Divine Comedy | Historical Context
Papacy and Empire: The Decline
Dante Alighieri was born into one of the most chaotic periods of Western European history. His birth in 1265 and death in 1321 meant that he witnessed the decline of the two most powerful social institutions of the Middle Ages the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. This degeneration—this loss of power, control and respect—affected Dante emotionally, psychologically and...
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