DANTE
Alighieri [ital. Dante Alighieri] (May 1265, Florence - 09/13/1321, Ravenna), Italian. poet, thinker.
D. genus. in the family of a poor landowner, a Guelph nobleman. He received his legal education in Bologna. Early became famous as a poet of the "sweet new style" school. From 1295, he was actively involved in the political life of the Florentine Republic. In 1300 he became one of the members of the government of Florence. From 1302 he was a political emigrant. From 1308 to 1313, as a publicist and politician, he actively contributed to the new imp. Henry VII, whose mission he saw in the unification of Italy and the restoration of the greatness of the Roman Empire. After the death of the emperor (1313) and the execution of the top of the Knights Templar (1314), with which D. connected his political projects, he wandered around the North. Italy in search of patronage and spiritual support (possibly visited Paris), leaving no hope of returning to Florence. However, the authorities of Florence in 1315 issued another death sentence that closed D.'s way to his homeland. From 1317 until his death he lived in Ravenna, where he completed the main work of his life - the Divine Comedy.
Major works: the autobiographical story "New Life" (La Vita Nuova, 1292-1293, published in 1576); the unfinished poetic-philosophical work "Feast" (Convivio, 1303-1306); philosophical and political treatises "On popular eloquence" (De vulgari eloquentia, 1304-1307) and "On the monarchy" (De monarchia, 1307-1313); a poem in 3 hours (kantika) and 100 songs "Comedy", later called "The Divine Comedy" (La Divina Commedia, 1307-1321, published in 1472).
D. is considered the creator of the Italian. lit. language and one of the founders of European. Literature of the New Age. D.'s poems, dedicated to Beatrice, her untimely deceased lover, create a new artistic ideal that combines deified and idealized femininity with a specific psychologically and biographically reliable portrait of the Lady, sung by the poet. This ideal reflects not only the courtly tradition, but also the psychological discoveries of St. Francis of Assisi. In philosophical treatises, D. gravitates towards the encyclopedic synthesis of the Middle Ages. learning, masterfully using the legacy of Aristotle, blzh. Augustine, Boethius, Saint-Victorian mysticism, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas.
The treatise "Feast" was conceived as a commentary on the canzones written by D. in the 90s. The object of comments is the poetry of the author himself, and in the course of interpretation, elements of the author's biography, his assessment of contemporaries, political views and emotions are introduced into the text. Such personalization of the text and the belief that the author's "I" is a worthy subject for a scientific treatise are not typical of the Middle Ages. commentator with his reverent "bottom-up" look at the subject of study. It is also unusual that the treatise is written in Italian. language: D. is rightly said to be the creator of the Italian. scientific language. The "Feast" is characterized by a mixture of genres mastered by the Middle Ages. The most indicative in this regard is the book. III, in which D. sets out his understanding of philosophy. "Donna Gentile", the noble lady of the 2nd canzone, is Philosophy, the mistress of Reason. Behind this allegory is a reinterpretation of the events of D.'s personal life, his love for the "compassionate donna", which we know about from the New Life. In order to explain the nature of philosophy, D. draws on an abundance of information from physics, astronomy, psychology, and history. Chapter 14 contains an essay on the sophiology of D., based on the Proverbs of Solomon: starting with Platonic scholasticism, the author, through courtly images, moves on to a mixture of ancient and Christ. vocabulary, depicting "heavenly Athens, where the Stoics, Peripatetics and Epicureans, illuminated by the light of eternal truth, are united by a single thirst" (Convivio. III 14. 15). Further, the author clarifies the hierarchy of Christian spiritual values and correlates them with the intuition of the Higher Femininity, which permeates all of D.'s work. Wisdom is called "the mother of everything and the beginning of every movement ..." (Ibid. III 15. 15). The Eternal Wisdom of the Parables of Solomon merges with them.
Unlike "Feast" lat. D.'s treatise "On Folk Eloquence" gives the impression of integrity, although it also remained unfinished. Perhaps the philosophy of language as a thoughtful whole is first encountered precisely in the work “On Folk Eloquence”. D. clearly distinguishes between natural and cultural, "artificial" language. “The more famous of these two speeches is the folk one” (De vulgari eloquentia. I 1. 4). The criteria for "nobility" (that is, nobility and dignity) of folk speech are as follows: it is natural, lively, general and primary. Secondary speech, for all its refinement and sublimity, does not have the ability to develop and cannot fully fulfill its purpose, that is, be a force that unites people. D. emphasizes that speech is a specifically human quality. Angels and demons understand each other without words: angels perceive their own kind either directly or through reflection in a divine mirror; it is enough for demons to know about the existence and strength of their own kind. Animals of the same breed have the same actions and passions, and therefore they can learn others by themselves. A person is deprived of both types of immediacy. He is driven by the mind, and since the mind is individual, people do not know each other in the likeness of actions and passions. But the mind, separating man from animals, does not join him to the angels, since the soul of people is clothed with a rough shell of the body. Hence the need for a “reasonable and sensible sign” (Ibid. I 3.2), since without rationality a sign can neither exist in thought nor be introduced into other thinking, and without sensual means the transmission of rationality itself is impossible. Speech is such an object: sensual, since it is a sound, and rational, since it means what we have in mind. The theory of the D sign is one of the first semiotic concepts in Europe. At the same time, it is closely connected with the understanding of culture in general. D. sees in speech a fundamental property of a person, on which both the ability to communicate and the connection with the higher spiritual worlds are based (the first word of a person was, according to D., “El” - God) (Ibid. I 4. 4), and, finally, the social unity of mankind. In ch. 7 book. I D. briefly tells about the construction of the Tower of Babel, which people started in order to surpass nature and the Creator. God punished pride by confusing tongues, and thereby destroyed the human community. D. believed that the geographical dispersion of peoples is associated with this socio-linguistic catastrophe. Therefore, the dream of the language of Bud. Italy was for him something more than concern for the perfection of literature. Italy is the heir to the traditions of Rome; according to D., it should also play the role of Rome as a force that unites peoples, as a source of imperial power. The collection of scattered "languages" and the revival of a forgotten first language - such should be, according to D., the goal of culture. Folk speech remains the basis for the search for the original language, since, unlike artificial Latin, it was given by God and retains a living connection with reality. D. discovers that languages are in the process of continuous change caused by changes in spiritual and material life. D. makes an exception for Hebrew, which has been preserved in purity since the time of Adam (however, in the Comedy it is already indirectly assumed that this language is also subject to corruption). According to D., it was not God who spoke first, but Adam, since the impulse to the word was invested in him. The poet reproduces this situation, repeats in his work the action of the first poet Adam, to whom God allowed to speak, “so that in explaining such a great gift, He Himself would be glorified” (Ibid. I 5. 2).
D. discovered a living force, which was not noticed behind the artificial constructions of Latin, - the natural folk language, “Volgare” (Italian volgare). Another category is highlighted in the treatise, which is not characteristic of the thinking of classical Christ. Middle Ages - nation. Language turns out to be the substance in which the individual soul of the people materializes; moreover, language makes it possible to see that the nation is not reducible to sociality and religion, to territory and politics. Perhaps, for the first time in the Middle Ages, the motif of the motherland sounded in D. as a special subject of concern and spiritual effort. At the same time, D. is a singer of the "world empire" and the universal truth of Christianity. In his philosophical and poetic works, an awareness of a new cultural and historical reality is revealed - this is the autonomy of the individual, the power of science, the idea of the independence and intrinsic value of nature, language, emotionality, and the nation. At the same time, the axiom for D. remains the Middle Ages. the doctrine of the hierarchy of world existence, in which each lower level lives by the gifts of the higher and makes sense to the extent that it is able to reflect the light of higher values. Therefore, the discovery of new entities means only a greater degree of penetration of meaning into matter, or, in theological language, a greater "glory".
Op. "On the Monarchy" D. seeks to prove 3 main points: for the earthly happiness of mankind, an empire is necessary; power to the emperor is given directly by God; Rome. the people rightfully assumed the role of imperial power. D. believes that the origin of the state was due to the fall of Adam. Mankind was in the grip of sensual passions, of which the most dangerous is greed, and therefore had to create a social structure that protects people from themselves, from their destructive self-interest. However, this is a common place of the Middle Ages. D.'s worldview is significantly corrected. A person, even in his nature not spoiled by sin, is a political, social being, a swarm always strives for communication and living together. Just like Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, D. considers the formation of a state-va a natural process. The state, consequently, does not bear the stamp of an ancient curse and can be a form of a happy life. The sin of Adam makes itself felt in the fact that the greed of people infects the state itself, which loses the functions of justice from this and enters into a selfish struggle with other states and with its citizens. Therefore, the thinker believes, a third force is needed, which would unite society and the state. Only the monarchy can claim the role of a reconciling 3rd force. The unlimited power of the Dante emperor - a ruler who has little in common with the absolute monarch of the national state of the 17th-18th centuries - is based on law, morality, divine sanction, on the nature of the world order. In fact, it is more limited than any other power. The emperor stands above passions, he has no private interest, everything belongs to him and, therefore, nothing in particular, to which he could be addicted. With some reservations, this image can be compared with the Aristotelian monarch, with the Platonic philosophers and guards, with the podest (the ruler of the Italian commune), but not with the monarch of the New Age. D. argues that the empire as a legal establishment precedes the one who exercises power, i.e. the emperor, who, because of this, cannot divide the empire into parts, limit his power and pass it on by inheritance. Constantine is the first Christ. emperor - committed, thus, an illegal act when he gave the Church power over a large area in Italy. D. believed that this mistake of Constantine (the forgery of the “gift” (see Art. Konstantinov’s gift) was not yet known to D.) played a fatal role in the penetration of worldly interests into church life. D. emphasizes the dependence of the emperor on ideal principles, arguing that “not citizens exist for the sake of the consuls and not the people for the sake of the king, but, on the contrary, the consuls for the sake of the citizens and the king for the people” (De monarchia. I 12.11). As the supreme judge and legislator, the emperor is obliged to intervene in those disputes that cannot be resolved due to the equality of the rights of the disputants (such are disputes between sovereign states), and his business is to take care of everyone and the state as a whole. If laws and power are not used for the common good, then they lose their legal character, because the very nature of the law is perverted (Ibid. II 5. 2-3). Not only justice and order, but also freedom is the subject of the emperor's concern. Freedom is “the greatest gift that God has placed in human nature, because through it we find happiness here as people and through it we find happiness there as gods” (Ibid. I 12. 6). D. concludes that living under the rule of the monarch is the most free. After all, freedom is the existence of people for their own sake, and not for something else; but this state can only be ensured by the monarch, who has no other interests other than the fulfillment of duty. Only he can protect people from perverted state. systems, to-rye subjugate the people. With t. sp. D., not only democracy, oligarchy and tyranny, but also the monarchy, if it does not represent a world empire, is a usurpation of power. A healthy form of power for D. is the coincidence of the universal and the individual in the person of the emperor. The spiritual support of the monarch must be a philosopher (Ibid. III 16); for otherwise the danger of arbitrariness and tyranny would be too great. The main tasks of the monarch are the protection of freedom, the establishment of relations between the political elements of the empire and the establishment of peace. Only peace can give humanity that state, which in Scripture is called “the fullness of times” (Eph 1:10; Gal 4:4), that is, prosperity and harmony. Only in a peaceful society can justice, legality and truth find their place - social virtues, which D. valued above all else. But peace is possible when a person most accurately reproduces the pattern set by God the ruler of the world, and for this it is necessary that he renounce self-interest, relying on the universal principle in himself. Monarchy, according to D., is an ideal system for such an overcoming of false individuality, since in it a person is subject to only one principle and this principle realizes the universal ideal without sacrificing freedom (De monarchia. I 8-9). "On the Monarchy" is perhaps the first treatise on the world peace, which was recognized by the political thought of Europe.
Peace and justice for D. are not only social categories. These are also natural and supernatural (theological) concepts. The world was created as the embodiment of a good intention, the foresight of nature is not inferior to the foresight of man, and therefore natural processes and historical events seem to correspond to each other in their internal order. “... The order established by nature must be preserved by law” (Ibid. II 6. 3), otherwise human society will fall out of the world order. An important consequence of these Dante's considerations was the idea of a radical separation of the functions of pope and emperor. D. takes an unprecedented position in the old dispute about the "two swords". He does not agree with those who interpreted the gospel text (Lk 22:36-38) as an indication that Peter (the Church) has two swords (secular and spiritual power), of which he hands the secular sword to the emperor as a vassal. D., thus, opposed the concept of theocracy that prevailed in his time, which was substantiated, for example, by Thomas Aquinas. Thomas urged emperors to obey the pope as to Christ Himself. D. insists that the emperor is directly before God, receives from Him sanctions for power and bears full responsibility. The Pope, from his point of view, is not the vicar of Christ, but of Peter. And although the monarch must show him respect, similar to the respect of God the Son for God the Father, they are equal exponents of God's will.
A special role in clarifying the status of the world monarch is played by D. his doctrine of Rome. D. sings of the mission of Rome, linking the earthly kingdom and the Heavenly Kingdom, which became, as it were, the social matter of the Incarnation, since its jurisdiction then extended to Palestine. He notices that at the time when Christ was born, peace and prosperity reigned in the empire (which indicated the ideal goal of the state), and draws attention to the simultaneity of the birth of the "Mary's root", that is, the lineage of the Virgin Mary, and the foundation Rome. D. sees in Rome the consecrated flesh of the state, which began its journey with conquest, but must end with the affirmation of the universal power of love. There is no doubt that D. imagined the world state-in with the center in Rome not as the domination of the Italic nation, although he was proud of the remnants of the preserved continuity. As the chosen one of Israel was rethought by Christianity as the union of God with the spiritual "Israel", with believers, so D. tries to rethink the mission of Rome as the ideal power of justice. Such an idealization was possible, since the political structure of the world empire seemed to him in the form of an equal union of independent cities and kingdoms, in the internal affairs of which the emperor does not interfere, remaining the supreme guardian of law. D. not only defends the autonomy of secular power, but also preserves the purity of the spiritual authority of the Church. After all, God builds His relationship with believers not on the strength of the law, but on the basis of faith, giving people freedom. A clear distinction between spiritual and political power will allow, according to D., to protect himself from abuse. Spiritual authority opens the meaningful world of truth and the way to salvation, but it should not embody these ideals by resorting to political power. The power of a politician gives legal forms of action and the power to protect them, but cannot prescribe the choice of moral values. D.'s utopia differs sharply from the theocratic teachings of bliss. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas; it opposes the theories of the French. lawyers who fought for the principle of national independence of the state and did not recognize the world empire; it, finally, in contrast to the purely political concepts of the separation of secular and spiritual power of Ockham and Marsilius of Padua, contains a positive religion. and moral ideal, the image of the world monarch. Catholic The church reacted to Op. "On the Monarchy" is much harsher than the "Divine Comedy": in 1329 it was condemned, and in 1554 it was included in the Index of Forbidden Books. Not enough tradition. for the Church and not innovative enough for French lawyers. king, this theory was forgotten, but in the XIX century. turned out to be consonant with conservative thought.
"Comedy" D. is a grand literary. a mystery telling about the author's journey in 1300 through 3 other worlds: hell, purgatory and paradise. D. creates pictures of 9 circles of the infernal funnel, 9 levels of the mountain of purgatory, 9 heavenly worlds and the Paradise Rose in the Empyrean, from which D. contemplates the Pres. Trinity. Guided by successive guides - Virgil, Beatrice and Bernard of Clairvaux, the hero learns the structure of the world, the laws of posthumous retribution, meets and talks with numerous characters of history and modernity. During the journey-pilgrimage, the author-hero re-experiences his life, being cleansed and transformed. That. "Comedy" in the symbol of wandering shows both the path of historical humanity and the path of inner self-deepening and salvation. In the theological aspect, D.'s attempt to reconcile opposing currents within the Catholic Church is interesting. Churches (for example, Dominicans and Franciscans are depicted as 2 wheels, on the axis of which the chariot of the Church is approved) (La Divina Commedia. Paradis. 11. 12) and transform earthly conflicts into harmonic round dances of thinkers. With unprecedented boldness for the Middle Ages, D. combines in the mystical event he sang the fate of a particular earthly person with the fate of history and the universe, while remaining within the framework of Christ. humanism.
If lit. the fate of the Comedy was triumphant, its theological aspect has been questioned more than once. But in the end, the conformity of the Comedy with the dogma and tradition of Catholicism was generally recognized. The Comedy was not included in the Index of Banned Books, and after a wave of criticism and attacks caused by the ideology of the Counter-Reformation, the kard approach took hold. Robert Bellarmina, who in his work “On the Contradictions of the Christian Faith” (1613), leaving D.’s heretical motives in the shade, interpreted the dubious passages of the “Comedy” in an orthodox spirit. "Comedy" is rightly considered not only an encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. spirituality, but also one of the greatest creations of Europe. civilization.
In Russian D.'s culture enters the era of romanticism (together with the pan-European return of the great Italian from relative oblivion). Romantic consciousness associates with D. their favorite topics: the role of genius in history; national and world in literature; creation of modern epic; building an integral worldview based on artistic intuition; the symbol as a universally synthetic expressive means. Romantics were impressed by moral pathos, political passionarity and deep sincere religiosity D. V. A. Zhukovsky and K. N. Batyushkov - the pioneers of Russian Dantology - closely studied the "Comedy" and, as the researchers showed, considered its translation. Following them, P. A. Katenin made the first attempt at commenting on the “Comedy” and in his translation experiments outlined that stylistic strategy for mixing the spoken language with the bookish and “high”, which the best Russian will follow in the future. translators.
From the 30s. 19th century Russian begins to actively form. scientific dentistry. In the works of N. I. Nadezhdin (dissertation “On the origin, nature and fate of poetry called romantic”, 1830), S. P. Shevyrev (dissertation “Dante and his age”, 1833-1834), in the articles of N. A. Polevoy, A. V. Druzhinin reflected a sharp controversy, which led at that time Russian. romantic aesthetic. The topics of controversy went far beyond the actual aesthetic topic, and D.'s legacy allowed polemicists to make natural transitions from literature to politics and social history. Indicative in this respect are the controversies of Polevoy, Nadezhdin and Shevyryov, for the self-determination of their position both the legacy of A. S. Pushkin and the legacy of D. Rus were equally relevant. academic science, through the works of the historian P. N. Kudryavtsev (“Dante, his age and life”, 1855-1856), linguists F. I. Buslaev and A. N. Veselovsky laid the foundations for the historical and cultural analysis of the phenomenon of D.
For Russian Literature D.'s work, starting with Pushkin and N.V. Gogol, becomes a constant resource of ideas, images, creative impulses, allusions and correlations. An artist who dared to take on the mission of a prophet and judge, who built a grandiose generalizing picture of the world with the help of poetry, turns out to be for the Russian. writers as a kind of reference point in the landscape of world literature. In the works of the Golden Age, we find both attempts to directly reproduce the poetics of D. ("Dreams" by A. N. Maikov), and its indirect reflection (for example, "Notes from the House of the Dead" and the novels of F. M. Dostoevsky).
A special era in the development of D. in Russia is the Silver Age and times adjacent to it. The romantic understanding of D. as a genius-seer, a wanderer to other worlds, preserved in symbolism in a “removed” form, on the whole gives way to the image of D. as a master theurgist, a practitioner and politician who does not turn away from the problems of his time. Dante's motifs permeate the lyrics of V. Ya. Bryusov, Vyach. I., A. A. Blok, A. Bely. Coming from Vl. S. Solovyov’s tradition of the philosophy of unity (E. N. Trubetskoy, S. L. Frank, S. N., L. P. Karsavin, priest Pavel Florensky, A. F. Losev) also constantly keeps D. in the field of his cultural consciousness. The Silver Age is characterized by an extended reading of Dante's heritage, which is not limited to the Comedy. Yes, Vl. Solovyov not only picks up the Sophian motives of D., but also directly relies on the political teaching of his Op. "On Monarchy". Vyach. Ivanov, as can be seen from his constant and systematic appeals to the legacy of D., essentially considers the life of the poet, his scientific works, artistic creations, and political asceticism as a single symbolic body. In the poem "Man" Vyach. Ivanov - with an obvious eye on the "Comedy" - undertakes his own experience of building a "supertext" about the fate of the world and mankind. For such Silver Age thinkers as Vl. Solovyov, Vyach. Ivanov, Ellis, D. S. Merezhkovsky, a well-known role in their steady interest in D., in his “pre-Trident” religion. attitude, also played the opportunity to overcome the mediastinum between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The impulse of the Silver Age lives on in subsequent decades. Acmeists create their own D.: the “Dante layer” is obvious in the poetry of A. A. Akhmatova; one of the most penetrating interpretations of D. is given by O. E. Mandelstam (“Conversation about Dante”, 1933); M. L. Lozinsky, the author of the famous translation of the Comedy, also belonged to the circle of acmeists. The impressive experience of coordinating the cosmology of D. and modern. science is carried out by the priest. P. Florensky ("Imaginations in Geometry", 1922). A subtle analysis of Dante's early work is given by A. M. Efros (Young Dante, 1934). The character of some esoteric world history is D. by A. Bely in the manuscript of the 20-30s. 20th century "The History of the Formation of the Self-Conscious Soul" and in Merezhkovsky's extensive work "Dante" (1939).
Cit.: Opere di Dante: testo critico della società dantesca italiana / A cura di M. Barbi et al. Firenze, 1921; Tutte le opera / A cura di F. Chiapelli. Mil., 1965; La Divina Commedia / A cura di D. Mattalia. Mil., 1986. Vol. 1-3; fav. Russian trans.: Sobr. cit.: In 5 volumes / Per. from Italian, commentary: M. L. Lozinsky. St. Petersburg; M., 1996; Sobr. cit.: In 2 volumes / Per. from Italian, intro. Art. and commentary: M. L. Lozinsky. M., 2001; New Life / Per. from Italian: A. Efros, commentary: S. Averintsev and A. Mikhailov. M., 1965, 1985; Small works. M., 1968; Monarchy / Per. from Italian: V.P. Zubov, commentary: I.N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov. M., 1999; Divine Comedy / Per. from Italian: M. L. Lozinsky. M., 2004; The same / Per. from Italian: D. Minaev. M., 2006.
Lit .: Zaitsev B.K. Dante and his poem. M., 1922; Dunbar H. F. Symbolism in Medieval Thought and its Consummation in the Divine Comedy. New Haven, 1929; Efros A. M. Young Dante // Dante Alighieri. New life. M., 1934. S. 9-64; Ledig G. Philosophie der Strafe bei Dante und Dostojewski. Weimar, 1935; Dzhivelegov A. K. Dante Alighieri: Life and work. M., 19462; Guardini R. Der Engel in Dantes Gottlicher Komödie. Munch., 19512; idem. Das Light bei Dante. Munch., 1956; idem. Landschaft der Ewigkeit. Munch., 1958; Batkin L.M. Dante and his time. M., 1965; Dante and the Slavs. M., 1965; Elina N. G. Dante. M., 1965; Charity A. C. Events and Their Afterlife: The Dialectics of Christian Typology in the Bible and Dante. Camb., 1966; Golenishchev-Kutuzov I. N. Dante. M., 1967; he is. Creativity of Dante and world culture. M., 1971; Mandelstam O. E. Talk about Dante. M., 1967; Gilson E. Dante and Philosophy. Gloucester (Mass.), 1968; Alekseev MP The first acquaintance with Dante in Russia // From classicism to romanticism: From the history of the international. ties rus. liters. L., 1970. S. 6-62; Encyclopedia Dantesca. R., 1970-1976. Vol. 1-5; Blagoy D. D. Il gran "padre (Pushkin and Dante) // Dante Readings. M., 1973. S. 9-64; Boccaccio D. Life of Dante // He. Small Works. L., 1975. S. 519-572; Gabrieli F. Dante and Islam // Arabic medieval culture and literature. M., 1978. S. 203-208; Losev A. F. Aesthetics of the Renaissance. M., 1978. S. 197-204; Andreev M. L. Time and Eternity in the Divine Comedy // Dante's Readings, 1979, pp. 156-212; Belza, I. F. Some problems of interpretation and commentary on the Divine Comedy, Ibid. Dante's Echoes of The Bronze Horseman, Ibid., 1982, pp. 170-182; Anderson W. Dante the Maker, L.; Boston, 1980; Boyde P. Dante Philomythes and Philosopher: Man in the Cosmos, Camb. , 1981; Nardi B. Dante e la cultura medievale. R., 1983; Ilyushin A. A. Above the line of the "Divine Comedy" // Dante Readings. 1985. P. 175-234; Shichalin Yu. A. About some images of the Neoplatonic Origin in Dante // Western European Medieval Literature, Moscow, 1985, pp. 98-100; Lotman Yu. Notes on artistic space // Proceedings on sign systems. Tartu, 1986. Issue. 19. S. 25-43; Asoyan A. A. Dante and Russian literature of the 1820-1850s. Sverdlovsk, 1989; he is. "Honor the highest poet...": The fate of Dante's "Divine Comedy" in Russia. M., 1990; Dobrokhotov A. L. Dante Alighieri. M., 1990; Khlodovsky R. I. Anna Akhmatova and Dante // Dante Readings. 1993. S. 124-147; Zelinsky F.F. Homer - Virgil - Dante // He. From the life of ideas. M., 1995. T. 4: Revivalists. Issue. 1. S. 58-79; Ivanov V. I. From draft notes about Dante // Vyacheslav Ivanov: Materials and research. M., 1996. S. 7-13; Takho-Godi E. A. Dante and K. K. Sluchevsky // Dantovskie readings. 1996. S. 69-94; Shishkin A. B. Flaming heart in the poetry of Vyacheslav Ivanov and Dante's vision of the "Blessed Wife" // Ibid. pp. 95-114; Merezhkovsky D.S. Dante. Tomsk, 1997; Auerbach E. Dante is a poet of the earthly world. M., 2004; Sergeev K. V. Theater of Destiny Dante Alighieri: Introduction. into the practical anatomy of genius. M., 2004; Eliot T. S. Dante. What does Dante mean to me // He. Favorites. M., 2004. Vol. 1/2: Religion, culture, literature. pp. 296-315.
On May 21, 1265, one of the founders of the literary Italian language, the greatest poet, theologian, politician, who entered the history of world literature as the author of the Divine Comedy, was born. Dante Alighieri.
The Alighieri family belonged to the middle-class urban nobility, and his ancestor was the famous knight Kachchagvid, who died in the second crusade in 1147. The full name of the legendary poet is Durante degli Alighieri, he was born in Florence, the largest Italian economic and cultural center of the Middle Ages, and remained devoted to his hometown all his life. Little is known about the writer's family and life, even the exact date of his birth is questioned by many researchers.
Dante Alighieri was an amazingly confident man. At the age of 18, the young man said that he could write poetry perfectly and that he had mastered this “craft” on his own. Dante was educated within the framework of medieval school programs, and since there was no university in Florence at that time, he had to acquire basic knowledge himself. The author of The Divine Comedy mastered French and Provençal, read everything that came to hand, and little by little his own path as a scientist, thinker and poet began to be drawn before him.
exiled poet
The youth of the brilliant writer fell on a difficult period: at the end of the 13th century, the struggle between the emperor and the pope intensified in Italy. Florence, where the Alighieri lived, was divided into two opposing groups - "blacks" led by Corso Donati and the "whites" to which Dante belonged. Thus began the political activity of the “last poet of the Middle Ages”: Alighieri participated in city councils and anti-papal coalitions, where the writer’s oratorical gift was manifested in all its splendor.
Dante was not looking for political laurels, but political thorns soon overtook him: the “blacks” activated their activities and pogromed opponents. On March 10, 1302, Alighieri and 14 other "white" supporters were sentenced to death in absentia. To escape, the philosopher and politician had to flee from Florence. Never again did Dante manage to return to his beloved city. Traveling around the world, he was looking for a place where he could retire and work quietly. Alighieri continued to study and, most importantly, create.
monogamous poet
When Dante was nine years old, a meeting took place in his life that changed the history of all Italian literature. On the threshold of the church, he ran into a little girl next door Beatrice Portinari and fell in love with the young lady at first sight. It was this tender feeling, according to Alighieri himself, that made him a poet. Until the last days of his life, Dante dedicated poems to his beloved, idolizing "the most beautiful of all angels." Their next meeting took place nine years later, by this time Beatrice was already married, her husband was a rich signor Simon de Bardi. But no bonds of marriage could prevent the poet from admiring his muse, she remained "the mistress of his thoughts" all his life. The poetic document of this love was the autobiographical confession of the writer "New Life", written at the fresh grave of his beloved in 1290.
Dante himself entered into one of those politically calculated business marriages that were accepted at that time. His wife was Gemma Donati, daughter of a wealthy gentleman Manetto Donati. When Dante Alighieri was expelled from Florence, Gemma remained in the city with the children, preserving the remnants of her father's property. Alighieri does not mention his wife in any of his works, but Dante and Beatrice have become the same symbol of a love couple as petrarch And Laura, Tristan And Isolde, Romeo And Juliet.
Dante and Beatrice on the banks of the Lethe. Cristobal Rojas (Venezuela), 1889. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Italian "Comedy"
The death of Beatrice marked the beginning of Dante's philosophical reflections on life and death, he began to read a lot Cicero attend a religious school. All this served as an impetus for the creation of the Divine Comedy. A brilliant work created by the author in exile, and today is traditionally included in the top ten most famous books. Dante's poem had a huge impact on the emergence of proper Italian literature. According to researchers, it is this work that summarizes the entire development of medieval philosophy. It also reflects the worldview of the greatest poet, so the "Divine Comedy" is called the fruit of the life and work of the Italian master.
The "divine" comedy of Alighieri did not immediately become, as the author of the "Decameron" later dubbed it Giovanni Boccaccio, having come in admiration from what he read. Dante called his manuscript very simply - "Comedy". He used medieval terminology, where comedy is “any poetic work of the middle style with a frightening beginning and a happy ending, written in the vernacular”; Tragedy is “any poetic work of high style with an admiring and calm beginning and a terrible end.” Despite the fact that the poem touches on the "eternal" themes of life and the immortality of the soul, retribution and responsibility, Dante could not call his work a tragedy, because, like all genres of "high literature", it had to be created in Latin. Alighieri wrote his Comedy in his native Italian, and even with the Tuscan dialect.
Dante worked on the greatest poem for almost 15 years, having managed to complete it shortly before his death. Alighieri died of malaria on September 14, 1321, leaving behind a significant mark in world literature and initiating a new era - the early Renaissance.
SAINT PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
CULTURE AND ARTS
ESSAY
at the rate: FOREIGN LITERATURE
Topic: "Dante Alighieri and his "Divine Comedy" as a standard of Italian Renaissance literature"
PERFORMED:
2nd YEAR STUDENT
LIBRARY AND INFORMATION
OFFICES
CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING
A. V. FOMINYKH
TEACHER: KOZLOVA V. I.
Introduction ................................................ ................................................. .............3
Chapter 1. Biography of the poet............................................... ........................................4
Chapter 2. Dante's "Divine Comedy" .................7
Conclusion................................................. ................................................. ........fourteen
Bibliography............................................... ......................15
INTRODUCTION
The study of the literature of the Italian Renaissance begins with an examination of the work of the great predecessor of the Renaissance, the Florentine Dante Alighieri (Dante Alighieri, 1265 - 1321), the first of the great poets of Western Europe.
By the whole nature of his work, Dante is a poet of transitional times, standing at the turn of two great historical eras.
The main work of Dante, on which his world fame is primarily based, is the Divine Comedy. The poem is not only the result of the development of Dante's ideological, political and artistic thought, but provides a grandiose philosophical and artistic synthesis of the entire medieval culture, while at the same time throwing a bridge from it to the culture of the Renaissance. Precisely as the author of the Divine Comedy, Dante is at the same time the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times.
Chapter 1. Biography of the poet
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265. The poet came from an old noble family. However, the Dante family has long lost its feudal appearance; already the poet's father belonged, like himself, to the Guelph party.
Having reached adulthood, Dante enrolled in 1283 in the guild of pharmacists and doctors, which also included booksellers and artists and belonged to the seven “senior” guilds of Florence.
Dante received an education in the volume of the medieval school, which he himself recognized as meager, and sought to fill it with the study of French and Provencal languages, which opened him access to the best examples of foreign literature.
Along with the medieval poets, the young Dante carefully studied the ancient poets and, first of all, Virgil, whom he chose, in his own words, as his "leader, master and teacher."
The main passion of the young Dante was poetry. He began to write poetry early and already in the early 80s of the XIII century. wrote many lyrical poems, almost exclusively of love content. At the age of 18, he experienced a great psychological crisis - love for Beatrice, daughter of the Florentine Folco Portinari, a friend of his father, subsequently
married to a nobleman.
The story of his love for Beatrice Dante outlined in a small book, New Life, which brought him literary fame.
After the death of Beatrice, the poet engaged in an intensive study of theology, philosophy and astronomy, and also learned all the subtleties of medieval scholasticism. Dante became one of the most learned people of his time, but his learning was typically medieval in nature, as it was subject to theological dogmas.
Dante's political activity began very early. Barely reaching adulthood, he takes part in the military enterprises of the Florentine commune and fights on the side of the Guelphs against the Ghibellines.
In the 90s, Dante sat in city councils and carried out diplomatic missions, and in June 1300 he was elected a member of the college of six priors that ruled Florence.
After the split of the Guelph party, he joined the Whites and vigorously fought against the orientation towards the papal curia. After the Blacks were defeated by the Whites, Pope Boniface VIII intervened in their struggle, calling for help from the French prince Charles of Valois, who entered the city in November 1301 and massacred the supporters of the White party, accusing them of all kinds of crimes.
In January 1302, the blow fell on the great poet. Dante was sentenced to a heavy fine on a trumped-up charge of bribery. Fearing the worst, the poet fled from Florence, after which all his property was confiscated. Dante spent all the rest of his life in exile, wandering from city to city, he fully learned “how bitter is the bread of a stranger”, and never again saw Florence dear to his heart - “a beautiful sheepfold where he slept like a lamb”.
Life in exile significantly changed political beliefs
Dante. Full of anger against Florence, he came to the conclusion that her citizens had not yet grown up to defend their interests on their own. More and more, the poet is inclined to believe that only the imperial power can pacify and unite Italy, giving a decisive rebuff to the papal power. He pinned the hope for the implementation of this program on Emperor Henry VII, who appeared in Italy in 1310, allegedly to restore “order” and eliminate the internecine strife of Italian cities, in fact, with the aim of robbing them. But Dante saw in Henry the desired "messiah" and vigorously agitated for him, sending Latin letters in all directions.
messages. However, Henry VII died in 1313 before he could occupy Florence.
Now Dante's last hopes of returning to his homeland have collapsed. Florence crossed his name twice from the amnestied list, because she saw him as an implacable enemy. The offer made to him in 1316 to return to Florence under the condition of humiliating public repentance, Dante resolutely rejected. The poet spent the last years of his life in Ravenna with Prince Guido da Polenta, the nephew of Francesca da Rimini, whom he sang.
Here Dante worked to complete his great poem, written during the years of exile. He hoped that poetic fame would bring him an honorable return to his homeland, but did not live to see it.
Dante died on September 14, 1321 in Ravenna. He remained faithful to the end of his mission as a poet of justice. Subsequently, Florence repeatedly made attempts to regain the ashes of the great exile, but Ravenna always refused her.
Chapter 2. Dante's Divine Comedy
The title of the poem needs clarification. Dante himself called it simply “Comedy”, using this word in a purely medieval sense: in the poetics of that time, any work with a happy beginning and a sad end was called a tragedy, and any work with a sad beginning and a happy, happy end was called a comedy. Thus, the concept of "comedy" in the time of Dante did not include the installation necessarily cause laughter. As for the epithet “divine” in the title of the poem, it does not belong to Dante and was established no earlier than the 16th century, and not with the aim of denoting the religious content of the poem, but solely as an expression of its poetic perfection.
Like other works of Dante, The Divine Comedy is distinguished by an unusually clear, thoughtful composition. The poem is divided into three large parts (“canticles”), dedicated to the image of the three parts of the underworld (according to the teachings of the Catholic Church) - hell, purgatory and paradise. Each of the three canticles consists of 33 songs, and one more song (the first) is added to the first canticle, which has the character of a prologue to the entire poem.
For all the originality of Dante's artistic method, his poem has numerous medieval sources. The plot of the poem reproduces the scheme of the popular in medieval clerical literature genre of "visions" or "traveling through torment", that is, poetic stories about how a person managed to see the secrets of the afterlife.
The task of medieval “visions” was the desire to distract a person from worldly fuss, show him the sinfulness of earthly life and encourage him to turn his thoughts to the afterlife. Dante, on the other hand, uses the form of “visions” in order to most fully reflect real, earthly life; he does judgment on human crimes and vices not for the sake of
denial of earthly life as such, but with the aim of correcting it. Dante does not lead a person away from reality, but immerses a person into it.
Depicting hell, Dante showed in it a whole gallery of living people endowed with various passions. He is perhaps the first in Western European literature to make the image of human passions the subject of poetry, and in order to find full-blooded human images, he descends into the afterlife. Unlike medieval “visions”, which gave the most general, schematic representation of sinners, Dante concretizes and individualizes their images.
The afterlife is not opposed to real life, but continues it, reflecting the relationships that exist in it. In Dante's hell, as on earth, political passions rage. Sinners have conversations and disputes with Dante on contemporary political topics. Proud Ghibelline Farinata degli Uberti, punished in hell among heretics, is still full of hatred for the Guelphs and talks with Dante about politics, although he is imprisoned in a fiery grave. In general, the poet retains in the afterlife all the political passion inherent in him and, at the sight of the suffering of his enemies, bursts into abuse against them. The very idea of afterlife retribution acquires political overtones in Dante. It is no coincidence that many of Dante's political enemies reside in hell, and his friends live in paradise.
Fantastic in its overall design, Dante's poem is built entirely from pieces of real life. So, when describing the torment of the covetous, thrown into boiling tar, Dante recalls the marine arsenal in Venice, where ships are caulked in melted tar (“Hell”, canto XXI). At the same time, the demons make sure that sinners do not float up, and push them with hooks into the pitch, as cooks “heat meat with forks in a cauldron.” In other cases, Dante illustrates the described torment of sinners with pictures of nature. So, for example, he compares traitors immersed in an icy lake with frogs, who
from the pond” (Ode XXXII). The punishment of crafty advisers, enclosed in fiery tongues, reminds Dante of a valley filled with fireflies on a quiet evening in Italy (Canto XXVI). The more unusual the objects and phenomena described by Dante, the more he strives to visually present them to the reader, comparing them with well-known things.
So, “Hell” is characterized by a gloomy color, thick sinister colors, among which red and black dominate. They are replaced in “Purgatory” by softer, pale and misty colors - gray-blue, greenish, golden. This is due to the appearance in purgatory of wildlife - the sea, rocks, verdant meadows and trees. Finally, in "Paradise" dazzling brilliance and transparency, radiant colors; paradise is the abode of the purest light, harmonious movement and music of the spheres.
Particularly expressive is one of the most terrible episodes of the poem - the episode with Ugolino, whom the poet meets in the ninth circle of hell, where the greatest (from Dante's point of view) crime - betrayal - is punished. Ugolino furiously gnaws the neck of his enemy, Archbishop Ruggeri, who, having unjustly accused him of treason, locked him with his sons in a tower and starved him to death.
Horrible is Ugolino's story about the torments he experienced in the terrible tower, where before his eyes his four sons died of starvation one after another, and where he, in the end, mad with hunger, attacked their corpses.
Allegorism is of great importance.
So, for example, in the first song of his poem, Dante tells how “in the middle of his life's journey” he got lost in a dense forest and was nearly torn to pieces by three terrible beasts - a lion, a she-wolf and a panther. He is led out of this forest by Virgil, whom Beatrice sent to him. The entire first song of the poem is a solid allegory. In religious and moral terms, it is interpreted as follows: a dense forest - the earthly existence of a person, full of sinful delusions, three animals - three
the main vices that destroy a person (the lion - pride, the she-wolf - greed, the panther - voluptuousness), Virgil, ridding the poet of them, is earthly wisdom (philosophy, science), Beatrice - heavenly wisdom (theology), which is subject to earthly wisdom (mind - threshold of faith). All sins entail a form of punishment that allegorically depicts the state of mind of people covered by this vice. For example, the voluptuous are condemned to forever spin in a hellish whirlwind, symbolically depicting the whirlwind of their passion. Just as symbolic are the punishments of the angry (they are immersed in a stinking swamp in which they fiercely fight each other), tyrants (they wallow in boiling blood), usurers (heavy purses hang around their necks, bending them to the ground), sorcerers and soothsayers ( their heads are turned back, since during their lifetime they boasted of the imaginary ability to know the future), hypocrites (they are wearing lead robes, gilded on top), traitors and traitors (they are subjected to various tortures with cold, symbolizing their cold heart). Purgatory and paradise are filled with the same moral allegories. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, those sinners who are not condemned to eternal torment and can still be cleansed of their sins are in purgatory. The internal process of this cleansing is symbolized by the seven letters P (the initial letter of the Latin word peccatum, "sin"), inscribed with an angel's sword on the forehead of the poet and denoting the seven deadly sins; these letters are erased one by one as Dante goes through the circles of purgatory. Dante's guide through purgatory is still Virgil, who gives him long instructions about the mysteries of divine justice, about the free will of man, etc. Having climbed with Dante along the ledges of the rocky mountain of purgatory to the earthly paradise, Virgil leaves him, because further ascent to him, as a pagan, inaccessible.
Virgil is replaced by Beatrice, who becomes
Dante's guide to the heavenly paradise, for in order to contemplate the divine reward given to the righteous for their merits, earthly wisdom is no longer sufficient: heavenly, religious wisdom is needed - theology, personified in the image of the poet's beloved. She ascends from one celestial sphere to another, and Dante flies after her, carried away by the power of his love. His love is now cleansed of everything earthly, sinful. It becomes a symbol of virtue and religion, and its ultimate goal is the contemplation of God, who himself is "love that moves the sun and other stars."
In addition to the moral and religious meaning, many images and situations in the Divine Comedy have a political meaning: the dense forest symbolizes the anarchy that reigns in Italy and gives rise to the three vices mentioned above. Dante carries through his entire poem the idea that earthly life is a preparation for a future eternal life. On the other hand, he reveals a passionate interest in earthly life and revises from this point of view a whole series of church dogmas and prejudices. So, for example, outwardly identifying with the teaching of the church about the sinfulness of carnal love and placing the voluptuous in the second circle of hell, Dante internally protests against the cruel punishment that befell Francesca da Rimini, who was deceived into marrying Gianciotto Malatesta, ugly and lame, instead of his brother Paolo, whom she loved.
Dante critically revisits the ascetic ideals of the church in other respects as well. Agreeing with the church teaching about the vanity and sinfulness of striving for glory and honors, at the same time, through the mouth of Virgil, he praises the striving for glory. He extols another property of a person, equally severely condemned by the church - the inquisitiveness of the mind, the thirst for knowledge, the desire to go beyond the narrow circle of ordinary things and ideas. A striking illustration of this trend is the wonderful image of Ulysses (Odysseus), who is executed among other evil
advisers. Ulysses tells Dante about his thirst to "explore the world's far horizons." He describes his journey and thus conveys the words with which he encouraged his weary companions:
O brothers, - so I said, - into the sunset
Those who came along the difficult road,
That short period, while they still do not sleep
Earthly feelings, their remnant is meager
Give in to the comprehension of novelty,
To follow the sun to see the deserted world!
Think about whose sons you are
You were not created for animal fate,
But they were born to valor and knowledge.
("Hell," Ode XXVI.)
In the nineteenth canto of Inferno, speaking of the punishment of the popes who sell church positions, Dante compares them to the harlot of the Apocalypse and angrily exclaims:
Silver and gold are now God for you;
And even those who pray to the idol,
They honor one, - you honor a hundred at once.
But Dante condemned not only the greed and greed of the popes and princes of the church. He threw the same accusation against the greedy bourgeoisie of the Italian communes, in particular he reproached his Florentine compatriots for their thirst for profit, for he considered money to be the main source of evil, the main reason for the decline of morality in Italian society. Through the mouth of his ancestor, the knight of Kachchagvida, a participant in the second crusade, he paints in the XV song of Paradise a wonderful picture of ancient Florence, in which
simplicity of morals prevailed, there was no pursuit of money and the luxury and debauchery generated by it:
Florence within the ancient walls,
Where the clock still strikes terts, nones,
Sober, modest, lived without change.
This idealization of the good old days is not at all an expression of Dante's backwardness. Dante is very far from glorifying the world of feudal anarchy, violence and rudeness. But at the same time, he surprisingly sensitively discerned the basic properties of the emerging bourgeois system and recoiled from it with disgust and hatred. In this, he showed himself to be a deeply popular poet, breaking the narrow boundaries of both the feudal and bourgeois worldview.
CONCLUSION
Accepted by the people for whom it was written, Dante's poem became a kind of barometer of the Italian people's self-consciousness: interest in Dante either increased or fell, according to the fluctuations of this self-consciousness. The Divine Comedy enjoyed particular success during the years of the national liberation movement of the 19th century, when Dante began to be praised as an exiled poet, a courageous fighter for the unification of Italy, who saw art as a powerful weapon in the struggle for a better future for mankind. This attitude towards Dante was also shared by Marx and Engels, who ranked him among the greatest classics of world literature. In the same way, Pushkin referred Dante's poem to the number of masterpieces of world art, in which "a vast plan is embraced by creative thought."
Dante is first and foremost a poet who still touches hearts. For us, the readers who today reveal the Comedy, what matters in Dante's poetry is poetry, not religious, ethical or political ideas. These ideas are long dead. But Dante's images live on.
Of course, if Dante had written only The Monarchy and The Feast, there would not have been a whole branch of science dedicated to his legacy. We carefully read every line of Dante's treatises, especially because they belong to the author of the Divine Comedy.
The study of Dante's worldview is essential not only for the history of Italy, but also for the history of world literature.
Bibliography:
Batkin, L. M. Dante and his time. Poet and politics / L. M. Batkin. - M. : Nauka, 1965. - 197 p.
Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy / Dante Alighieri. - M. : Folio, 2001. - 608 p.
Dante Alighieri. Collected Works: In 2 vols. Vol. 2 / Dante Alighieri. - M. : Literature, Veche, 2001. - 608 p.
Dante, Petrarch / Translation. from Italian, foreword. and comment. E. Solonovich. - M.: Children's literature, 1983. - 207 p., ill.
History of world literature. In 9 vols. T. 3. - M .: Nauka, 1985. - 816 p.
History of foreign literature. Early Middle Ages and Renaissance / ed. Zhirmunsky V. M. - M .: State. study.-teacher. ed. Min. Enlightenment of the RSFSR, 1959. - 560 p.
Encyclopedia of literary heroes. Foreign literature. Antiquity. Middle Ages. In 2 books. Book 2. - M.: Olimp, AST, 1998. - 480 p.
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Dante Alighieri - the largest Italian poet, literary critic, thinker, theologian, politician, author of the famous "Divine Comedy". There is very little reliable information about the life of this person; their main source is an artistic autobiography written by him, in which only a certain period is described.
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, in 1265, on May 26, in a well-born and wealthy family. It is not known where the future poet studied, but he himself considered the education received insufficient, therefore he devoted a lot of time to independent education, in particular, the study of foreign languages, the work of ancient poets, among which he gave special preference to Virgil, considering him his teacher and "leader".
When Dante was only 9 years old, in 1274, an event occurred that became a landmark in his life, including his creative one. At the celebration, his attention was attracted by a peer, a neighbor's daughter - Beatrice Portinari. Ten years later, as a married lady, she became for Dante that beautiful Beatrice, whose image illuminated his whole life and poetry. The book entitled A New Life (1292), in which he spoke in poetic and prose lines about his love for this young woman who died untimely in 1290, is considered the first autobiography in world literature. The book glorified the author, although this was not his first literary experience, he began to write in the 80s.
The death of his beloved woman forced him to go headlong into science, he studied philosophy, astronomy, theology, turned into one of the most educated people of his time, although the baggage of knowledge did not go beyond the medieval tradition based on theology.
In 1295-1296. Dante Alighieri declared himself and as a public, political figure, participated in the work of the city council. In 1300 he was elected a member of the college of six priors that governed Florence. In 1298 he married Gemma Donati, who was his wife until her death, but this woman always played a modest role in his fate.
Active political activity was the reason for the expulsion of Dante Alighieri from Florence. The split in the Guelph party, in which he was a member, led to the fact that the so-called whites, in whose ranks the poet was, were subjected to repression. A charge of bribery was brought against Dante, after which he was forced, leaving his wife and children, to leave his native city so as not to return to it ever again. It happened in 1302.
Since that time, Dante constantly wandered around the cities, traveled to other countries. So, it is known that in 1308-1309. he visited Paris, where he participated in open debates organized by the university. The name of Alighieri was twice included in the list of persons subject to amnesty, but both times it was deleted from there. In 1316, he was allowed to return to his native Florence, but on condition that he publicly admits the wrongness of his views and repents, but the proud poet did not do this.
Since 1316, he settled in Ravenna, where he was invited by Guido da Polenta, the ruler of the city. Here, in the company of his sons, the daughter of his beloved Beatrice, admirers, friends, the last years of the poet passed. It was during the period of exile that Dante wrote a work that glorified him for centuries - "Comedy", to the name of which several centuries later, in 1555, the word "Divine" will be added in the Venetian edition. The beginning of work on the poem dates back to about 1307, and Dante wrote the last of the three parts ("Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise") shortly before his death.
He dreamed of becoming famous with the help of the Comedy and returning home with honors, but his hopes were not destined to come true. Having fallen ill with malaria, returning from a trip to Venice on a diplomatic mission, the poet died on September 14, 1321. The Divine Comedy was the pinnacle of his literary activity, but his rich and versatile creative heritage is not limited to it alone and includes, in particular, philosophical treatises, journalism, and lyrics.
Dante Alighieri (Italian Dante Alighieri), full name Durante degli Alighieri (second half of May 1265, baptized March 26, 1266 - September 13 or 14, 1321). The greatest Italian poet, theologian, politician, one of the founders of the literary Italian language. The creator of "Comedy" (later received the epithet "Divine", introduced by Boccaccio), in which a synthesis of late medieval culture was given.
According to family tradition, Dante's ancestors came from the Roman family of the Elisei, who participated in the founding of Florence. Kachchagvida, 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. Cacchagvida was married to a lady from the Lombard family of Aldigieri da Fontana. The name "Aldigieri" was transformed into "Alighieri"; this was the name of one of the sons of Kachchagvidy. The son of this Alighieri, Bellincione, grandfather of Dante, who was expelled from Florence during the struggle of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, returned to his native city 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.
According to Boccaccio, Dante was born in May 1264. Dante himself announces himself (Comedy, Paradise, 22) that he was born under the sign of Gemini. 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 scholar Brunetto Latini. The place where Dante studied is unknown, but he received a wide knowledge of ancient and medieval literature, in the natural sciences and was familiar with the heretical teachings of that time.
In 1274, a nine-year-old boy admired an eight-year-old girl, the daughter of a neighbor, Beatrice Portinari, at a May holiday - this is his first biographical memory. He had seen her before, but the impression of this meeting was renewed in him when nine years later (in 1283) he saw her again as a married woman and this time was carried away by her. Beatrice becomes for life the "mistress of his thoughts", 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 the time.
The Dante Alighieri family sided with the Florentine Cerchi party (Italian Cerchi), which was at enmity 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 in a single word. In his last years he lived in Ravenna; gathered around him were his sons, Jacopo and Pietro, poets, his future commentators, and Antonia's daughter; only Gemma lived away from the whole family. Boccaccio, one of the first biographers of Dante Alighieri, summarized all this: as if Dante Alighieri married under duress and persuasion, therefore, during the long years of exile, he never thought to call his wife. Beatrice determined the tone of his feelings, the experience of exile - his social and political views and their archaism.
The first works of Dante date back to the 1280s, and in 1292 the New Life was written, which scientists called the first autobiography in the history of world literature.
The first act mention of Dante Alighieri as a public figure dates back to 1296 and 1297, already in 1300 or 1301 he was elected prior. In 1302 he was exiled with his party of White Guelphs and never saw Florence again, dying in exile.
Dante Alighieri, a thinker and poet, constantly looking for a fundamental basis for everything that happened in him and around him, it was this thoughtfulness, the thirst for common principles, certainty, inner integrity, the passion of the soul and boundless imagination that determined the qualities of his poetry, style, imagery and abstractness .
Love for the Florentine Beatrice took on a mysterious meaning for him; he filled every moment of existence with it. Her idealized image occupies a significant place in Dante's poetry. In 1292, he began his career with a story about his young love that renewed his life: La Vita Nuova, composed of sonnets, canzones and a prosaic commentary on love for Beatrice.
Bold and graceful, sometimes deliberately rude images-fantasies are formed in his Comedy into a certain, strictly calculated pattern. Later, Dante found himself in the whirlpool of parties, he was even an inveterate municipalist; but he had a need to understand for himself the basic principles of political activity, so he writes his Latin treatise "On the 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.
The years of exile were for Dante years of wandering. Already at that time he was a lyric poet among the Tuscan poets of the "new style" - Chino from Pistoia, Guido Cavalcanti and others. His "La Vita Nuova" had already been written; exile made him more serious and strict. He starts his "Feast" ("Convivio"), an allegorical-scholastic commentary on the fourteen canzones. But the "Convivio" was never finished: only the introduction and interpretation of the three canzones were written. Not finished, breaking off at the 14th chapter of the second book, and a Latin treatise on the popular language, or eloquence ("De vulgari eloquentia").
During the years of exile, three canticles of the Divine Comedy were created gradually and under the same working conditions. The time of writing each of them can only be determined approximately. Paradise was completed in Ravenna, and there is nothing incredible in Boccaccio's story that after the death of Dante Alighieri, his sons could not find the last thirteen songs for a long time, until, according to legend, Dante dreamed of his son Jacopo and suggested where they lie.
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 to achieve by force the establishment in Florence, doomed him to a long wandering in Italy. He later arrived in Bologna, in Lunigiana and Casentino, in 1308-1309. found himself in Paris, where he spoke with honor at public debates, common in universities of that time. It was in Paris that Dante found the news that Emperor Henry VII was going to Italy. The ideal dreams of his "Monarchy" resurrected in him with renewed vigor; he returned to Italy (probably in 1310 or at the beginning of 1311), tea for her renewal, for himself - the return of civil rights. His "message to the peoples and rulers of Italy" is full of these hopes and enthusiastic confidence, however, the idealist emperor died suddenly (1313), and on November 6, 1315, Ranieri di Zaccaria of Orvietto, viceroy of King Robert in Florence, confirmed the decree of exile in relation to Dante Alighieri, his sons and many others, condemning them to death if they fall into the hands of the Florentines.
From 1316-1317 he settled in Ravenna, where he was summoned to rest by the lord of the city, Guido da Polenta. Here, in the circle of children, among friends and admirers, the songs of Paradise were created. 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 credibility: Boccaccio portrays him as bearded instead of the legendary clean-shaven one, however, in general, his image corresponds to our traditional idea: an oblong face with an aquiline nose, large eyes, wide cheekbones and a prominent lower lip; eternally sad and concentrated-thoughtful. In the treatise "On the Monarchy", Dante Alighieri, the politician, had an effect; to understand the poet and the person, the most important thing is to get acquainted with his trilogy "La Vita Nuova", "Convivio" and "Divina Commedia".
