3. An Interpolated Episode: Who Was Dante?

Dante (in red) by perhaps Giotto or one of his students, in the Bargello in Florence, Italy.

Join me as I delve into the life of the man who imagined and wrote this incredible walk across the known universe, now called “The Divine Comedy” (although he only ever called it “Comedy”).

We’ll touch on the historical context of the poem around 1300 CE. We’ll go further back to the early 1200s, to the struggles among the Holy Roman Empire, the Papal See, and the French crown for control of not only Florence but a big swath of the Italian peninsula. We’ll bring that history up to our poet’s birth and on to his death in 1321.

FOR MORE STUDY

A Journaling Prompt:

What is the the most important cultural or historical event that has shaped your life? You may jump to an answer—if you’re my age, you might say “The Cold War”—but sit back and think about this question for a moment. Although I hid under my desk in grade school during nuclear bomb drills, I’m not sure that historical rubric is the most important what it comes to the shape of my life. Don’t think about your personal traumas. Instead, think and journal about what cultural, political, or historical things may have happened outside your story to shape it . . . or even to form the traumas it includes.