Dante Alighieri Biography and Quotes
Birthday: 1265 AD
Commemoration: 1321 AD
Nationality: Italian
56
Years Old
Famously Known For
Dante di Alighiero degli Alighieri is remembered for being a great poet during his times. His best-known work was The Divine Comedy, which is considered as one of the most important pieces of writing in literature. The poem is divided into three parts narrating how a man visits three places, Hell, Purgatory, and then Paradise.
Early Life
Dante Alighieri was born to a middle-class family in Medieval Florence in Italy. He received formal education and developed a special interest in poetry. Dante began writing poems at a young age, and when he was nine years of age, Dante met a girl by the name Beatrice who he fell in love with madly as seen in most of his poetry. Dante lost his mother before turning 14 and later his father five years later.
Personal Life
Between 1283 and 1284, Dante got married to Gemma Donati, a marriage that was arranged by Dante’s parents before their death. Together, the couple had four children, but their marriage was not a happy one with Dante still in love with his childhood love, Beatrice.
Career
Dante was majorly only a poet. Together with other poets, Dante developed a movement known as Dolce still novo, which focused on love, women, introspects, and the use of metaphors and symbols. The attributes of this movement shaped much of Dante’s work.
Some of the major writings by Dante include:
i. La Vita Nuova, which was written from 1293 to 1294. The book is centered on love as its central theme and specifically the love that Dante had for Beatrice.
ii. The divine comedy- in this book written by Dante while in exile between 1308 and 1321, Dante also uses Beatrice as a significant figure.
Death
Dante died while returning to Ravenna from a visit to Venice, presumably out of Malaria. He was aged 56 at the time of his death.
