Durante deli Alighieri (May 26, 1265 – September 14, 1321) was a world-famous Italian thinker, poet, writer and theologian. Dante is considered not only a magnificent writer of his time, who created the famous “Divine Comedy,” but also the founder of the Italian literary language, since it was he who first began to use stable literary expressions in his works.
Childhood
It is not known for certain to what noble and aristocratic family Dante belonged, since only a few manuscripts of that time have survived, and scientists have still not been able to determine the origin of the writer. The only known fact is that Alighieri’s ancestors were most likely the founders of Florence. In manuscripts that have survived to this day, there is a mention of Dante’s great-grandfather, Cacciagvide, who was knighted and participated in crusade Conrad III.
He died in one of the battles against Muslims, after which he was posthumously ranked among the aristocrats. The personal life of Kacciagvida is also little known. According to scientists, the surname “Alighieri” was taken precisely from his wife, who belonged to a family of Lombard aristocrats. Initially, the surname was in the form "Aldighieri", but later, most likely due to difficulty in pronunciation, it was transformed into "Alighieri".
Durante's exact date of birth is also unknown. According to Boccaccio, the great writer and thinker was born on the night of May 13-14. Nevertheless, Alighieri himself never indicated the exact date of birth, but only casually mentioned that at birth he was under the sign of Gemini. That is why only the name given to the child at birth is accurate - Durante.
From childhood, the child was taught everything necessary by his parents. At the age of five, a special teacher was hired - Brunetto Latini - who began to teach Dante not only reading and writing, but also a number of exact sciences. In addition to home schooling, Durante most likely attended ancient schools and adopted the experience of several teachers at once. But, unfortunately, about what educational establishments the boy went and who his teacher was is also unknown.
Youth and early career as a public figure
In 1286, Dante, leaving his family, left for Bologna, where he settled in a small house with his best friend, the poet Guido Cavalcati. Initially, it remained a mystery how Alighieri was able to leave the family that had cared for and cared for him for many years.
However, then notes from Durante were found that in 1285 a friend asked him to move with him to Bologna, where he planned to enter the university. In order to keep up with his comrade, the future poet decided not to notify his family about his departure, and on a summer night he simply disappeared from home, setting off on his first independent journey.
After graduating from university in 1296, Dante decides to become a public figure. At that time, he already had sufficient connections and spoke to the general public more than once, calling for certain actions. Many of Durante's friends testified that the young man had an exceptional talent for oratory, despite the fact that he himself never recognized such a gift. However, Alighieri’s violent and stubborn character very often became the cause of conflicts between the speaker and the local authorities, which subsequently ended for Dante in exile from Florence, where he was no longer able to return.
In 1300, Dante Alighieri was elected prior. From this moment on, he receives quite extensive powers, including writing his own laws. The enthusiast decides to take the matter seriously and “slightly” remake the system that had existed for many years in Florence. Alighieri issues several decrees and laws, and begins to actively collect complaints from citizens, which, naturally, does not go unnoticed by the local authorities. A couple of months after his appointment, Dante and his party of white Guelphs, which consisted mainly of the writer’s loyal friends and comrades, were expelled in disgrace and forbidden to return to the city.
Writing career
After Dante said goodbye to his career as a public leader and speaker, the most difficult and depressive period in his biography begins. Being in exile, Dante feels not only humiliated, but also unnecessary to humanity. His poetry, which was previously light, airy and positive, takes on bitter notes of bondage, hatred and sadness for his hometown (and even family).
At this time, an allegorical scholastic commentary on the fourteen canons called “The Feast” appeared. In it, Dante not only openly criticizes the existing government system in Florence, but also blames the authorities for all the troubles of the people, mocking the stupidity and arrogance of officials. But, unfortunately, “Convivio” - this is how “The Feast” was translated into Italian - was never completed, because Alighieri considered it overly pretentious and rude. The work ends at the 14th chapter, after which there are only a few lines and an ellipsis.
The thinker's most famous work, The Divine Comedy, was written in exile. According to Boccaccio, Dante created it for a very long time, so there is no exact information and dating. The fact is that at that time Alighieri was forced to constantly travel around Italy in search of better life. It is known that he created the beginning of the Comedy in Verona, under the patronage of Bartolomeo della Scala, then moved to Bologna, where he heard the good news for himself: Henry VII was going to Italy. Deciding that now his life will improve, Alighieri returns to hometown and even manages to appear to the local authorities, declaring that now he will be able to regain all his civil rights. However, in 1313, Henry VII unexpectedly dies, and the authorities, taking advantage of the situation, confirm Durante’s exile, adding to it the death penalty for returning to their homeland not only the poet himself, but also all his relatives.
Since 1316, Dante Alighieri has been under the patronage of the lord of the city of Ravenna. Here the poet is allowed not only to create and create new songs of the “Divine Comedy”, but also to act as a public figure (naturally, under the supervision of the signor himself). Life begins to slowly improve, but in 1321, having gone as an ambassador to Venice to conclude a peace treaty with the Republic of St. Mark, Durante becomes seriously ill. Upon arrival in Ravenna, it turns out that the poet is sick with malaria, and on the night of September 13-14 of the same year he suddenly dies.
Personal life
In 1274, at the age of nine, Dante Alighieri saw the incredibly beautiful Beatrice Portinari, the daughter of a gardener, in the garden of his house. The aspiring poet fell in love with the young beauty so much that he even dedicated poems to her, but all this remained a strict secret, and the lovers met only nine years later, when Durante saw Peatrice already in the status of a married woman. Boccacce often mentioned young lovers in his treatises, calling them the Romeo and Juliet of their time.
Already at a more mature age, Alighieri married the daughter of his political opponent, Gemma Donati. The exact date of their marriage is unknown, so scientists do not undertake to say that the couple lived in marriage for many years. However, what is known is that Gemma gave birth to the poet three children, whom he loved very much, unlike his own wife (the wife was never even indirectly mentioned in Dante’s works).
DANTE
Alighieri [Italian] Dante Alighieri] (May 1265, Florence - 13/4.09.1321, Ravenna), Italian. poet, thinker.
D. gen. in the family of a poor landowner, a Guelph nobleman. Received legal education in Bologna. He became famous early on 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. Since 1302 political emigrant. From 1308 to 1313, as a publicist and politician, he actively contributed to the new imp. Henry VII, whose mission was to unite Italy and restore the greatness of the Roman Empire. After the death of the emperor (1313) and the execution of the top of the Templar Order (1314), with the Crimea D. connected his political projects, he wandered around the North. Italy in search of patronage and spiritual support (possibly visited Paris), without giving up hope of returning to Florence. However, the authorities of Florence in 1315 passed another death sentence, closing D.'s path 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: autobiographical story " New life"(La Vita Nuova, 1292-1293, published in 1576); unfinished poetic and philosophical work “The 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 parts (cants) and 100 songs “Comedy”, later called “The Divine Comedy” (La Divina Commedia, 1307-1321, published in 1472).
D. is considered the creator of Italian. lit. language and one of the founders of Europe. Literatures 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 accurate portrait of the Lady glorified 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 toward an encyclopedic synthesis of the Middle Ages. scholarship, masterfully using the legacy of Aristotle, bl. Augustine, Boethius, Saint-Victorian mysticism, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas.
The treatise “The Feast” was conceived as a commentary on the canzones written by D. in the 90s. The object of commentary is the poetry of the author himself, and during the interpretation, elements of the author's biography, his assessment of his contemporaries, political views and emotions are introduced into the text. Such personalization of the text and the confidence that the author’s “I” is a worthy subject for a scientific treatise are atypical for the Middle Ages. commentator with his reverent “bottom-up” view of the subject of study. It is also unusual that the treatise is written in Italian. language: D. is rightly spoken of as the creator of Italian. scientific language. “The Feast” is characterized by a mixture of genres mastered by the Middle Ages. The most revealing book in this regard is 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 “New Life.” In order to explain the nature of philosophy, D. abundantly draws on information from physics, astronomy, psychology, and history. Chapter 14 contains an essay on D.'s sophiology, based on the Proverbs of Solomon: starting with Platonic scholasticism, the author, through courtly images, moves on to a mixture of ancient and Christian. 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). Next, 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 Proverbs of Solomon merges with them.
Unlike the “Feast” of lat. D.'s treatise “On Popular 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 Popular Eloquence.” D. clearly distinguishes between natural and cultural, “artificial” language. “The more noble of these two speeches is the popular one” (De vulgari eloquentia. I 1.4). The criteria for “nobility” (i.e. nobility and dignity) of folk speech are as follows: it is natural, living, general and primary. Secondary speech, with all its sophistication and sublimity, does not have the ability to develop and cannot fully fulfill its purpose, that is, to be a force that unites people. D. emphasizes that speech is specific 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 power of their own kind. Animals of the same breed have the same actions and passions, and therefore can recognize others by themselves. A person is deprived of both types of spontaneity. It is moved by reason, and since reason is individual, people do not know each other by the likeness of actions and passions. But reason, 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 sensory sign” (Ibid. I 3.2), since without rationality a sign can neither exist in thinking nor penetrate into other thinking, and without sensory means the very transfer of rationality is impossible. Speech is such an object: sensory, since it is sound, and rational, since it means what we intend. D.'s theory of sign is one of the first semiotic concepts in Europe. Moreover, it is closely related to the understanding of culture in general. D. sees in speech fundamental property man, on which both the ability to communicate and the connection with the higher spiritual worlds are based (the first word of man was, according to D., “El” - God) (Ibid. I 4.4), and, finally, the social unity of mankind . In ch. 7 books 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 languages and thereby destroying the human community. D. believed that the geographical dispersion of peoples is connected with this socio-linguistic catastrophe. Therefore, the dream of a Bud language. Italy was for him something more than a 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 uniting peoples, as a source of imperial power. The collection of scattered “languages” and the revival of the forgotten original language - this should be, according to D., the goal of culture. The basis for the search for the first language remains folk speech, since, unlike artificial Latin, it was given by God and retains a living connection with reality. D. discovers that languages are in a process of continuous change, caused by changes in spiritual and material life. D. makes an exception for ancient 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). The first to speak, according to D., was not God, but Adam, since the impulse to speak was invested in him. The poet reproduces this situation, repeats in his work the action of the first poet Adam, to whom God allowed him to speak, “so that in explaining such a great talent, the one who bestowed grace would be glorified” (Ibid. I 5.2).
D. discovered a living force, which was not noticed behind the artificial constructions of Latin, - a natural folk language, “Volgare” (Italian volgare). The treatise highlights another category that 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 a people materializes; Moreover, language allows us 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, D. began to hear the motif of the homeland as a special subject of concern and spiritual effort. At the same time, D. is the singer of the “world empire” and the universal truth of Christianity. His philosophical and poetic works reveal an awareness of a new cultural and historical reality - 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 Middle Ages remains an axiom for D. the doctrine of the hierarchy of world existence, in which each lower level lives by the gifts of the higher and has meaning to the extent that it is capable of reflecting the light of higher values. Therefore, the discovery of new essences only means a greater degree of penetration of meaning into matter, or, in theological language, greater “glory.”
In op. “On Monarchy” D. seeks to prove 3 main points: an empire is necessary for the earthly happiness of mankind; the power of 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. Humanity found itself in the grip of sensual passions, the most dangerous of which was greed, and therefore had to create a social system that would protect people from themselves, from their destructive self-interest. However, this is a commonplace of the Middle Ages. D.'s worldview is significantly adjusted. Man, even in his nature not spoiled by sin, is a political, social being, who always strives for communication and life together. Just like Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, D. considers the formation of the state to be a natural process. Gos-vo, trace., does not bear the stamp of an ancient curse and can be a form happy life . Adam's sin makes itself felt in the fact that the greed of people infects the state itself, which loses the functions of justice and enters into a selfish struggle with other states and with its citizens. Therefore, the thinker believes, a third force is needed to unite society and the state. Only the monarchy can lay claim to the role of a reconciling third force. The unlimited power of the Dantean emperor - a ruler who had little in common with the absolute monarch of the national state of the 17th-18th centuries - is based on law, morality, divine sanction, and 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 partial. With certain reservations, one can compare this image with the Aristotelian monarch, with Plato's philosophers and guards, with the podesta (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, that is, the emperor, who, due to this, cannot divide the empire into parts, limit his power and transfer it by inheritance. Constantine is the first Christ. Emperor - committed, therefore, an illegal act when he gave the Church power over a large region in Italy. D. believed that this mistake of Constantine (the falsity of the “gift” (see Art. Gift of Constantine) was not yet known to D.) played its fatal role in the penetration of worldly interests into church life. D. emphasizes the emperor’s dependence on ideal principles, arguing that “it is not the citizens who 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 sake of the people” (De monarchia. I 12.11). As the highest judge and legislator, the emperor is obliged to intervene in those disputes that cannot be resolved due to the equality of rights of the disputants (such are disputes between sovereign states), and his job is to take care of everyone and the state as a whole. If laws and power are not used for the common benefit, 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 are the subject of concern for the emperor. Freedom is “the greatest gift laid down by God in human nature, for through it we find bliss here as people, and through it we find bliss there as gods” (Ibid. I 12.6). D. concludes that those living under the rule of a monarch are 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 a monarch, who has no other. interests other than fulfilling one's duty. Only he can protect people from the perverted government. systems that subjugate the people. From view D., not only democracy, oligarchy and tyranny, but also monarchy, if it does not represent a worldwide 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 should be a philosopher (Ibid. III 16); because otherwise the danger of arbitrariness and tyranny would be too great. The main tasks of the monarch are to protect freedom, establish relations between the political elements of the empire and establish peace. Only peace can give humanity that state which in Scripture is called “fullness of times” (Eph 1:10; Gal 4:4), that is, well-being and harmony. Only in a peaceful society can justice, legality and truth find a place for themselves - the social virtues that D. valued above all else. But peace is possible when a person extremely accurately reproduces the pattern set by God the world ruler, and for this it is necessary that he renounce self-interest, relying on the universal principle in himself. Monarchy, according to D., is the ideal system for such overcoming false individuality, since in it a person is subordinate to only one principle and this principle realizes, without sacrificing freedom, the universal ideal (De monarchia. I 8-9). “On Monarchy” is perhaps the first treatise on universal peace that the political thought of Europe has learned.
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 plan, the foresight of nature is not inferior to the foresight of man, and therefore natural processes And historical events as if they 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 corollary of these Dantean arguments was the idea of a radical separation of the functions of the pope and the 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 (Luke 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., therefore, opposed the prevailing concept of theocracy in his time, which was justified, for example, by Thomas Aquinas. Thomas called on emperors to submit to the pope as to Christ Himself. D. insists that the emperor stands directly before God, receives sanction for power from Him 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.
D.'s teaching about Rome plays a special role in clarifying the status of the world monarch. D. glorifies the mission of Rome, connecting earthly kingdom and the Kingdom of Heaven, which became, as it were, the social matter of the Incarnation, since its jurisdiction then extended to Palestine. He notes 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 Root”, i.e. the lineage of the Virgin Mary, and the foundation Rome. D. sees in Rome the sanctified 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. did not imagine a world state centered in Rome as the dominance of the Italian nation, although he was proud of the remnants of the preserved continuity. Just as the chosenness 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. This idealization was possible because political structure 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 did not interfere, remaining the supreme guardian of the rule of law. D. not only defends the autonomy of secular power, but also protects the purity of the spiritual authority of the Church. After all, God builds His relationship with believers not on the force of the law, but on the basis of faith, giving people freedom. A clear distinction between spiritual and political power will, according to D., help protect against abuse. Spiritual authority reveals a meaningful world of truth and the path to salvation, but he should not embody these ideals by resorting to political power. The power of politics gives legal forms of action and the power to defend them, but cannot prescribe the choice of moral values. D.'s utopia differs sharply from the theocratic teachings of the blessed one. 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; Finally, in contrast to the purely political concepts of the separation of secular and spiritual power of Ockham and Marsilius of Padua, it contains a positive religion. and a moral ideal, the image of a 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 Prohibited Books. Not enough tradition. for the Church and not innovative enough for French lawyers. king, this theory was forgotten, but in the 19th century. turned out to be in tune with conservative thought.
D.'s "Comedy" is a grandiose lit. a mystery telling about the author’s journey in 1300 through 3 afterlife worlds: hell, purgatory and paradise. D. creates unprecedented pictures in terms of artistic detail and symbolic richness of 9 circles of the infernal funnel, 9 levels of the mountain of purgatory, 9 heavenly worlds and the heavenly Rose in the Empyrean, from where D. contemplates the Holy One. Trinity. Led 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 from history and modernity. During the journey-pilgrimage, the author-hero relives his life, cleansing and transforming. That. “Comedy”, as a symbol of wandering, shows both the path of historical humanity and the path of internal self-deepening and salvation. In the theological aspect, D.'s attempt to reconcile the opposing currents within the Catholic Church is interesting. Churches (for example, the Dominicans and Franciscans are depicted as 2 wheels, on the axis of which the chariot of the Church is established) (La Divina Commedia. Paradis. 11. 12) and transform earthly conflicts into harmonious round dances of thinkers. With unprecedented courage for the Middle Ages, D. combines in the mystical event he glorified the fate of a specific 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, but its theological aspect was more than once questioned. But in the end it was generally accepted that the Comedy was in conformity with the dogmas and traditions of Catholicism. 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 card approach was established. Roberta Bellarmine, who in his work “On the Contradictions of the Christian Faith” (1613), leaving the heretical motives of D. in the shadows, 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 Danish culture enters the era of romanticism (together with the pan-European return of the great Italian from relative oblivion). Romantic consciousness associates its favorite themes with D.: the role of genius in history; national and global in literature; creation of modern epic; building an integral worldview based on artistic intuition; symbol as universal-synthetic means of expression. The 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 carried out the first experience of commenting on the “Comedy” and in his translation experiments outlined that stylistic strategy of mixing spoken language with bookish and “high”, the cut will be followed in the future by the best Russians. translators.
Since the 30s. XIX century Russian language is beginning to actively take shape. 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 century”, 1833-1834), in the articles of N. A. Polevoy, A.V. Druzhinin reflected the heated controversy that was being waged at that time by the Russians. romantic aesthetics. The topics of debate went far beyond the scope of the aesthetic topic itself, and D.'s legacy allowed polemicists to make natural transitions from literature to politics and social history. Indicative in this regard are the controversies of Polevoy, Nadezhdin and Shevyrev, for the self-determination of whose 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 century 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 Literary works of D., starting with Pushkin and N.V. Gogol, become a constant resource of ideas, images, creative impulses, allusions and correlations. The artist who dared to take on the mission of a prophet and judge, who built a grandiose generalizing picture of the world through the means of poetry, turns out to be for Russians. writers are a kind of starting 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 of the development of gold in Russia was the Silver Age and adjacent times. The romantic understanding of D. as a genius-seer, a wanderer to other worlds, preserved in symbolism in a “removed” form, generally gives way to the image of D. as a master theurgist, practitioner and politician, who does not turn away from the problems of his time. The lyrics of V. Ya. Bryusov, Vyach are permeated with Dantean motifs. I., A. A. Blok, A. Bely. Coming from Vl. S. Solovyov’s tradition of the philosophy of all-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 its cultural consciousness. For Silver Age An expanded reading of Dante’s heritage, not limited to the Comedy, is very characteristic. Yes, Vl. Solovyov not only picks up D.’s Sophia motives, but also directly relies on political doctrine his op. "About the monarchy." Vyach. Ivanov, as can be seen from his constant and systematic appeals to D.’s legacy, essentially considers the poet’s life, 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 constructing a "supertext" about the fate of the world and humanity. For such thinkers of the Silver Age as Vl. Solovyov, Vyach. Ivanov, Ellis, D.S. Merezhkovsky, a well-known role in their sustained interest in D., in his “pre-Tridentine” religion. worldview, the opportunity to overcome the mediastinum between Orthodoxy and Catholicism also played a role. The impulse of the Silver Age lives on in subsequent decades. The Acmeists create their own Dante: the “Dantean layer” is obvious in the poetry of A. A. Akhmatova; one of the most insightful interpretations of Dante is given by O. E. Mandelstam (“Conversation about Dante”, 1933); The author of the famous translation of the Comedy, M. L. Lozinsky, also belonged to the circle of Acmeists. An impressive experience in coordinating the cosmology of D. and modern times. science is carried out by the priest. P. Florensky (“Imaginaries in Geometry”, 1922). A subtle analysis of Dante’s early work is given by A. M. Efros (“Young Dante”, 1934). D. appears as a character of some esoteric world history in A. Bely’s manuscript of the 20-30s. XX century “The history of the formation of a self-conscious soul” and in Merezhkovsky’s extensive work “Dante” (1939).
Works: Opere di Dante: testo critico della società dantesca italiana / A cura di M. Barbi et al. Firenze, 1921; Tutte le opere / A cura di F. Chiapelli. Mil., 1965; La Divina Commedia / A cura di D. Mattalia. Mil., 1986. Vol. 1-3; fav. rus. trans.: Collection. Op.: In 5 volumes / Transl. from Italian, commentary: M. L. Lozinsky. St. Petersburg; M., 1996; Collection Op.: In 2 vols. / Transl. from Italian, intro. Art. and commentary: M. L. Lozinsky. M., 2001; New Life / Transl. from Italian: A. Efros, commentary: S. Averintsev and A. Mikhailov. M., 1965, 1985; Small works. M., 1968; Monarchy / Transl. from Italian: V. P. Zubov, commentary: I. N. Golenishchev-Kutuzov. M., 1999; Divine Comedy / Trans. from Italian: M. L. Lozinsky. M., 2004; The same / Transl. 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. P. 9-64; Ledig G. Philosophie der Strafe bei Dante und Dostojewski. Weimar, 1935; Dzhivelegov A.K. Dante Alighieri: Life and Creativity. M., 19462; Guardini R. Der Engel in Dantes Göttlicher Komödie. Münch., 19512; idem. Das Licht bei Dante. Münch., 1956; idem. Landschaft der Ewigkeit. Münch., 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; aka. Dante's creativity and world culture. M., 1971; Mandelstam O. E. Conversation about Dante. M., 1967; Gilson E. Dante and Philosophy. Gloucester (Mass.), 1968; Alekseev M.P. First acquaintance with Dante in Russia // From classicism to romanticism: From the history of international. connections rus. liters. L., 1970. P. 6-62; Encyclopedia Dantesca. R., 1970-1976. Vol. 1-5; Blagoy D. D. Il gran "padre (Pushkin and Dante) // Dante readings. M., 1973. P. 9-64; Boccaccio D. Life of Dante // He. Small works. L., 1975. P. 519-572; Gabrieli F. Dante and Islam // Arab medieval culture and literature. M., 1978. P. 203-208; Losev A. F. Aesthetics of the Renaissance. M., 1978. P. 197-204; Andreev M. L. Time and eternity in the “Divine Comedy” // Dante readings. 1979. pp. 156-212; Belza I. F. Some problems of interpretation and commentary on the “Divine Comedy” // Ibid. pp. 34-73; he same. 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. pp. 175-234; Shichalin Yu. A. On some images of the Neoplatonic origins in Dante // Western European medieval literature. M., 1985. pp. 98-100; Lotman Yu. M. Notes on artistic space // Works on sign systems. Tartu, 1986. Vol. 19. P. 25-43; Asoyan A. A. Dante and Russian literature of the 1820-1850s. Sverdlovsk, 1989; aka. “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. pp. 124-147; Zelinsky F. F. Homer - Virgil - Dante // Aka. From the life of ideas. M., 1995. T. 4: Revivalists. Vol. 1. pp. 58-79; Ivanov V.I. From rough notes about Dante // Vyacheslav Ivanov: Materials and research. M., 1996. P. 7-13; Tahoe-Godi E. A. Dante and K. K. Sluchevsky // Dante readings. 1996. pp. 69-94; Shishkin A. B. The 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 - poet of the earthly world. M., 2004; Sergeev K.V. Theater of Fate of 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. T. 1/2: Religion, culture, literature. pp. 296-315.
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, political figure, one of the founders of literary Italian language. The creator of the “Comedy” (later receiving the epithet “Divine”, introduced by Boccaccio), which provided a synthesis of late medieval culture.
According to family tradition, Dante's ancestors came from the Roman family of Elisei, who participated in the founding of Florence. Cacciaguida, 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. Cacciaguida was married to a lady from the Lombard family of Aldighieri da Fontana. The name "Aldighieri" was transformed into "Alighieri"; This is how one of the sons of Kachchagvida was named. The son of this Alighieri, Bellincione, Dante's grandfather, expelled from Florence during the struggle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, returned to his hometown 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 reports about 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 scientist Brunetto Latini. The place where Dante studied is unknown, but he gained extensive knowledge of ancient and medieval literature, natural sciences and was familiar with the heretical teachings of the time.
In 1274, a nine-year-old boy fell in love with May holiday a girl of eight years old, the daughter of a neighbor, Beatrice Portinari - this is his first biographical memory. He had seen her before, but the impression from this meeting was renewed in him when nine years later (in 1283) he saw her again as a married woman and this time became interested in her. Beatrice becomes the “mistress of his thoughts” for the rest of his life, 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 that time.
Dante Alighieri's family sided with the Florentine Cerchi party, which was at war 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 even a single word. IN last years he lived in Ravenna; his sons, Jacopo and Pietro, poets, his future commentators, and his daughter Antonia gathered around him; 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 coercion and persuasion, and therefore, during the long years of exile, he never thought of calling his wife to him. Beatrice determined the tone of his feelings, the experience of exile - his social and political views and their archaism.
Dante's first works date back to the 1280s, and in 1292 he wrote La Vita Nuova, which scholars have called the first autobiography in the history of world literature.
The first act mention of Dante Alighieri as public figure dates back to 1296 and 1297, already in 1300 or 1301 he was elected prior. In 1302 he was expelled along 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 himself and around him, it was this thoughtfulness, thirst for general principles, certainty, internal integrity, passion of the soul and boundless imagination that determined the qualities of his poetry, style, imagery and abstractness .
Love for the Florentine Beatrice acquired a mysterious meaning for him; he filled every moment of his existence with it. Her idealized image occupies a significant place in Dante's poetry. In 1292, he began his creative journey with a story about his young love that renewed him: “New Life” (“La Vita Nuova”), composed of sonnets, canzones and a prose story-commentary about his love for Beatrice.
Bold and graceful, sometimes deliberately rough, fantasy images form a definite, strictly calculated pattern in his Comedy. Later, Dante found himself in a whirlpool of parties, and was even an inveterate municipalist; but he had a need to understand the basic principles political activity, so he writes his Latin treatise “On the Monarchy” (“De Monarchia”). This work- 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 years of wandering for Dante. Already at that time he was a lyric poet among the Tuscan poets of the “new style” - Cino from Pistoia, Guido Cavalcanti and others. His “La Vita Nuova” had already been written; his exile made him more serious and strict. He starts his “Feast” (“Convivio”), an allegorical scholastic commentary on the fourteen canzones. But “Convivio” was never finished: only the introduction and interpretation to the three canzones were written. The Latin treatise on the popular language, or eloquence (“De vulgari eloquentia”), is also unfinished, ending at the 14th chapter of the second book.
During the years of exile, three cants of the Divine Comedy were created gradually and under the same working conditions. The time at which each of them was written can only be approximately determined. Paradise was written in Ravenna, and there is nothing incredible in Boccaccio’s story that after the death of Dante Alighieri his sons for a long time They could not find the last thirteen songs until, according to legend, Dante dreamed of his son Jacopo and told him where they lay.
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 by force to achieve installation in Florence, doomed him to a long wandering around Italy. He later arrived in Bologna, in Lunigiana and Casentino, in 1308-1309. ended up in Paris, where he spoke with honor at public debates, common in universities of that time. It was in Paris that Dante received the news that Emperor Henry VII was going to Italy. The ideal dreams of his “Monarchy” were resurrected in him with new strength; he returned to Italy (probably in 1310 or early 1311), seeking renewal for her and the return of civil rights for himself. His “message to the peoples and rulers of Italy” is full of these hopes and enthusiastic confidence, however, the idealistic emperor died suddenly (1313), and on November 6, 1315, Ranieri di Zaccaria of Orvietto, King Robert’s viceroy in Florence, confirmed the decree of exile regarding Dante Alighieri, his sons and many others, condemning them to execution if they fell into the hands of the Florentines.
From 1316-1317 he settled in Ravenna, where he was summoned to retire by the lord of the city, Guido da Polenta. Here, in the circle of children, among friends and fans, 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 a "mausoleum") was built in 1780.
The familiar portrait of Dante Alighieri is devoid of authenticity: Boccaccio depicts him as bearded instead of the legendary clean-shaven, however, in general, his image corresponds to our traditional idea: an elongated face with an aquiline nose, large eyes, wide cheekbones and a protruding lower lip; always sad and thoughtfully focused. In his treatise “On the Monarchy,” Dante Alighieri the politician spoke; 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”.
Italian literature
Dante Alighieri
Biography
Dante Alighieri (1265−1321), Italian poet. Born in mid-May 1265 in Florence. His parents were respectable townspeople of modest means and belonged to the Guelph party, which opposed the power of the German emperors in Italy. They were able to pay for their son’s schooling, and subsequently allowed him, without worrying about money, to improve in the art of versification. An idea of the poet's youth is given by his autobiographical story in verse and prose, New Life (La vita nuova, 1293), which tells about Dante's love for Beatrice (it is believed that this was Biche, daughter of Folco Portinari) from the moment of their first meeting, when Dante was nine years old , and she is eight, and until Beatrice’s death in June 1290. The poems are accompanied by prose inserts explaining how a particular poem appeared. In this work, Dante develops the theory of courtly love for a woman, reconciling it with Christian love for God. After the death of Beatrice, Dante turned to the consolation of philosophy and created several allegorical poems in praise of this new “lady.” Over the years of scientific studies, his literary horizons have expanded significantly. The poet’s expulsion from his native Florence played a decisive role in the fate and further work of Dante.
At that time, power in Florence belonged to the Guelph party, torn apart by an internal party struggle between the white Guelphs (who advocated the independence of Florence from the pope) and the black Guelphs (supporters of papal power). Dante's sympathies were with the white Guelphs. In 1295-1296 he was called up for public service several times, including participation in the Council of the Sta. In 1300, as an ambassador, he traveled to San Gimignano with an appeal to the citizens of the city to unite with Florence against Pope Boniface VIII and in the same year was elected a member of the governing council of priors, a position he held from June 15 to August 15. From April to September 1301 he again served on the Council of the Sta. In the autumn of the same year, Dante became part of the embassy sent to Pope Boniface in connection with the attack on Florence by Prince Charles of Valois. In his absence, on November 1, 1301, with the arrival of Charles, power in the city passed to the black Guelphs, and the white Guelphs were subjected to repression. In January 1302, Dante learned that he had been sentenced to exile in absentia on trumped-up charges of bribery, malfeasance, and resistance to the pope and Charles of Valois, and never returned to Florence.
In 1310, Emperor Henry VII invaded Italy for “peacekeeping” purposes. Dante, who by that time had found temporary shelter in Casentino, responded to this event with an ardent letter to the rulers and peoples of Italy, calling for support for Henry. In another letter, entitled Florentine Dante Alighieri, unjustly expelled, to the wicked Florentines who remained in the city, he condemned the resistance shown by Florence to the emperor. Probably at the same time he wrote a treatise on the monarchy (De monarchia, 1312−1313). However, in August 1313, after an unsuccessful three-year campaign, Henry VII died suddenly in Buonconvento. In 1314, after the death of Pope Clement V in France, Dante issued another letter addressed to the conclave of Italian cardinals in the city of Carpentra, in which he urged them to elect an Italian as pope and return the papal throne from Avignon to Rome.
For some time, Dante found refuge with the ruler of Verona, Can Grande della Scala, to whom he dedicated the final part of the Divine Comedy - Paradise. The poet spent the last years of his life under the patronage of Guido da Polenta in Ravenna, where he died in September 1321, having completed the Divine Comedy shortly before his death.
Only part of Dante's early poems made it into the New Life. In addition to these, he wrote several allegorical canzones, which he probably intended to include in the Symposium, as well as many lyric poems. Subsequently, all these poems were published under the title Poems (Rime), or Canzoniere, although Dante himself did not compile such a collection. This should also include the playfully abusive sonnets (tenzones) that Dante exchanged with his friend Forese Donati.
According to Dante himself, he wrote the treatise The Feast (Il convivio, 1304−1307) to declare himself as a poet who had moved from the glorification of courtly love to philosophical themes. It was assumed that the Symposium would include fourteen poems (canzones), each of which would be equipped with an extensive gloss interpreting its allegorical and philosophical meaning. However, having written interpretations of the three canzones, Dante left work on the treatise. In Pira's first book, which serves as a prologue, he passionately defends the right of the Italian language to be the language of literature. Treatise on Latin On Popular Eloquence (De vulgari eloquentia, 1304−1307) was also not completed: Dante wrote only the first book and part of the second. In it, Dante talks about the Italian language as a means of poetic expression, sets out his theory of language and expresses his hope for the creation in Italy of a new literary language that would rise above dialectal differences and would be worthy of being called great poetry.
In three books of a carefully substantiated study on the monarchy (De monarchia, 1312−1313), Dante seeks to prove the truth of the following statements: 1) only under the rule of a universal monarch can humanity come to a peaceful existence and fulfill its destiny; 2) God chose the Roman people to rule the world (hence this monarch should be the Holy Roman Emperor); 3) the emperor and pope receive power directly from God (hence, the first is not subordinate to the second). These views were expressed before Dante, but he brought to them the fervor of conviction. The Church immediately condemned the treatise and, according to Boccaccio, condemned the book to be burned.
In the last two years of his life, Dante wrote two eclogues in Latin hexameter. This was a response to Giovanni del Virgilio, professor of poetry at the University of Bologna, who urged him to write in Latin and come to Bologna to be crowned with a laurel wreath. The study Question of Water and Land (Questio de aqua et terra), devoted to the much-debated question of the relationship between water and land on the surface of the Earth, Dante may have read publicly in Verona. Of Dante's letters, eleven are recognized as authentic, all in Latin (some have been mentioned).
It is believed that Dante began writing the Divine Comedy around 1307, interrupting work on the treatises The Feast (Il convivio, 1304−1307) and On Popular Eloquence (De vulgari eloquentia, 1304−1307). In this work, he wanted to present a double vision of the socio-political system: on the one hand, as divinely pre-established, on the other, as having reached unprecedented decay in his contemporary society (“the current world has lost its way” - Purgatory, XVI, 82). The main theme of the Divine Comedy can be called justice in this life and in the afterlife, as well as the means to restore it, given, by God's providence, into the hands of man himself.
Dante called his poem Comedy because it has a dark beginning (Hell) and a joyful end (Paradise and the contemplation of the Divine essence), and, in addition, is written in a simple style (as opposed to the sublime style inherent, in Dante’s understanding, of tragedy), on the vernacular language “as women speak.” The epithet Divine in the title was not invented by Dante; it first appeared in a publication published in 1555 in Venice.
The poem consists of one hundred songs of approximately the same length (130−150 lines) and is divided into three cantics - Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, thirty-three songs in each; The first song of Hell serves as a prologue to the entire poem. The meter of the Divine Comedy is eleven syllables, the rhyme scheme, terza, was invented by Dante himself, who put deep meaning into it. The Divine Comedy is an unsurpassed example of art as an imitation; Dante takes as a model everything that exists, both material and spiritual, created by the triune God, who left the imprint of his trinity on everything. Therefore, the structure of the poem is based on the number three, and the amazing symmetry of its structure is rooted in imitation of the measure and order that God gave to all things.
In a letter to Can Grande, Dante explains that his poem has multiple meanings, it is an allegory like the Bible. Indeed, the poem has a complex allegorical structure, and although the narrative can almost always be based on only one literally, this is far from the only level of perception. The author of the poem is presented in it as a person who has been awarded special grace from God - to travel to the Lord through the three kingdoms of the underworld, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. This journey is presented in the poem as real, accomplished by Dante in the flesh and in reality, and not in a dream or vision. In the afterlife, the poet sees various states of souls after death, in accordance with the reward determined by the Lord.
The sins punishable in Hell fall into three main categories: licentiousness, violence and lies; these are the three sinful tendencies that stem from Adam's sin. The ethical principles on which Dante's Hell is built, as well as his overall vision of the world and man, are a fusion of Christian theology and pagan ethics based on Aristotle's Ethics. Dante's views are not original, they were common in an era when Aristotle's major works were rediscovered and diligently studied.
Having passed through the nine circles of Hell and the center of the Earth, Dante and his guide Virgil emerge on the surface at the foot of Mount Purgatory, located in the southern hemisphere, on the opposite edge of the Earth from Jerusalem. Their descent into Hell took them exactly the same amount of time as passed between Christ's placement in the tomb and his resurrection, and the opening songs of Purgatory are replete with indications of how the action of the poem echoes the feat of Christ - another example of imitation by Dante, now in the usual form of imitatio Christi.
Climbing the Mount of Purgatory, where the seven deadly sins are atoned for on seven ledges, Dante purifies himself and, having reached the top, finds himself in earthly Paradise. Thus, climbing the mountain is a “return to Eden,” the discovery of the lost Paradise. From this moment on, Beatrice becomes Dante's guide. Her appearance is the culmination of the entire journey; moreover, the poet draws an emphatic analogy between the arrival of Beatrice and the coming of Christ - in history, in the soul and at the end of time. Here is an imitation of the Christian concept of history as a linear forward movement, the center of which is the coming of Christ.
With Beatrice, Dante rises through nine concentric celestial spheres (according to the structure of the sky in Ptolemaic-Aristotelian cosmology), where the souls of the righteous live, to the tenth - the Empyrean, the abode of the Lord. There Beatrice is replaced by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who shows the poet saints and angels tasting the highest bliss: the direct contemplation of the Lord, satisfying all desires.
Despite such a variety of posthumous destinies, one principle can be identified that operates throughout the entire poem: retribution corresponds to the nature of sin or virtue inherent in a person during life. This can be seen especially clearly in Hell (the instigators of discord and schismatics are cut in two there). In Purgatory, the purification of the soul is subject to a slightly different, “corrective” principle (the eyes of envious people are tightly sewn up). In Paradise, the souls of the righteous appear first in that sky, or celestial sphere, which better symbolizes the degree and nature of their merits (the souls of warriors live on Mars).
In the structure of the Divine Comedy, two dimensions can be distinguished: the afterlife as such and Dante’s journey through it, enriching the poem with a new deep meaning and bearing the main allegorical load. Theology in Dante's day, as before, believed that the mystical journey to God is possible during a person's lifetime, if the Lord, by His grace, gives him this opportunity. Dante builds his journey through the afterlife so that it symbolically reflects the “journey” of the soul in the earthly world. At the same time, he follows the patterns already developed in contemporary theology. In particular, it was believed that on the path to God the mind goes through three stages, guided by three various types light: the Light of Natural Intelligence, the Light of Grace and the Light of Glory. This is precisely the role played by Dante's three guides in the Divine Comedy.
The Christian concept of time is not only at the center of the poem: its entire action up to the appearance of Beatrice is intended to reflect what Dante understood as the path of redemption intended by the Lord for humanity after the Fall. The same understanding of history was found in Dante’s treatise On the Monarchy and was expressed by Christian historians and poets (for example, Orsisius and Prudentius) a thousand years before Dante. According to this concept, God chose the Roman people to lead humanity to justice, in which they achieved perfection under Emperor Augustus. It was at this time, when peace and justice reigned throughout the entire earth for the first time after the Fall, that the Lord wished to incarnate and send his beloved son to the people. With the appearance of Christ, the movement of humanity towards justice is thus completed. It is not difficult to trace the allegorical reflection of this concept in the Divine Comedy. Just as the Romans under Augustus led the human race towards justice, so Virgil on the top of Mount Purgatory leads Dante to gain an inner sense of justice and, saying goodbye, addresses the poet as an emperor at a coronation: “I crown you with a miter and a crown.” Now, when justice has reigned in Dante’s soul, as it once was in the world, Beatrice appears, and her arrival is a reflection of the coming of Christ, as it was, is and will be. Thus, the path traversed by the soul of an individual, achieving justice and then purifying grace, symbolically repeats the path of redemption traversed by humanity in the course of history. This allegory of the Divine Comedy is clearly intended for the Christian reader, who will be interested in both the description of the afterlife and Dante's journey to God. But Dante’s depiction of earthly life does not become ghostly and insubstantial because of this. The poem contains a whole gallery of living and vivid portraits, and the sense of the significance of earthly life, the unity of “this” and “this” world is expressed firmly and unambiguously in it.
Dante Alighieri was born in mid-May 1265 in Florence, Italy. He came from an old noble family. His parents were modest, respectable townspeople. They did not support the power of the German emperors in Italy. Parents paid schooling Dante, and then allowed him to improve his knowledge in the art of versification, without worrying about the means. In 1293, Dante Alighieri wrote an autobiographical story in verse and prose, “The New Life.” Dante develops the theory of courtly love for a woman, comparing it with Christian love for God. An important role in the fate and further work of Dante was played by his expulsion from Florence.
Internal struggle in Florence, wars between Italian cities and intrigues of the papal entourage, accompanied by a decline in the moral authority of the church - all this led to Dante placing his hopes on the German emperor Henry VII, who entered Italy with his army in 1310. Henry seemed to Dante a peacemaker, the heir to the Roman Empire, who was destined to revive Italy. In his political treatises, Dante defended the ideal of a world monarchy as a state that in the future was supposed to ensure the earthly well-being of people.
Dante Alighieri shows in his works an interest in earthly life and the fate of the human person. He is concerned about the fate of Italy and his native Florence. Dante places sinners in hell in his creations, sometimes punishes them not according to the laws of the church, and sometimes treats them with great compassion and respect.
Dante is considered the creator of the Italian literary language, which is based on the Tuscan dialect. The poet in his works speaks on behalf of the entire Italian nation, expressing its historical views. He was considered the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times. The work of Dante Alighieri has had big influence on the development of Italian literature and European culture in general.
From 1316 Alighieri lived in Ravenna. The poet died from malaria in September 1321.
DANTE Alighieri (Dante Alighieri) (1265-1321), Italian poet, creator of the Italian literary language. In his youth, he joined the Dolce Style Nuovo school (sonnets praising Beatrice, autobiographical story “New Life”, 1292-93, edition 1576); philosophical and political treatises ("Feast", not completed; "On National Speech", 1304-07, edition 1529), "Epistle" (1304-16). The pinnacle of Dante's work is the poem "The Divine Comedy" (1307-21, edition 1472) in 3 parts ("Hell", "Purgatory", "Paradise") and 100 songs, a poetic encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. He had a great influence on the development of European culture.
DANTE Alighieri(May or June 1265, Florence - September 14, 1321, Ravenna), Italian poet, one of the greatest geniuses of world literature.
Biography
Dante's family belonged to the urban nobility of Florence. The poet's grandfather was the first to bear the family name Alighieri (in another vowel, Alagieri). Dante was educated at a municipal school, then, presumably, studied at the University of Bologna (according to even less reliable information, he also attended the University of Paris during the period of exile). Took an active part in political life Florence; from June 15 to August 15, 1300 he was a member of the government (he was elected to the position of prior), trying, while fulfilling the position, to prevent the aggravation of the struggle between the parties of the White and Black Guelphs (see Guelphs and Ghibellines). After an armed coup in Florence and the coming to power of the Black Guelphs, on January 27, 1302 he was sentenced to exile and deprived of civil rights; On March 10, he was sentenced to death penalty. The first years of Dante's exile are among the leaders of the White Guelphs, taking part in the armed and diplomatic struggle with the victorious party. The last episode in his political biography is associated with the Italian campaign of Emperor Henry VII (1310-13), to whose efforts to establish civil peace in Italy he gave ideological support in a number of public messages and in the treatise “Monarchy”. Dante never returned to Florence; he spent several years in Verona at the court of Can Grande della Scala, and in the last years of his life he enjoyed the hospitality of the ruler of Ravenna, Guido da Polenta. Died of malaria.
Lyrics
The bulk of Dante's lyric poems were created in the 80-90s. 13th century; with the beginning of the new century, small poetic forms gradually disappeared from his work. Dante began by imitating the most influential lyric poet of Italy at that time, Guittone d'Arezzo, but soon changed his poetics and, together with his older friend Guido Cavalcanti, became the founder of a special poetic school, which Dante himself called the school of the “sweet new style” (“Dolce style nuovo” ) Its main distinguishing feature is the extreme spiritualization of the feeling of love. Dante, providing biographical and poetic commentary, collected the poems dedicated to his beloved Beatrice Portinari in a book called “New Life" (c. 1293-95). The biographical outline itself is extremely sparse. : two meetings, the first in childhood, the second in youth, denoting the beginning of love, the death of Beatrice’s father, the death of Beatrice herself, the temptation of new love and overcoming it. The biography appears as a series of mental states leading to an increasingly complete mastery of the meaning of the feeling that befell the hero: in As a result, the feeling of love acquires the features and signs of religious worship.
In addition to the “New Life”, about fifty more poems by Dante have reached us: poems in the manner of the “sweet new style” (but not always addressed to Beatrice); a love cycle known as “stone” (after the name of the recipient, Donna Pietra) and characterized by an excess of sensuality; comic poetry (a poetic altercation with Forese Donati and the poem "Flower", the attribution of which remains doubtful); a group of doctrinal poems (dedicated to the themes of nobility, generosity, justice, etc.).
Treatises
Poems of philosophical content became the subject of commentary in the unfinished treatise "The Feast" (c. 1304-07), which represents one of the first experiments in Italy in creating scientific prose in the popular language and at the same time the rationale for this attempt - a kind of educational program along with the defense of the folk language. In the unfinished Latin treatise “On Popular Eloquence,” written in the same years, an apology for the Italian language is accompanied by the theory and history of literature in it - both of which are absolute innovations. In the Latin treatise "Monarchy" (c. 1312-13), Dante (also for the first time) proclaims the principle of separation of spiritual and temporal power and insists on the full sovereignty of the latter.
"The Divine Comedy"
Dante began working on the poem "The Divine Comedy" during the years of exile and completed it shortly before his death. Written in terzas, containing 14,233 verses, it is divided into three parts (or cantics) and one hundred cantos (each cantic has thirty-three cantos and another is the introductory one to the entire poem). It was called a comedy by the author, who proceeded from the classification of genres developed by medieval poetics. The definition of “divine” was assigned to her by her descendants. The poem tells about Dante's journey through the kingdom of the dead: the right to see the afterlife during his lifetime is a special favor that frees him from philosophical and moral errors and entrusts him with a certain high mission. Dante, lost in the “dark forest” (which symbolizes the specific, although not directly named, sin of the author himself, and at the same time the sins of all humanity, experiencing a critical moment in its history), comes to the aid of the Roman poet Virgil (who symbolizes the human mind, unfamiliar with divine revelation) and leads him through the first two afterlife kingdoms - the kingdom of retribution and the kingdom of redemption. Hell is a funnel-shaped hole ending in the center of the earth; it is divided into nine circles, in each of which execution is carried out on a special category of sinners (only the inhabitants of the first circle - the souls of unbaptized babies and righteous pagans - are spared from torment). Among the souls that Dante met and entered into conversation with him, there are those familiar to him personally and others known to everyone - characters from ancient history and myths or heroes of our time. In the Divine Comedy they are not turned into direct and flat illustrations of their sins; the evil for which they are condemned is difficult to combine with their human essence, sometimes not devoid of nobility and greatness of spirit (among the most famous episodes of this kind are meetings with Paolo and Francesca in the circle of voluptuaries, with Farinata degli Uberti in the circle of heretics, with Brunetto Latini in circle of rapists, with Ulysses in the circle of deceivers, with Ugolino in the circle of traitors). Purgatory is a huge mountain in the middle of an uninhabited, occupied ocean southern hemisphere, it is divided by ledges into seven circles, where the souls of the dead atone for the sins of pride, envy, anger, despondency, stinginess and extravagance, gluttony, and voluptuousness. After each of the circles, one of the seven signs of sin inscribed by the gatekeeper angel is erased from the forehead of Dante (and any of the souls of purgatory) - in this part of the “Comedy” it is felt more acutely than in others that Dante’s path is not only educational for him , but also redemptive. At the top of the mountain, in the earthly paradise, Dante meets Beatrice (symbolizing divine revelation) and parts with Virgil; here Dante fully realizes his personal guilt and is completely cleared of it. Together with Beatrice, he ascends to heaven, in each of the eight heavens surrounding the earth (seven planetary and eighth starry) he becomes acquainted with a certain category of blessed souls and strengthens in faith and knowledge. In the ninth, the sky of the Prime Mover, and in the Empyrean, where Beatrice is replaced by St. Bernard, he is awarded initiation into the secrets of the trinity and the incarnation. Both plans of the poem finally come together, in one of which the path of man to truth and goodness is presented through the abyss of sin, despair and doubt, in the other - the path of history, which has approached the final frontier and is opening towards a new era. And The Divine Comedy itself, being a kind of synthesis of medieval culture, turns out to be its final work.