Christian Cyclopedia

(Durante; 1265–1321). It. poet. B. Florence; first sided, with his family, with the Guelphs, then assoc. with the Ghibellines, then broke with both; received good educ. typical of patrician youths in Florence; met Beatrice (possibly Bice Portinari; 1266–90) ca. 1274; memory of her became a semireligious, mystical longing that found mature expression in the (Divina) Commedia (three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso). Because of his involvement in pol. dissensions as adherent of the “White” party and opposition to Boniface VIII (see Popes, 12), Dante was accused of corrupt practices and hostility to the pope; banished 1302; spent rest of life wandering from one It. city to another (including Verona, Bologna, Padua, and Ravenna). His De Monarchia advocated secular monarchy to match spiritual monarchy of pope. Other works include Vita Nuova; Convivio; Rime (or Canzoniere, a collection of canzoni, ballate, and sonnets).

Le Opere di Dante, ed. M. Barbi et al., 2 vols. (Florence, 1921–22); Le Opere di Dante Alighieri, ed. E. Moore, rev. and reed. P. Toynbee, 4th ed. (Oxford, 1924); The World of Dante, eds. S. B. Chandler and J. A. Molarino (Toronto, 1966).