Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy. He fell in love with Beatrice Portinari at age 9. After her death in 1290, he wrote La Vita Nuova. In 1300, he became involved in Florentine politics as a member of the White Guelph faction. However, after political upheaval, he was exiled from Florence in 1302 and spent the rest of his life traveling between Italian cities while writing The Divine Comedy. Dante finished The Divine Comedy in 1321 before dying in Ravenna later that year.

1. Chronology of Dante
Alighieri
1265-1321

2. Dante’s Life
1265 - Dante is born May 29
1274 – Age 9 First meets, and falls in love
with Beatrice Portinari, who is also 9; this
love drives all his literary works
1283 - Dante's father dies. He is married
shortly thereafter to Gemma Donati (black
Guelph), with whom he has four children
(Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia).

4. Dante’s Life
Two political factions:
•Guelphs = Pope rules heaven and earth
•Ghibellines = Pope rules heaven; kings
rule earth
• Guelphs split in 1300 into Blacks and Whites
– Blacks backed the pope: old wealth; bankers; super rich
(Gemma Donati family)
– Whites – merchants who wanted peace so business
would prosper -- began to side with the Ghibellines
• Ghibellines: the feudal aristocracy, the land
owners; believed in imperial authority

5. Dante’s Life
DANTE'S POLITICAL ALLIES
• Dante began a Guelf, later
a White Guelf (after his exile,
but he found them crude and
violent), then claimed no party
affiliation and lived many
years in exile with a Ghibelline
and best friend, Con Grande
della Scala.

6. Dante’s Life
1289 – He enlists
in the military to
fight the battle of
Campaldino at
age 24 as a White
Guelf; defeats the
Ghibellines of
Arezzo. Dante
recalls this battle
in Purgatorio.

7. Dante’s Life
1290 - Death of Beatrice.
1292 - Writes La Vita Nuova.

8. Dante’s Life
This is what Dante wrote in his notes after La Vita
Nuova and before writing the Divine Comedy:
"...if it be the wish of Him
in whom all things flourish
that my life continue for a
few years, I hope to write
of her that which has never
been written of any lady."

9. Dante’s Life
Dante was driven by love, politics, and
a respect for Christianity. He believed in
separation of church and state.
1294 - Dante meets Charles Martel, King
of Hungary, a supporter
1295 - Joins the guild of the apothecaries
for the purpose of entering public life.
1300 - Dante becomes one of six highest
magistrates in Florence.

10. • 1300, Thursday night before
Good Friday
• Fictional beginning of Pilgrim
Dante’s journey into the
Inferno
• Poet Dante began writing
Inferno in 1306

11. Dante’s Life
1300 - Boniface
VIII proclaims
the Jubilee Year.
Grrrrrrr….

12. Dante’s Life
1301 - Pope Boniface VIII summons Dante to
Rome.
1302 - Charles of Valois invades Florence. The
Black Guelfs seize power. Dante is banished
and condemned to be burned alive if he ever
returns
p.s. 1304 - Birth of Petrarch (another Italian poet
as famous as Dante; believed that people could
be great thinkers and still believe in God; led to
independent thought and Renaissance)

13. Dante’s Life on the run
1304 - Dante writes De vulgari eloquentia, his
praise of vernacular Italian literature. Of four
books planned, only the first book and part of
the second were written.
• During the same period he begins the Convivio.
Only four of a projected fifteen books of the
Convivio were completed.
He was searching for his supreme story…

14. Dante’s Life on the run
1306 - Probably the year in which Dante
interrupts the Convivio, begins the Comedy.
1310 - Henry of Luxembourg, Holy Roman
Emperor, descends into Italy and Dante
addresses an Epistle to him called De
Monarchia. Possible date between 1310-1313:
It states the empire in necessary to maintain peace;
authority of the emperor comes directly from God.
Emperor should revere pope, but answer directly to God.
One monarch should rule the entire planet. Only then will
we have total peace and harmony.

15. Dante’s Life on the run
1313 - Death
of Henry.
Dante’s last
chance to
see a
separation of
church and
state

16. Dante’s Life on the run
1314 - Publication
of Inferno.

17. 1564

18. 1569

19. Dante’s Life on the run
1315 - Dante moves to
Verona as a guest of
Cangrande della Scala.
Works on Purgatorio
and Paradiso.
1319 - Dante moves to
Ravenna, where he is
the guest of Guido
Novello da Polenta, lord
of that city.
1321 – Dante finished
The Divine Comedy; he
then falls ill dies
September 13 or 14.