3. An Interpolated Episode: Who Was Dante?
Dante (in red) by perhaps Giotto or one of his students, in the Bargello in Florence, Italy.
Who was Dante?
Actually, that's a pair of questions masquerading as one. On the one hand, how did this hard-working if not particularly brilliant writer and would-be politician from a rather lackluster family end up writing COMEDY, arguably the greatest work of Western literature?
And on the other hand, when was Dante? What about his upbringing, his marriage, his tragic troubles, and the times he lived in? Let’s reach back before his birth, to the early 1200s, and bring his story up to and just beyond his death in 1321.
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The segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[00:53] Dante is a nickname!
[01:56] Dante's birth.
[04:10] Some historical context, starting in 1215 CE.
[07:44] Medieval clan warfare on the Italian peninsula.
[13:39] Dante's childhood and upbringing.
[14:45] Beatrice, the love of Dante's life.
[17:56] Dante's teacher (maybe): Brunetto Latini.
[19:46] Dante's political career.
[22:16] Dante on the run.
[26:15] The Avignon papacy.
[27:32] Dante's patrons and later life.
FOR MORE STUDY
The Names Of Some Historical Figures In This Episode:
Dante = Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri
Brunetto Latini, his alleged teacher
Beatrice "Bice" di Folco Portinari, his great love
Gemma Donati, his wife
Bartolomeo I della Scala, one of his first patrons
Cangrande I della Scala, perhaps his most important patron
Guido Novello (or Guido II) da Polenta, his last great patron
Pope Boniface VIII (born Benedetto Caetani), his arch nemesis
Pope Clement V (born Raymond Bertrand de Got), the pope who ushered the papacy to Avignon
Two Journaling Prompts:
If we have to accept Dante’s fence, what are the boundaries of your world? The answer may be partly geographical but it should also be deeply personal. When you imagine the world, how do you imagine it? Beautiful? Cruel? Or in some other way? What’s something you won’t do, something that lies outside of your fence? What would it take to get you across that fence to do whatever it is you say you won’t? Are there people in your life with different fences? How do you interact with these people? Do they challenge your fence?
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 experience is the most important to shape my life. Don’t think about your personal traumas. Instead, journal about what cultural, political, or historical things may have happened outside your story to shape it.