Dante
At a glance:
- Series: Dictionary of World Biography: Middle Ages
- Categories: Literature, Publishing
- Subcategories: Authors, Writers, Poetry, Poets, Empires, Dynasties, Holy Roman Empire
- Curriculum: Italian History, Medieval History/Middle Ages
Article abstract: Dante’s The Divine Comedy, written in vernacular Italian terza rima, synthesizes classical and medieval thought in a confessional format which is at once universal and intensely personal.
Early Life
A welter of legend surrounds the life of Dante, author of the tripartite masterpiece La divina commedia (c. 1320; The Divine Comedy). Still, certain facts are clear. His neighbor Giovanni Villani wrote a brief sketch, and Giovanni Boccaccio wrote a eulogy which appeared sometime after Dante’s death. These accounts agree on...
[The entire page is 2376 words long]
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