1871 Dante Alighieri Divine Comedy
Divina Commedia Inferno Purgatory German 2v
A beautiful two
volume set of Dante’s Divine Comedy translated into German by Friedrich Notter.
Durante degli Alighieri (c. 1265 – 1321),
was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally
called Comedìa (modern Italian: Commedia) and later christened Divina by
Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the
Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.
The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by
Dante Alighieri between c. 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as
one of the greatest works of world literature.
Main author: Dante Alighieri; Friedrich Notter (illust.)
Title: Dante Alighieri's Göttliche Komödie
Published: Stuttgart,
P. Neff, [1871]
Language: German
Notes & contents:
·
Two
volumes
·
Decorative
green binding, gold-gilt on covers and binding
FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE
Wear:
wear as seen in photos
Binding:
tight and secure binding
Pages:
complete with all XII + 582 + VII + 784 pages; plus indexes, prefaces, and such
Publisher:
Stuttgart, P. Neff, [1871]
Size:
~6.5in X 4.5in (16.5cm x 12cm)
FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE
Shipping:
Very Fast. Very Safe. Free Shipping Worldwide.
Satisfaction Guarantee:
Customer satisfaction is our first priority. Notify us
within 7 days of receiving your item and we will offer a full refund guarantee
without reservation.
$299
Durante degli Alighieri
(Italian: [duˈrante deʎʎ aliˈɡjɛːri]), simply called Dante (Italian: [ˈdante],
UK /ˈdænti/, US /ˈdɑːnteɪ/; c. 1265 – 1321), was a major Italian poet of the
Late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa (modern Italian:
Commedia) and later christened Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest
literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world
literature.[1]
In the late Middle Ages, the
overwhelming majority of poetry was written in Latin, and therefore accessible
only to affluent and educated audiences. In De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence
in the Vernacular), however, Dante defended use of the vernacular in
literature. He himself would even write in the Tuscan dialect for works such as
The New Life (1295) and the aforementioned Divine Comedy; this choice, although
highly unorthodox, set a hugely important precedent that later Italian writers
such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would follow. As a result, Dante played an
instrumental role in establishing the national language of Italy. Dante's
significance also extends past his home country; his depictions of Hell,
Purgatory, and Heaven have provided inspiration for a large body of Western
art, and are cited as an influence on the works of John Milton, Geoffrey
Chaucer and Lord Alfred Tennyson, among many others. In addition, the first use
of the interlocking three-line rhyme scheme, or the terza rima, is attributed
to him.
Dante has been called
"the Father of the Italian language" and the second greatest Western
author after William Shakespeare.[2] In Italy, Dante is often referred to as il
Sommo Poeta ("the Supreme Poet") and il Poeta; he, Petrarch, and
Boccaccio are also called "the three fountains" or "the three
crowns".
Contents [hide]
1 Life
1.1 Early life
1.2 Education and poetry
1.3 Florence and politics
1.4 Exile and death
1.5 Legacy
2 Works
3 Notes
4 References
5 External links
Life[edit]
Early life[edit]
Dante was born in Florence,
Republic of Florence, present-day Italy. The exact date of his birth is
unknown, although it is generally believed to be around 1265. This can be
deduced from autobiographic allusions in the Divine Comedy. Its first section,
the Inferno, begins, "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita"
("Midway upon the journey of our life"), implying that Dante was
around 35 years old, since the average lifespan according to the Bible (Psalm
89:10, Vulgate) is 70 years; and since his imaginary travel to the nether world
took place in 1300, he was most probably born around 1265. Some verses of the
Paradiso section of the Divine Comedy also provide a possible clue that he was
born under the sign of Gemini: "As I revolved with the eternal twins, I
saw revealed, from hills to river outlets, the threshing-floor that makes us so
ferocious" (XXII 151–154). In 1265, the sun was in Gemini between approximately
May 11 and June 11.[3]
Portrait of Dante, from a
fresco in the Palazzo dei Giudici, Florence
Dante claimed that his family
descended from the ancient Romans (Inferno, XV, 76), but the earliest relative
he could mention by name was Cacciaguida degli Elisei (Paradiso, XV, 135), born
no earlier than about 1100. Dante's father, Alaghiero[4] or Alighiero di
Bellincione, was a White Guelph who suffered no reprisals after the Ghibellines
won the Battle of Montaperti in the middle of the 13th century. This suggests
that Alighiero or his family may have enjoyed some protective prestige and
status, although some suggest that the politically inactive Alighiero was of
such low standing that he was not considered worth exiling.[5]
Dante's family had loyalties
to the Guelphs, a political alliance that supported the Papacy and which was
involved in complex opposition to the Ghibellines, who were backed by the Holy
Roman Emperor. The poet's mother was Bella, likely a member of the Abati
family.[4] She died when Dante was not yet ten years old, and Alighiero soon
married again, to Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi. It is uncertain whether he
really married her, since widowers were socially limited in such matters, but
this woman definitely bore him two children, Dante's half-brother Francesco and
half-sister Tana (Gaetana). When Dante was 12, he was promised in marriage to
Gemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati, member of the powerful
Donati family.[4] Contracting marriages at this early age was quite common and
involved a formal ceremony, including contracts signed before a notary. But by
this time Dante had fallen in love with another, Beatrice Portinari (known also
as Bice), whom he first met when he was only nine. Years after his marriage to
Gemma he claims to have met Beatrice again; he wrote several sonnets to
Beatrice but never mentioned Gemma in any of his poems. The exact date of his
marriage is not known: the only certain information is that, before his exile
in 1301, he had three children (Pietro, Jacopo and Antonia).[4]
Dante in Verona, by Antonio
Cotti
Dante fought with the Guelph
cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289).[6] This victory brought
about a reformation of the Florentine constitution. To take any part in public
life, one had to enroll in one of the city's many commercial or artisan guilds,
so Dante entered the Physicians' and Apothecaries' Guild. In the following
years, his name is occasionally recorded as speaking or voting in the various
councils of the republic. A substantial portion of minutes from such meetings
in the years 1298–1300 was lost during World War II, however, so the true
extent of Dante's participation in the city's councils is uncertain.
Gemma bore Dante several
children. Although several others subsequently claimed to be his offspring, it
is likely that only Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia were his actual
children. Antonia later became a nun, taking the name Sister Beatrice.
Education and poetry[edit]
This section needs additional
citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding
citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Not much is known about
Dante's education; he presumably studied at home or in a chapter school
attached to a church or monastery in Florence. It is known that he studied
Tuscan poetry and that he admired the compositions of the Bolognese poet Guido
Guinizelli—whom in Purgatorio XXVI he characterized as his "father"—at
a time when the Sicilian school (Scuola poetica Siciliana), a cultural group
from Sicily, was becoming known in Tuscany. His interests brought him to
discover the Provençal poetry of the troubadours, such as Arnaut Daniel, and
the Latin writers of classical antiquity, including Cicero, Ovid and especially
Virgil.
Statue of Dante at the
Uffizi, Florence
Dante said he first met
Beatrice Portinari, daughter of Folco Portinari, at age nine, and claimed to
have fallen in love with her "at first sight", apparently without
even talking with her. He saw her frequently after age 18, often exchanging
greetings in the street, but never knew her well. In effect, he set an example
of so-called courtly love, a phenomenon developed in French and Provençal
poetry of prior centuries. Dante's experience of such love was typical, but his
expression of it was unique. It was in the name of this love that Dante left
his imprint on the dolce stil novo (sweet new style, a term which Dante himself
coined), and he would join other contemporary poets and writers in exploring
never-before-emphasized aspects of love (Amore). Love for Beatrice (as Petrarch
would show for Laura somewhat differently) would be his reason for poetry and
for living, together with political passions. In many of his poems, she is
depicted as semi-divine, watching over him constantly and providing spiritual
instruction, sometimes harshly. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante sought refuge
in Latin literature. The Convivio chronicles his having read Boethius's De consolatione
philosophiae and Cicero's De Amicitia. He then dedicated himself to
philosophical studies at religious schools like the Dominican one in Santa
Maria Novella. He took part in the disputes that the two principal mendicant
orders (Franciscan and Dominican) publicly or indirectly held in Florence, the
former explaining the doctrines of the mystics and of St. Bonaventure, the
latter expounding on the theories of St. Thomas Aquinas.
At 18, Dante met Guido
Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino da Pistoia and soon after Brunetto Latini;
together they became the leaders of the dolce stil novo. Brunetto later
received special mention in the Divine Comedy (Inferno, XV, 28) for what he had
taught Dante: Nor speaking less on that account I go With Ser Brunetto, and I ask
who are his most known and most eminent companions. Some fifty poetical
commentaries by Dante are known (the so-called Rime, rhymes), others being
included in the later Vita Nuova and Convivio. Other studies are reported, or
deduced from Vita Nuova or the Comedy, regarding painting and music.
Illustration for Purgatory
(Purgatorio) by Doré
Illustration for Paradiso (of
The Divine Comedy) by Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré
Illustration for Paradiso (of
The Divine Comedy) by Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré
Florence and politics[edit]
This section needs additional
citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding
citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Further information: Guelphs
and Ghibellines
Dante, like most Florentines
of his day, was embroiled in the Guelph–Ghibelline conflict. He fought in the
Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289), with the Florentine Guelphs against
Arezzo Ghibellines;[6][7] then in 1294 he was among the escorts of Charles
Martel of Anjou (grandson of Charles I of Naples, more commonly called Charles
of Anjou) while he was in Florence. To further his political career, he became
a pharmacist. He did not intend to practice as one, but a law issued in 1295
required nobles aspiring to public office to be enrolled in one of the
Corporazioni delle Arti e dei Mestieri, so Dante obtained admission to the
Apothecaries' Guild. This profession was not inappropriate, since at that time
books were sold from apothecaries' shops. As a politician he accomplished
little, but held various offices over some years in a city rife with political
unrest.
Dante Alighieri, detail from
Luca Signorelli's fresco, Chapel of San Brizio, Orvieto Cathedral
After defeating the
Ghibellines, the Guelphs divided into two factions: the White Guelphs (Guelfi
Bianchi)—Dante's party, led by Vieri dei Cerchi—and the Black Guelphs (Guelfi
Neri), led by Corso Donati. Although the split was along family lines at first,
ideological differences arose based on opposing views of the papal role in
Florentine affairs, with the Blacks supporting the Pope and the Whites wanting
more freedom from Rome. The Whites took power first and expelled the Blacks. In
response, Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of Florence. In
1301, Charles of Valois, brother of King Philip IV of France, was expected to
visit Florence because the Pope had appointed him peacemaker for Tuscany. But
the city's government had treated the Pope's ambassadors badly a few weeks
before, seeking independence from papal influence. It was believed that Charles
had received other unofficial instructions, so the council sent a delegation to
Rome to ascertain the Pope's intentions. Dante was one of the delegates.
Exile and death[edit]
Pope Boniface quickly
dismissed the other delegates and asked Dante alone to remain in Rome. At the
same time (November 1, 1301), Charles of Valois entered Florence with the Black
Guelphs, who in the next six days destroyed much of the city and killed many of
their enemies. A new Black Guelph government was installed, and Cante de'
Gabrielli da Gubbio was appointed podestà of the city. In March 1302, Dante, a
White Guelph by affiliation, along with the Gherardini family, was condemned to
exile for two years and ordered to pay a large fine.[8] Dante was accused of
corruption and financial wrongdoing by the Black Guelphs for the time that
Dante was serving as city prior (Florence's highest position) for two months in
1300.[9] The poet was still in Rome in 1302 where the Pope, who had backed the
Black Guelphs, had "suggested" that Dante stay. Florence under the
Black Guelphs therefore considered Dante an absconder.[10] Dante did not pay
the fine, in part because he believed he was not guilty and in part because all
his assets in Florence had been seized by the Black Guelphs. He was condemned
to perpetual exile; if he returned to Florence without paying the fine, he
could have been burned at the stake. (In June 2008, nearly seven centuries
after his death, the city council of Florence passed a motion rescinding
Dante's sentence.)[11]
A recreated death mask of
Dante Alighieri in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
He took part in several
attempts by the White Guelphs to regain power, but these failed due to
treachery. Dante, bitter at the treatment he received from his enemies, also
grew disgusted with the infighting and ineffectiveness of his erstwhile allies
and vowed to become a party of one. He went to Verona as a guest of Bartolomeo
I della Scala, then moved to Sarzana in Liguria. Later he is supposed to have
lived in Lucca with a woman called Gentucca, who made his stay comfortable (and
was later gratefully mentioned in Purgatorio, XXIV, 37). Some speculative
sources claim he visited Paris between 1308 and 1310, and other sources even
less trustworthy took him to Oxford: these claims, first occurring in
Boccaccio's book on Dante several decades after his death, seem inspired by
readers who were impressed with the poet's wide learning and erudition.
Evidently, Dante's command of philosophy and his literary interests deepened in
exile and when he was no longer busy with the day-to-day business of Florentine
domestic politics, and this is evidenced in his prose writings in this period,
but there is no real evidence that he ever left Italy. Dante's Immensa Dei
dilectione testante to Henry VII of Luxembourg confirms his residence
"beneath the springs of Arno, near Tuscany" in March 1311.
In 1310, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VII of Luxembourg marched into Italy at the head of 5,000 troops. Dante
saw in him a new Charlemagne who would restore the office of the Holy Roman
Emperor to its former glory and also retake Florence from the Black Guelphs. He
wrote to Henry and several Italian princes, demanding that they destroy the
Black Guelphs. Mixing religion and private concerns in his writings, he invoked
the worst anger of God against his city and suggested several particular
targets that were also his personal enemies. It was during this time that he
wrote De Monarchia, proposing a universal monarchy under Henry VII.
Statue of Dante in the Piazza
di Santa Croce in Florence, Enrico Pazzi, 1865
At some point during his
exile, he conceived of the Comedy, but the date is uncertain. The work is much
more assured and on a larger scale than anything he had produced in Florence;
it is likely he would have undertaken such a work only after he realized his
political ambitions, which had been central to him up to his banishment, had
been halted for some time, possibly forever. It is also noticeable that
Beatrice has returned to his imagination with renewed force and with a wider
meaning than in the Vita Nuova; in Convivio (written c.1304–07) he had declared
that the memory of this youthful romance belonged to the past.
An early outside indication
that the poem was under way is a notice by Francesco da Barberino, tucked into
his Documenti d'Amore (Lessons of Love), written probably in 1314 or early
1315. Speaking of Virgil, Francesco notes in appreciative words that Dante
followed the Roman classic in a poem called "Comedy" and that the
setting of this poem (or part of it) was the underworld; i.e., hell.[12] The
brief note gives no incontestable indication that he himself had seen or read
even the Inferno or that this part had been published at the time, but it
indicates composition was well under way and that the sketching of the poem
might have begun some years before. (It has been suggested that a knowledge of
Dante's work also underlies some of the illuminations in Francesco da
Barberino's earlier Officiolum [c. 1305–08], a manuscript that came to light
only in 2003.[13]) We know that the Inferno had been published by 1317; this is
established by quoted lines interspersed in the margins of contemporary dated
records from Bologna, but there is no certainty as to whether the three parts
of the poem were each published in full or, rather, a few cantos at a time.
Paradiso seems to have been published posthumously.
In Florence, Baldo
d'Aguglione pardoned most of the White Guelphs in exile and allowed them to
return. However, Dante had gone too far in his violent letters to Arrigo (Henry
VII) and his sentence was not revoked.
In 1312 Henry assaulted
Florence and defeated the Black Guelphs, but there is no evidence that Dante
was involved. Some say he refused to participate in the assault on his city by
a foreigner; others suggest that he had become unpopular with the White Guelphs,
too, and that any trace of his passage had carefully been removed. Henry VII
died (from a fever) in 1313, and with him any hope for Dante to see Florence
again. He returned to Verona, where Cangrande I della Scala allowed him to live
in certain security and, presumably, in a fair degree of prosperity. Cangrande
was admitted to Dante's Paradise (Paradiso, XVII, 76).
In 1315, Florence was forced
by Uguccione della Faggiuola (the military officer controlling the town) to
grant an amnesty to those in exile, including Dante. But for this, Florence
required public penance in addition to a heavy fine. Dante refused, preferring
to remain in exile. When Uguccione defeated Florence, Dante's death sentence
was commuted to house arrest on condition that he go to Florence to swear he
would never enter the town again. He refused to go, and his death sentence was
confirmed and extended to his sons. He still hoped late in life that he might
be invited back to Florence on honorable terms. For Dante, exile was nearly a
form of death, stripping him of much of his identity and his heritage. He
addressed the pain of exile in Paradiso, XVII (55–60), where Cacciaguida, his
great-great-grandfather, warns him what to expect:
Mural of Dante in the Uffizi
Gallery, by Andrea del Castagno, c. 1450
... Tu lascerai ogne cosa
diletta ... You shall leave
everything you love most:
più caramente; e questo è
quello strale this is the arrow
that the bow of exile
che l'arco de lo essilio pria
saetta. shoots first. You are to know
the bitter taste
Tu proverai sì come sa di
sale of others' bread, how salty
it is, and know
lo pane altrui, e come è duro
calle how hard a path it is for one who
goes
lo scendere e 'l salir per
l'altrui scale ... ascending
and descending others' stairs ...
As for the hope of returning
to Florence, he describes it as if he had already accepted its impossibility
(in Paradiso, XXV, 1–9):
Se mai continga che 'l poema
sacro If it ever comes to pass that the
sacred poem
al quale ha posto mano e
cielo e terra, to which both heaven
and earth have set their hand
sì che m'ha fatto per molti
anni macro, so as to have made me
lean for many years
vinca la crudeltà che fuor mi
serra should overcome the cruelty that
bars me
del bello ovile ov'io dormi'
agnello, from the fair sheepfold where I
slept as a lamb,
nimico ai lupi che li danno
guerra; an enemy to the wolves that make
war on it,
con altra voce omai, con
altro vello with another
voice now and other fleece
ritornerò poeta, e in sul
fonte I shall return a poet and
at the font
del mio battesmo prenderò 'l
cappello ... of my baptism take
the laurel crown ...
Alighieri accepted Prince Guido Novello da Polenta's invitation to Ravenna in 1318. He finished Paradiso, and died in 1321 (aged 56) while returning to Ravenna from a diplomatic mission to Venice, possibly of malaria contracted there. He was buried in Ravenna at the Church of San Pier Maggiore (later called San Francesco). Bernardo Bembo, praetor of Venice, erected a tomb for him in 1483.