BIOGRAPHY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI

(From Paget Toynbee's Dictionary)

http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/biography.html
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 (probably in the latter part of May),
in the quarter of San Martino al Vescovo. Judging from his allusions in the D. C. and
from the position of their house in the heart of the city, the Alighieri would seem to
have been a family of modest means. They belonged to the Guelph party; the poet has
Farinata affirm that D.'s ancestors were fierce adversaries of the Ghibellines and twice
suffered exile in consequence; but no mention of his maggiori appears anywhere in
the records of those struggles. Indeed, nothing is known of any of D.'s ancestors
further back than his great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, who (probably) was
knighted by the Emperor Conrad III, as he himself relates ([Par. xv. 139-141])
[Cacciaguida: Currado_1]. D.'s father and greatgrandfather were both named
Alighiero, this name being derived from Cacciaguida's wife, Aldighiera degli
Aldighieri [Alighieri]. His father, who may have been a judge and a notary, married
twice, D. being the son of his first wife, Bella; by his second wife, Lapa, he had
another son, Francesco, and a daughter, Tana. The family of D.'s mother is not known;
it has been conjectured that she was the daughter of Durante di Scolaio degli Abbati,
in which case D.'s Christian name was probably derived from his maternal
grandfather. D. himself married (c. 1283) Gemma di Manetto Donati, by whom he
had three children, two sons, Pietro and Jacopo (both of whom wrote commentaries
on the D.C.) and a daughter Antonia, probably to be identified with a Sister Beatrice,
a nun in the convent of Santo Stefano degli Olivi at Ravenna; and it is possible that
one who appears as a witness in a document of Oct. 21, 1308 in Lucca as Johannes
filius Dantis Alagherii de Florentia was their brother. [Table XXII.] When D. was
exiled from Florence, Gemma and his children did not accompany him, and it is
probable that he never saw Gemma again; he makes no mention of her in any of his
works. There is no evidence to support the conjecture that he lived on bad terms with
Gemma while they were together.
Little is known of D.'s early years, beyond the episode of his love, at the age of 9,
for Beatrice, commonly supposed to be Beatrice Portinari (d. 1290), the story of
which is told in the Vita Nuova [Beatrice_1]. The statements of the old biographers
that D.'s 'master' (in the ordinary sense of the word) was Brunetto Latini (who was
well over 50 when D. was born), and that he studied before the year 1300 at Bologna
and Padua, have little or no evidence to support them. He is said, on doubtful
authority, to have fought on the Guelph side at the battle of Campaldino (June 11,
1289) [Campaldino]. He himself records ([Inf. xxi. 94-96]) that he was present
(probably as a spectator) at the capitulation of the Pisan garrison of Caprona two
months later. [Caprona].
Since no one could participate in the government of Florence (certain offices
excepted) without belonging to one of the arti or guilds, D. enrolled himself (probably
in the late summer of 1295, but certainly before Nov. 1) in the Guild of Physicians
and Apothecaries (Arte dei Medeci e Speziali). On July 6, 1295, he gave his opinion

as to certain proposed modifications of the 'Ordinamenti di Giustizia' [Giano della

Bella]: on Dec. 14 of the same year he took part in the bimonthly election of priors;
from May to Sept. 1296 he was a member of the Consiglio dei Cento, and in 1297
served on another council, and contnued to have a role in the government of the city
from July 1298 to Feb. 1301. In the spring of 1300, he went as ambassador to San
Gimignano, where he delivered a speech in discharge of his office on May 7; and that
same year he was elected to serve as one of the priors, for the two months from June
15 to Aug. 15, this being one of the highest offices in the Republic of Florence.
During his priorate it was decided to banish from Florence the leaders of the Neri and
Bianchi factions, among the latter being D.'s friend, Guido Cavalcanti [Cavalcanti,
Guido]. At this time the city was in a state of ferment, owing to the feuds between
these two factions, the former of whom, the Neri, were the partisans of Boniface VIII,
and were clamouring for Charles of Valois as his representative, while the Bianchi, to
which faction D. belonged, were bitteriy opposed both to Boniface and to Charles. In
the midst of these troubles we find D. (who had voted, April 13, 1301, in the
Consiglio delle Capitudini delle Dodici Arti Maggiori) entrusted with the charge
(April 28, 1301) of superintending the works on the street of San Procolo; and from
April to Sept. of that year he again served on the Consiglio dei Cento. In Oct. 1301, in
order to appeal for a change in papal policy towards the city and to protest the
machinations of the Neri, the Bianchi sent an embassy to Rome, of which, according
to Dino Compagni (ii. 25), D. was a member. During their absence, however, Charles
of Valois entered Florence (Nov. 1, 1301); and, soon after, the podest Canto de'
Gabrielli of Gubbio, pronounced a sentence, under date Jan. 27, 1301/2, against D.
and others, who had been summoned and had failed to appear, on a charge of
pecuniary malversation in office and of having conspired against the pope, and the
admission into the city of his representative, Charles of Valois, and against the peace
of the city of Florence, and of the Guelph party (the penalty being a fine of 5,000
florins and restitution of the monies illegally exacted; payment was to be made within
three days of the promulgation of the sentence, in default of which all goods were to
be forfeited and destroyed). In addition to the fine the delinquents were sentenced to
banishment from Tuscany for two years, and to perpetual deprivation from office in
the Commonwealth of Florence, their names to that end being recorded in the book of
the Statutes of the People, as peculators and malversators in office:
Hec sunt condempnationes sive condempnationum sententie facte, late et
promulgate per nobilem et potentem militem d. Cantem de Gabriellibus de Eugubio,
honorabilem potestatem civitatis Florentie, super infrascriptis excessibus et delictis
contra infrascriptos homines et personas, . . . D. Palmerium de Altovitis de sextu
Burgi
Dante Alleghieri de sextu Sancti Petri Maioris Lippum Becche de sextu Ultrarni
Orlanduccium Orlandi de sextu porte Domus, contra quos processum est per
inquisitionem ex offitio nostro et curie nostre factam super eo et ex eo, quod ad aures
nostras et curie nostre notitiam, fama publica referente, pervenit, quod predicti, dum
ipsi vel aliquis eorum existentes essent in offitio prioratus vel non existentes vel ipso
offitio prioratus deposito, temporibus in inquisitione contentis, commiserunt per se vel

alium baractarias, lucra illicita, iniquas extorsiones in pecunia vel in rebus. . . .Et quod
commiserint vel commicti fecerint fraudem vel baractariam in pecunia vel rebus
comunis Florentie, vel quod darentur sive expenderentur contra summnum pontificem
et d. Karolum pro resistentia sui adventus vel contra statum pacificum civitatis
Florentie et partis guelforum. . . .Qui d. Palmerius
Dante Orlanduccius et Lippus citati et requisiti fuerunt legiptime per nuntios
comunis Florentie, ut certo termino, iam elapso, coram nobis et nostra curia
comparere deberent ac venire ipsi et quilibet ipsorum ad parendum mandatis nostris et
ad se defendendum et excusandum ab inquisitione premissa, et non venerunt, . . .
Idcirco ipsos d. Palmerium, Dante, Orlanduccium et Lippum, et ipsorum quemlibet, ut
sate messis iuxta qualitatem seminis fructum percipiant, et iuxta merita commissa per
ipsos dignis meritorum retributionibus munerentur, propter ipsorum contumaciam
habitos pro confessis, secundum formam iuris, statutorum comunis et populi civitatis
Florentie, ordinamentorum iustitie, reformationum, et ex vigore nostri arbitrii, in libr.
quinque milibus flor. par. pro quolibet, . . . et quod restituant extorta inlicite
probantibus illud legiptime; et quod, si non solverint condempnationem infra tertiam
diem, a die sententie computandam, omnia bona talis non solventis publicentur,
vastentur et destruantur, et vastata et destructa remaneant in comuni; et si solverint
condempnationem predictam ipsi vel ipsorum aliquis, [talis solvens] nicchilominus
stare debeat extra provinciam Tuscie ad confines duobus annis; et ut predictorum d.
Palmerii, Dante, Lippi et Orlanduccii perpetua fiat memoria, eorum nomina scribantur
in statutis populi; et tamquam falsarii et baracterii nullo tempore possint habere
aliquod offitium vel benefitium pro comuni vel a comuni Florentie in civitate,
comitatu vel districtu vel alibi, sive condempnationem solverint sive non; in hiis
scriptis sententialiter condempnamus. Computato bampno in condempnatione
presenti. (R. Piattoli, CDD, pp. 103-107.)
This sentence having been disregarded, on March 10 in the same year (1302) a
second severer sentence was pronounced against D., Palmieri, Lippo, and
Orlanduccio, together with eleven others, condemning them to be burned alive should
they at any time fall into the hands of the Republic: '. . . si quis predictorum ullo
tempore in fortiam dicti comunis pervenerit, talis perveniens ingne comburatur sic
quod moriatur, . . .' (R. Piattoli, CDD, p. 109).
Of D.'s movements from this time on, little is known for certain. In 1302 he was at
San Godenzo in the Mugello at a meeting of the Bianchi, and the next year at Forl,
where he served at one point as an aide to Scarpetta Ordelaffi.
On July 20, 1304, the exiled Bianchi, having been disappointed in their hopes of a
peaceable return to Florence, through the mediation of the Cardinal Niccol da Prato,
the legate of Benedict XI, made an abortive attempt, in concert with the Pistoians, to
effect an entry into the city. From this attempt D. seems to have held aloof, and about
this time, dissatisfied with the proceedings of his companions in exile, la compagnia
malvagia e scempia ([Par. xvii. 62]), he separated himself from them, and took refuge
at Verona, with one of the Scaligers (probably Bartolomeo della Scala), but did not
remain there long. [Lombardo_1.]
It is impossible to follow D.'s wanderings, which, as he records in a passage in the

Convivio (quoted above), led him almost everywhere in Italy. We know that on Oct. 6,
1306, he was at Sarzana in Lunigiana as agent for the Malaspini, his host on this
occasion being Franceschino Malaspina [Malaspina]. [See R. Piattoli, CDD, pp. 116117.] How long he remained in Lunigiana (some say not beyond the summer of
1307), and whether, as some of the biographers maintain, he went thence to the
Casentino and Forl, and returned again to Lunigiana on his way to Paris, it is difficult
to decide. That he visited Paris during his exile we learn from the explicit statements
of Villani:
. . . colla detta parte bianca fu cacciato e sbandito di Firenze, e andossene allo
studio a Bologna, e poi a Parigi. ({Villani. ix. 136}.)
and Boccaccio:
. . . poi ch' egli vide da ogni parte chiudersi la via alla tornata, e pi di d in d
divenire vana la sua speranza, non solamente Toscana, ma tutta Italia abbandonata,
passati i monti che quella dividono dalle province di Gallia, come pot, se n'and a
Parigi. (Vita di Dante.)
From a phrase of Boccaccio in a Latin poem addressed to Petrarch, in which he
mentions 'Parisios demum extremosque Britannos' among the places visited by D., it
has been assumed that D. went to England and Giovanni Serravalle, in a commentary
on the D. C. written at the beginning of cent. xv, goes the length of stating that he
studied at Oxford:
Dilexit theologiam sacram, in qua diu studuit tam in Oxoniis in regno Anglie,
quam Parisius in regno Francie.
In the absence, however, of more trustworthy evidence, the fact of this alleged
visit to England must be regarded as extremely doubtful.
It seems certain that he was in Italy between Sept. 1310, and Jan. 1310/11, when
he wrote the letter Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile ({Epist. v}) to the princes and
peoples of Italy on the advent of the Emperor Henry VII into Italy; and he was
undoubtedly in Tuscany (probably as the guest of Guido Novello of Battifolle at
Poppi) when his terrible Letter to the Florentines ({Epist. vi}), headed Dantes
Alagherii florentinus et exul inmeritus scelestissimis Florentinis intrinsecis, and dated
Scriptum pridie Kalendas Apriles in finibus Tuscie sub fontem Sarni, faustissimi
cursus Henrici Cesaris ad Ytaliam anno primo (i.e. Mar. 31, 1311), was written, as
well as that dated Scriptum in Tuscia sub fonte Sarni xv. Kalendas Maias, divi Henrici
faustissimi cursus ad Ytaliam anno primo (i.e. April 16, 1311), and addressed to the
emperor himself ({Epist. vii}), who was at the time besieging Cremona, urging him to
crush first the viper Florence, as the root of all the evils of Italy.
In this same year (Sept. 2) was issued the decree, known as the 'Riforma di Messer
Baldo d'Aguglione', granting pardon to a portion of the Florentine exiles, but
expressly excepting certain others, D. (specifically, D.'s children) among them, by
name; his exclusion was doubtless due to the above letters and to his active sympathy
with the imperial cause [Aguglione]. [See R. Piattoli, CDD, pp. 132-144.] From this
time until nearly a year after the death of Henry VII at Buonconvento (Aug. 24,
1313), by which D.'s last hope of return to Florence was extinguished, nothing
whatever is known of his movements. Some time after June 14, 1314, when the city of

Lucca fell into the hands of the Ghibelline captain, Uguccione della Faggiuola
({Villani. ix. 60}), D. appears to have been there; and it may have been at this time
that he was shown hospitality by a certain Lucchese lady named Gentucca, but about
the nature of his relations with her we have no means of knowing [Gentucca]. The
supposition that he subsequently stayed at Gubbio, Fonte Avellana, and Udine, has
little evidence to support it.
After the success of the Ghibellines at Montecatini (Aug. 29, 1315), when under
the leadership of Uguccione della Faggiuola they completely defeated the Florentines
and Tuscan Guelphs ({Villani. ix. 71, 72}), a last sentence was pronounced against D.,
his sons being included in the sentence. By this decree, which is dated Nov. 6, 1315,
he and those named with him are branded as Ghibellines and rebels, and condemned,
if captured, to be beheaded on the place of public execution:
Nos Ranierius vicarius antedictus, pro tribunali sedentes ad bancum iuris in
pallatio comunis Florentie, hec banna et exbandimenta sententialiter damus et
proferrimus in hiis scriptis prout inferius continetur:
De sextu porte Sancti Petri civitatis Florentie. Omnes de domo de Portinariis,
exceptis Manetto, Folchetto . . . et omnes de domo de Giochis, excepto Lanberto Lapi
et Philippo Gherardi . . . Dantem Adhegherii et ff., contra quos omnes et singulos
superius nominatos . . . processimus per inquisitionem, quod . . . tanquam ghibellinos
et rebelles comunis et populi civitatis Florentie et status partis guelfe, spreverunt
nostra banna et precepta, . . . etiam multa alia et diversa malleficia commiserunt et
perpetraverunt contra bonum statum comunis Florentie et partis guelfe, . . . si quo
tempore ipsi vel aliquis predictorum, ut dictum est, in nostram vel comunis Florentie
fortiam devenerint, . . . ducantur ad locum iustitie, et ibi eisdem capud a spatulis
amputetur ita quod penutus moriantur. (R. Piattoli, CDD, pp. 155-156.)
Not long after this, in 1316, Count Guido of Battifolle, King Robert's vicar in
Florence, proclaimed an amnesty, and granted permission to the exiles to return to
Florence under certain degrading conditions, viz. the payment of a fine, and the
performance of penance in the Baptistery. This offer, of which many appear to have
availed themselves, was scornfully rejected by D., who wrote to a friend in Florence:
Is this, then, the glorious recall of Dante Alighieri to his native city, after the
miseries of nearly fifteen years of exile? . . . No! This is not the way for me to return
to my country. If another can be found that does not derogate from the fame and
honour of Dante, that will I take with no lagging steps. But if by no such way
Florence may be entered, then will I enter Florence never. What! Can I not
everywhere behold the sun and stars? Can I not under any sky meditate on the most
precious truths, without first rendering myself inglorious, nay ignominius, in the eyes
of the people and city of Florence? At least bread will not fail me! ({Epist. xii. 5-9.})
After paying a second visit to Verona, where he was the guest of Can Grande (at
what particular time it is impossible to decide), D., on the invitation of Guido Novello
da Polenta, went to Ravenna. In the spring of 1321 Guido sent him on an embassy to
Venice, where he appears to have fallen ill; on his return to Ravenna he grew worse,
and died on Sept. 14 (so Boccaccio, on [Inf. i. 1]; Villani says, 'del mese di Luglio',
{Villani. ix. 136}) of that year, aged 56 years and 4 months. At Ravenna he was

buried, and there 'by the upbraiding shore' his remains still rest, every effort on the
part of the Florentines to secure 'the metaphorical ashes of the man of whom she had
threatened to make literal cinders if she could catch him alive' having been in vain.
The following inscription, said to have heen composed by D. himself on his deathbed,
is placed upon the sarcophagus which now holds his remains:
Iura Monarchiae, Superos, Phlegethonta Lacusque
lustrando cecini, voluerunt Fata quousque:
sed quia pars cessit melioribus hospita castris,
auctoremque suum petiit felicior astris,
hic clauldor Dantes, patriis extorris ab oris
quem genuit parvi Florentia mater amoris.
His contemporary, Giovanni Villani, gives the following account of him:
Questo Dante fu onorevole e antico cittadino di Firenze di porta san Piero, e
nostro vicino; e 'l suo esilio di Firenze fu per cagione che quando messer Carlo di
Valos della casa di Francia venne in Firenze l'anno 1301, e caccionne la parte bianca. .
. .Il detto Dante era de' maggiori governatori della nostra citt, e di quella parte, bene
che fosse guelfo; e per sanza altra colpa colla detta parte bianca fu cacciato e
sbandito di Firenze, e andossene allo studio a Bologna, e poi a Parigi, e in pi parti del
mondo. Questi fu grande letterato quasi in ogni scienza, tutto fosse laico, fu sommo
poeta e filosafo, e rettorico perfetto tanto in dittare e versificare, come in aringa
parlare nobilissimo dicitore, in rima sommo, col pi pulito e bello stile che mai fosse
in nostra lingua infino al suo tempo e pi innanzi. . . .Questo Dante per lo suo savere
fu alquanto presuntuoso e schifo e isdegnoso, e quasi a guisa di filosafo mal grazioso
non bene sapea conversare co' laici; ma per l'altre sue virtudi e scienza e valore di
tanto cittadino, ne pare che si convenga di dargli perpetua memoria in questa nostra
cronica, con tutto che le sue nobili opere lasciateci in iscrittura facciano di lui vero
testimonio e onorabile fama alla nostra cittade. ({Villani. ix. 136}.)
His person and habits are thus described by Boccaccio:
Fu adunque questo nostro poeta di mediocre statura, e poi che alla matura et fu
pervenuto, and alquanto curvetto, ed era il suo andare grave e mansueto, di
onestissimi panni sempre vestito in quello abito ch'era alla sua maturit convenevole.
Il suo volto fu lungo, e il naso aquilino, e gli occhi anzi grossi che piccioli, le mascelle
grandi, e dal labbro di sotto era quel di sopra avanzato; e il colore era bruno, e i
capelli e la barba spessi, neri e crespi, e sempre nella faccia maninconico e pensoso. . .
.
Ne' costumi domestichi e pubblici mirabilmente fu ordinato e composto, e in tutti
pi che alcun altro cortese e civile. Nel cibo e nel poto fu modestissimo. . . .
Niuno altro fu pi vigilante di lui e negli studi e in qualunque altra sollecitudine il
pugnesse. . . .
Rade volte, se non domandato, parlava, e quelle pensatamente e con voce
conveniente alla materia di che diceva; non pertanto, laddove si richiedeva,
eloquentissimo fu e facondo, e con ottima e pronta prolazione.
Sommamente si dilett in suoni e in canti nella sua giovanezza, e a ciascuno che a
que' tempi era ottimo cantatore o sonatore fu amico e ebbe sua usanza. . . .

Dilettossi d'essere solitario e rimoto dalle genti, accioch le sue contemplazioni

non gli fossero interrotte. . . .
Ne' suoi studi fu assiduissimo, quanto a quel tempo che ad essi si disponea. . . .
Fu ancora questo poeta di maravigliosa capacit, e di memoria fermissima e di
perspicace intelletto. . . .
Vaghissimo fu e d'onore e di pompa e per avventura pi che alla sua inclita virt
non si sarebbe richiesto. (Vita di Dante.)
Works. Besides the Divina Commedia [Comedia], D. wrote in Italian the Vita
Nuova, which tells the story of his love for Beatrice [Vita Nuova]; the Convivio
(incomplete), a philosophical commentary on three of his canzoni [Convivio]; and a
number of lyrical poems, which have been collected together under the title of Rime
or Canzoniere [Canzoniere].
In Latin he wrote the De vulgari eloquentia (incomplete), a treatise in two books
on Italian as a literary language [Eloquentia, De Vulgari]; the Monarchia, a treatise in
three books on the nature and necessity of a universal temporal monarchy, coexistent
with the spiritual sovereignty of the pope [Monarchia]; sundry Epistles, chiefly
political [Epistole dantesche]; and two Eclogues [Egloghe_2]. He is also credited with
the authorship of the Questio de aqua et terra, a scientific inquiry as to the relative
levels of land and water on the surface of the globe [Questio de Aqua et Terra].
[For the biography of D., and further bibliography, see M.Barbi, Dante (Firenze,
1940); N. Zingarelli, La vita, i tempi e le opere di Dante (Milano, 1931), 2 vols.; and
R. Piattoli, CDD, which contains all the known documents, from 1189 to 1371, in
chronological order, from archives or other sources concerning the descendants of
Cacciaguida.]