A socio-historical introduction to La Divina Commedia
Perhaps one of the most important works of literature, not just in Italy, but the world, is Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia, a long narrative poem from the fourteenth century. Started in 1308, the Divina Commedia is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. More importantly, rather than being written in Latin, the language of writers and educated Europeans, Dante wrote in “vulgar” Italian, what was then a Tuscan or Florentine dialect and would later become the foundation for a “standard” Italian language. Throughout the narrative, Dante describes his journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise (Heaven) with Virgil, the Roman poet, as his guide. Allegorically, Dante’s travels through these spiritual dimensions are meant to represent his soul’s journey towards God. While references to religious themes were classic elements of medieval culture, the Divina Commedia diverged from its period through its novel approach to the topic of the afterlife. For these reasons and others, Dante is considered not only a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but also a founder of the standard Italian language that is spoken and taught today.
For a long time, the Middle Ages was primarily considered a “primitive, barbarous, or Gothic” point in history, which meant that Dante’s work was viewed through the same lens (Brand 327). It wasn’t until the late eighteenth century that Dante and the time period during which he worked were approached critically, giving rise to a variety of philosophical stances: “Dante as deficient because of his medieval culture, or Dante as great in spite of it, two common eighteenth-century views, in contrast with a common Romantic attitude that Dante was great because of his medieval background” (Brand 327). Common to this medieval culture was the fact that people living in it were not aware of their medieval “status,” the only consensus was that the Roman Empire had fallen and that they were living in “dark” times. It was not until the fourteenth and fifteenth century that the Italian humanists aspired to distinguish themselves from the “darkness and ignorance separating them from the ancient Greek and Roman world” (Encyclopedia Britannica, Middle Ages). Thus, the categorization of the Middle Ages came about from a need to differentiate between an unaware time period to a new self-conscious moment in history that would be known as the Renaissance. Geographically, Italy at this time was not unified, but rather divided between Maritime republics in the north, Papal States in the center, and the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily in the south. This geographic division also meant that there was no linguistic unification either; rather, each territory had its own “dialect,” as the concept of a standard Italian language did not yet exist. “. . . Dante was disdained in Italy about [until] about 1800. He was ‘awakened’ there by the Risorgimento… The rediscovery of the Middle Ages was the common background. The Dante celebrations of 1865… preluded national unification” (Curtius 350).
The majority of Dante Alighieri’s biography is known from his own descriptions of his life, particularly from his text La vita nuova. Born in Florence in 1265, Dante grew up during a time of great division in Italy, mainly due to conflicts between imperial and papal partisans referred to as the Ghibellines and Guelphs, respectively (Encyclopedia Britannica, Dante Alighieri). This ongoing conflict was historically bloody and brutal, included exiles, and in 1260 the Guelphs were defeated, but then regained power again in 1266 and expelled the Ghibellines from Florence (Encyclopedia, Dante). Dante’s family sympathized with the Guelphs and so he grew up surrounded by constant war and conquest, which also led to him meeting intellectual figures who would influence his writing, particularly Brunetto Latini. Later in 1300, Florentine Guelphs had divided into Black and White Guelphs — the Blacks supported the Papacy while the Whites opposed it, and Dante supported the White Guelphs (Encyclopedia, Dante). As a result of his affiliation with the White Guelphs, he was condemned to perpetual exile by the Black Guelphs of Florence under accusations of corruption. If he returned to Florence without paying a fine, he would risk being burned at the stake; alternatively, Dante refused to pay the fine because he believed he was not guilty, but also because he could not since his resources in Florence were seized (Encyclopedia, Dante). It was during his time in exile that he wrote La commedia, which would later be called La Divina Commedia, in vulgar Latin or the Florentine vernacular, a radical decision considering the fact that Latin was the intellectual language at the time and the one use for works of literature. “Both as the greatest intellectual representative of his nation and as the greatest poet of the Christian Middle Ages, Dante entered the pantheon of world Classicism in the nineteenth century — a Classicism freed from all classicist theory” (Curtius 350). Dante died in 1321 after he finished writing Paradiso, the third part of La Divina Commedia.
La Divina Commedia is a long narrative poem written circa 1308-21 and is divided into three sections: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The story follows Dante on his journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, which serve as allegories for the soul’s journey to God. In this journey, Dante is guided by the Roman poet Virgil, a representation of human knowledge, through circles of Hell up until they reach Purgatory. In Purgatory, sinners repent and Virgil leaves, and Dante eventually reaches the verge of Paradise. Once there, he meets Beatrice, who leads him to heaven where he is able to catch quick sight of God’s glory. Each section of La Divina Commedia consists of 33 cantos (canti) in a hendecasyllabic terza rima. Perhaps the most distinct feature of the Commedia is the fact that it is written in vernacular rather than classical Latin: “In Dante’s way of thinking, vernaculars are superior to grammatical languages on account of both the chronology and the logic of their creation. Any grammatical language, whether Latin or Greek or Hebrew, comes later than and is positioned below the vernaculars, the ‘fall’ of which it is designed to counter” (Marchesi 23).
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