer of 1321, Dante Alighieri’s work “The Divine Comedy” was completed, and on September 14 of the same year the city buried the genius.

Death from believing in a dream

Until the end of his life, the poet sacredly believed in the world on his native land. He lived by this mission. For her sake, he went to Venice, which was preparing a military attack on Ravenna. Dante really wanted to convince the leaders of the Adriatic Republic that they should abandon the war.

But this trip not only did not bring the desired results, but also became fatal for the poet. on his way back there was a swampy lagoon area where the scourge of such places “lived” - malaria. It was she who caused the collapse of the poet’s strength within a few days, strained by very hard work. Thus ended the life of Dante Alighieri.

And only after several decades did Florence realize who she had lost in the person of Dante. The government wanted to take the poet's remains from the territory of Ravenna. His ashes to this day remain far from his homeland, which rejected and condemned him, but for which he remains the most devoted son.

The article talks about a short biography of Dante Alighieri, the famous medieval Italian poet. His main work, “The Divine Comedy,” is included in the golden fund of world literature. Quotes from it have become popular and are used in the works of many poets and writers around the world.
Dante became one of the greatest cultural figures, whose work marked the transition to a new historical era. Medieval ascetic society was in decline, and global changes were approaching. The poet became one of the first to promote humanism, which significantly brought the beginning of the New Age closer.

Biography of Dante: early years

Dante was born in 1265 in Florence. His family was of aristocratic origin, although not very noble or rich. The boy received compulsory education, which, by his own admission, was insufficient. Dante was actively engaged in self-education, giving preference to literature and art. He begins to try his hand as a poet. The poems of the young Dante are still very weak, but new sensual motives are already noticeable in them, running counter to classical ideas.
Already in childhood, the boy found the first source for his future creativity. It turned out to be a neighbor girl named Beatrice. Dante developed a serious passion and love in his youth. Beatrice died young, which was a serious blow for Dante and became his tragedy for the rest of his life. The result was the work "New Life", which received enormous success and brought great fame to the poet. The author's creation was a collection of poems with extensive comments by the author. The artistic value of the work attracted attention to Dante's personality. Independent acquisition of knowledge led to the fact that the poet became one of the most versatile educated people of the era. His knowledge covered a wide range of sciences, from history to astronomy. Dante was excellent at ancient art, was interested eastern culture and philosophy.
The poet did not marry for love in 1291. Family life was still successful: the couple had seven children.
Respect for Dante led to his constantly occupying the highest honorary positions in the government of Florence. However, the prosperous existence did not last long. In Florence at that time there was a fierce political struggle between various aristocratic parties, which escalated into armed clashes. The so-called party came to power. "Black Guelphs", who, with the support of the Pope, began severe reprisals against their political opponents.

Biography of Dante: Life in Exile

In 1302, Dante was accused of spending public funds and fined. At the same time, the church sentenced him to death at the stake for his political beliefs. The poet is forced to hide and travel around Italy and France. The wife refused to follow her husband, and they never met again. Dante was everywhere accompanied by respect and honor in his wanderings, but this did not please the poet. He continued to yearn for Florence and took his exile hard. Dante rethinks his attitude towards life. He begins to notice that external prosperity is everywhere accompanied by a fierce struggle between various political groups and states. In this struggle, all means are used, both open violence and lies, deception, intrigue, flattery, etc.
In exile, the poet spends a lot of time creatively. Famous work becomes the scientific and philosophical treatise "The Feast", the main feature of which is that it is written in Italian. This was a significant innovation, since all scientific works of that time were written in Latin.
At the same time, the poet takes an active part in public life: he gives public lectures and speaks in debates where pressing issues are discussed. Dante preaches his views, formed in exile, which are humanistic in nature.
Since 1316, Dante has lived in Ravenna.
Dante's greatest work, which glorified his name, was the "Comedy", later called "Divine". The poet wrote it over many years and finished it just before his death. A detailed description of the soul's wanderings in the afterlife immortalized the name of Dante. His "Comedy" became classic work, which any educated person must get acquainted with.
In 1321, Dante fell ill with malaria and soon died. The poet was never able to return to his hometown, although he dreamed about it all his life. After a long time, the government of Florence realized that it had lost its greatest citizen. Attempts were made to return the remains to their homeland. However, Dante’s ashes still remain in a foreign land.

Dante Alighieri is an Italian poet and writer, theologian, and political activist. His contribution to the development of not only Italian, but also world literature is invaluable. He is the author of The Divine Comedy and the creator of the nine circles of hell, heaven and purgatory.

Childhood and youth

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence. His full name is Durante degli Alighieri. The exact date of birth of the poet is unknown; presumably, he was born between May 21 and June 1, 1265.

According to family tradition, his ancestors were from the Roman family of Elisei. They took part in the founding of Florence. His great-great-grandfather Kacciaguida was a knight under Conrad III, went with him to Crusades and died in battle with the Muslims.

His great-great-grandmother was Aldighieri da Fontana, a woman from a wealthy family. She named her son Alighieri. Later this name turned into a well-known surname.

Dante's grandfather was expelled from Florence during the confrontation between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. He returned to his homeland only in 1266. His father Alighieri II was far from politics, so he remained in Florence all the time.

Dante was an educated man, he had knowledge of the natural sciences and medieval literature. He also studied the heretical teachings of that era. Where he received this knowledge is unknown. But his first mentor was the then popular scientist and poet Brunetto Latini.

Literature

It is not known for certain when Dante became interested in writing, but the creation of the work “New Life” dates back to 1292. It did not include all the poems written by that time. The book alternated poetry and fragments of prose. This is a kind of confession written by Dante after the death of Beatrice. Also in “New Life” many poems were dedicated to his friend Guido Cavalcanti, by the way, also a poet. Later scholars called this book the first autobiography in the history of literature.

Like his grandfather, Dante became interested in politics at a young age. At the end of the 13th century, Florence was involved in a conflict between the Emperor and the Pope. Alighieri took the side of opponents of papal power. At first, luck “smiled” on the poet, and soon his party managed to rise above the enemy. In 1300 he was elected to the post of prior.

However, a year later the political situation changed dramatically - power passed into the hands of the Pope’s supporters. He was expelled from Florence on a fictitious bribery case. He was also accused of anti-state activities. Dante was fined 5,000 florins, his property was seized, and later a death sentence was imposed. At this time he was outside of Florence, so, having learned about this, he decided not to return to the city. So he began to live in exile.

For the rest of his life, Dante wandered around cities and countries, finding shelter in Verona, Bologna, Ravenna, and even lived in Paris. All subsequent works after “New Life” were written in exile.

In 1304, he began writing the philosophical books “The Feast” and “On Popular Eloquence.” Unfortunately, both works remained unfinished. This is due to the fact that Dante began work on his main work, The Divine Comedy.

It is noteworthy that the poet initially called his work simply “Comedy.” The word “divine” was added to the name Giovanni Boccaccio- Alighieri's first biographer.

It took him 15 years to write this work. Dante personified himself with the main lyrical hero. The poem is based on his journey through the afterlife, which he embarks on after the death of his beloved Beatrice.

The work consists of three parts. The first is “Hell,” consisting of nine circles, where sinners are ranked according to the severity of their fall. Here Dante placed political and personal enemies. Also in “Hell” the poet left those who, as he believed, lived unchristianly and immorally.

He described “Purgatory” with seven circles that correspond to the seven deadly sins. “Paradise” is performed in nine circles, which are named after the main planets of the solar system.

This work is still shrouded in legends. For example, Boccaccio claimed that after his death, Dante's children could not find the last 13 songs of Paradise. And they discovered them only after the father himself came to his son Jacopo in a dream and told him where they were hidden.

Personal life

Dante's main muse was Beatrice Portinari. He first saw her when he was only 9 years old. Of course, at such a young age he did not realize his feelings. He met the girl only nine years later, when she had already married another man. Only then did he realize how much he loved her. Beatrice was the poet's only love for the rest of his life.

He was such a shy and self-conscious young man that during the entire time he only spoke to his lover twice. And the girl didn’t even suspect his feelings for her. On the contrary, Dante seemed arrogant to her for not talking to her.

In 1290, Beatrice died. She was only 24 years old. The exact cause of her death is unknown. According to one version, she died during childbirth, according to another, she became a victim of a plague epidemic. For Dante this was a blow. Until the end of his days, he loved only her and cherished her image.

A couple of years later he married Gemma Donati. She was the daughter of the leader of the Florentine party, Donati, with whom the Alighieri family was at enmity. Of course, it was a marriage of convenience, and most likely political. True, the couple later had three children - sons Pietro and Jacopo and daughter Antonia.

Despite this, when Dante began to create the Comedy, he thought only about Beatrice, and it was written in glorification of this girl.

Death

The last years of his life, Dante lived in Ravenna under the patronage of Guido da Polenta, he was his ambassador. One day he went to Venice to conclude a peace treaty with the Republic of St. Mark. On way back the poet fell ill. Dante died on the night of September 13-14, 1321. The cause of his death was malaria.

Dante Alighieri was buried in the Church of San Francesco in Ravenna, on the territory of the monastery. In 1329, the cardinal demanded that the monks commit the poet's body to public burning. How the monks were able to “extricate themselves” from this situation is unknown, but no one touched the poet’s remains.

For the 600th anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri, it was decided to restore the church. In 1865, builders discovered a wooden box in the wall with an inscription carved on it: “Dante’s bones were placed here by Antonio Santi in 1677.” This discovery became an international sensation. No one knew who this Antonio was, but some suggested that he might well be a relative of the artist.

Dante's remains were transferred to the poet's mausoleum in Ravenna, where they remain to this day.

Bibliography

• 1292 – “New Life”
• 1300 – “Monarchy”
• 1305 – “On popular eloquence”
• 1307 – “Feast”
• 1320 – “Eclogues”
• 1321 – “The Divine Comedy”

DANTE ALIGHIERI
(1265-1321)

An outstanding Italian poet, whose enormous figure, in the words of F. Engels, determines the end of the feudal Middle Ages and 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 was guided by the pope. The second influential party was the Ghibelline party, which defended the interests of the feudal lords and focused on the emperor. Since Florence at that time was the most developed and rich 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.

From a young age, Dante 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 became interested in Dante's poetry. He was particularly influenced by the school of the “sweet new style”, founded by Guido Guinizelli, a literature teacher at the University of Bologna. It was him who Dante called his teacher and father. The lyricism of the school of the “sweet new style” combined the experience of Provençal chivalric poetry with its refined cult of service to the Lady and the tradition of Sicilian poetry, full of reflections and philosophical considerations of beauty.

Dante's early works (30 poems, of which 25 sonnets, 4 canzones and one stanza), combined with prose text, formed a collection called “New Life” (Vita nuova). The works in this collection contain all the elements of the “sweet new style” - philosophy, rhetoric, mystical symbolism and elegance of form. But at the same time, the collection also becomes the first achievement of the new Renaissance literature - a real hymn to life and love. Its name itself is symbolic. It can be interpreted as “new”, “updated”, “young” and can have several semantic meanings. Firstly, the change from one period of life to another (real plan). Secondly, a renewal associated with the cult of the lady of the heart and interpreted in accordance with the norms of love etiquette characteristic of Provençal 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 (the highest, philosophical plane).
It is interesting to note that already in Dante’s debut work the 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 the death of Beatrice, relying on the symbolism of the number nine , proves that she was "a miracle whose root is in a strange trinity." This semantic polysemy, this non-stop movement of the soul from the earthly to the heavenly, the divine, denotes the content and structure already in the years of exile.

The fact is that Dante not only loves poetry, but also, being a man of solid character and strong passions, a person with a developed civic consciousness, becomes a noticeable 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 face of intensified 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 burning. 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 the hope of the defeat of the “blacks”, tries to establish connections with the Ghibilins, but quickly becomes disillusioned with them, proclaiming that from now on he is “creating a party on his own.” 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 understands how bitter other people’s bread can be and how difficult it is to climb other people’s stairs.” He had to live with like-minded patrons of the arts, sort out their libraries, serve as a secretary, and for some time (approximately 1308-1310) he moved to Paris.

Florence offers Dante to return to his hometown on condition of performing a humiliating form of penance, which Dante resolutely refuses. In 1315, the Florentine lordship again sentenced him to death, and Dante forever lost hope of returning to Florence, but did not stop his socio-political activities for Italy without wars and without papal power.

He doesn’t stop either 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 to them the world of truth, and to contribute through his works to the moral improvement of the world. His poetry is filled with moral maxims, fabulous knowledge, and techniques of eloquence. In general, journalistic motifs and genres prevail.

Until 1313, when he began to write the Divine Comedy, Dante wrote the moral and philosophical treatise “The Symposium” (1304-1307) and two treatises in Latin, “On the Vernacular” and “The Monarchy”. “The Feast,” like “New Life,” combines prose texts and poetry. Grandiose in concept (14 philosophical canzones and 15 prose treatises and commentaries on them), unfortunately, it 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 Latin language traditional for the people of that time, but in the Italian language, Volgare, 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 familiar has set; and it gives light to those who are in darkness, since the old sun no longer shines on them.”

Philosophical, theological, political and moral issues that time. Medieval in plot and teaching style - yes, philosophy here appears in the image of a noble lady - Dante's work bears the expressive features of the Renaissance day. First of all, this is exaltation 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. Highest form the perfection of the soul is knowledge, “our highest bliss lies in it, we all naturally strive for it.”

The challenge to 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 qualities of man in the Divine Comedy. In the 26th canto of “Hell”, Dante brings the legendary Odysseus (Ulysses) onto the stage and presents 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 homeland, what pity for you squeezes my heart, every time I read, every time I write, something about public administration!” or (address to the now forgotten kings Charles of Naples and Frederick of Sicily): “Think about this, enemies of God, you, first one, then the other, seized rule over all of Italy, I address you, Charles and Frederick, and before you, other rulers and tyrants... It would be better for you, like swallows, to fly low above the earth, like hawks, circling in an unattainable height, looking from there at great meanness.”

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

If Dante had not written anything else, his name would still have gone down in the history of world literature forever. And yet it world fame associated primarily with 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 good is persecuted.” The purpose of the poem, as the poet himself noted, is “to snatch those living in this life from 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, this is the effect of any work of the middle style with a terrifying beginning and a happy ending, written in the folk language. Giovanni Boccaccio, the author of the Decameron and Dante’s first biographer, called Dante’s poem “The 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 (cantika) in turn has 33 songs, to which an introduction is attached, and the poem thus has 100 songs. The form of the verse of the poem is also determined by the number 3. Dante here canonizes the terzin form, taking it as the basis for the architectonics of the Divine Comedy. This 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 is subject to the mystical symbolism of the number 3.

The compositional structure perfectly corresponds to the intention 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 improvement. 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 of Virgil, in whom Aeneas also ascends to Tartarus to see his father.

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

A characteristic feature of the poem is its extreme semantic richness. Almost every image in it has several meanings. Direct, immediate meaning, behind which lies an allegorical one, and that, in turn, can be either purely allegorical, or moral, or analogous (spiritual). So, the predators that crossed Dante’s path in the wild forest were the usual panther, she-wolf and lion. In an allegorical sense, the panther means voluptuousness, as well as oligarchy; Leo - neglect, violence, as well as tyranny; the 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 - the mind, Beatrice - the highest wisdom. Hell is a symbol of evil, heaven is a symbol of love, goodness and virtue, purgatory is a 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 established ideas about the afterlife and atonement for earthly sins with the poet’s extremely frank, passionate and emotionally charged attitude towards 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 within itself a powerful spirit new culture, a new type of thinking that foreshadows the humanistic era of the Renaissance.

A socially active person, Dante is not content with abstract moralizing: he transfers other world his contemporaries and predecessors with their joys and experiences, with their political preferences, with their actions and deeds - and carries out strict and unforgiving judgment on them from the position of a sage-humanist. 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.