Dante and Beatrice PDF

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Essay about Dante and his love for Beatrice...

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Dante’s undivided love There are many love stories known around the world. From the middle ages to modern ones, some were more popular than others. For example Abelard and Heloise. Most of these stories that occurred in the past ended in tragedy, while others were successful. But the love story of Dante and Beatrice is quite different. The word love might catch you off guard, because the only love that is found in this story is that of Dante for Beatrice. You may think, “But how is this possible, for a person to love someone that does not love them back?”. Well, it is most definitely possible. Dante had this great love for Beatrice since the first time he met her. This love shaped him and his life for eternity. Dante, short for “Durante”, Alighieri was born somewhere in may/june 1265 in Florence. His parents were Alighiero di Bellincione Alighieri and Gabriella “Bella” degli Abati. His father was a moneylender just like his grandfather. But when Dante was only 6 years old, his mother died of an illness. If truth be told, it is highly possible that Dante had a younger sister, whose name is unknown. She supposedly cared for Dante when his mother had passed away. He saw her as a mother figure. After his mother’s death, his father married another woman named Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi. With Lapa, Dante’s father had two children named Francesco and Gaetana “Tana”. He died in 1283. Beatrice di Folco Portinari, also known as “Bice”, was the daughter of Folco Portinari, who was a respected citizen and wealthy banker in Florence. Dante and Beatrice met for the first time at a May Day party given by her father on the 1st of May 1274. Dante’s family and other neighbours were invited to the special gathering. Dante and his father went by themselves. At the time Dante was only 9 years old and Beatrice 8, but even so Dante was smitten to his core and completely captivated by her appearance. Beatrice wore a bright red dress and was rather quite shy. This was the moment Dante was lovestruck and spent his days awaiting for their next meeting. Dante and Beatrice were not only neighbors in the city, but also outside the walls of Florence. Both the Alighieri and the Portinari families had vacation villas, which were right next to each other. It was located near the hill of Fiesole. Their next meeting would be 9 years later. Dante spent a lot of his time walking through the streets of Florence hoping to see a glimpse of Beatrice again. This happened finally when they were both 18 years old. Beatrice was walking with two older women on the Lungarno street, parallel to the Arno river, when he saw her. She greeted him as she walked past, but he was too overwhelmed to say

anything back. Not being able to control his emotions, he ran home and fell asleep thinking about her. The third time he saw her was at the church of Santa Margherita dei Cerchi. The fourth time was at a wedding feast, which was probably the wedding feast of Beatrice and her newly wedded husband. Even though Dante never really had a conversation with her or asked her to accompany him on a date, his love for her grew stronger. The love he described he had for her was more of a courtly love, than something else. A courtly love was more a concept of nobility. In the Middle ages parents were the ones who chose whom their children were going to marry. This mostly occurred in higher classes of individuals, some in the lower class had the choice to choose themselves. Marriage was seen more as a necessity, than it was for love and romantic expectations. It was arranged for political and financial reasons. The same occurred with Dante and Beatrice. Even if they would have some sort of secret relationship, it would probably be frowned upon. On the 9th of January 1277, Dante’s family and the Donati family wrote up a contract. This contract was an agreement between Dante’s family and that of a girl named Gemma Donati, who was only 10 years old at that time and Dante 11. This agreement took place due to a political conflict happening in Florence between the factions Guelf and Ghibelline. Dante’s father, who was a supporter of the Guelf cause, wanted to strengthen his family’s position. The best way, which he thought, was to arrange a marriage with the most powerful Guelf family in the city. This family was the Donati. On that day, Dante and Gemma were betrothed together. They did however marry a while later, 7 years to be exact. This way Dante’s father secured an alliance with a powerful family. The Donati family owned land and mills in Florence and made money with the rent payments they received as other people’s their landlord. With Gemma, Dante had four children, three sons named Jacopo, Pietro and Giovanni and one daughter named Antonia. Beatrice was betrothed to Simone dei Bardi in 1287, who was like her father a well respected man and banker in Florence. She was the second wife of Simone. From a young age Dante took his school serious and went in total depth to catch up on his education. He was introduced to a course of study called, the Trivium and Quadrivium. It contained grammar, logic and rhetoric, but also arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy. When he was a boy, he did not like Latin very much and could not pick it up quickly. But when he grew older, he became interested in poets and had to study it in order to read poetry. He then

learned how to speak, write and understand Latin. As there was no university in Florence at the time, he could not continue his education there. But he did attend lecture classes at two schools, one called Franciscans in Santa Croce and Dominicans in Santa Maria Novella. Dante loved music, he was more moved by singing than anything else. Many of his poems, or rather ballads as you may call them, were set to music. Not by himself, but by his friend Casella, who was a singer and composer. Dante had a hard time at age 18, especially when his father died. It took a toll on him, with his mother dying when he was younger and now not having parents anymore. It did however have more or less a positive outcome. it was an important step in his poetic development. He met a man, who he saw as a father figure. His name was Brunetto Latini, who had a career as a servant and writer. He helped Dante with his literature and teached him skills. But when Brunetto died, Dante kind of looked down on his teacher. In his three part poem, Dante placed Brunetto in the circle of Hell, those who commit sodomy. Another person who he had looked up to was, a brother figure, poet named Guido Cavalcanti. Through him Dante became part of a group of Tuscan poets. Guido, Dante and Lapo Gianni made the whole of the group. They created poems about love, not the sappy kind of love poems, but that of a deeper kind of love. When Dante saw Beatrice in the street of Florence and ran home, he fell asleep and dreamt. This dream would be his inspiration for the first sonnet in La Vita Nuova. La Vita Nuova is a book containing 25 sonnets, one ballata, and four canzoni, all written by Dante himself in 42 chapters representing his love for Beatrice. One canzoni, also known as a ballad, was never finished. The reason to why it was not finished, was because it was interrupted by a terrible tragedy. One year after Beatrice’s dad died, Beatrice herself at age 24 died. To which Dante was so upset about, that he never fully recovered from it. After Beatrice’s death, Dante fully invested his time into writing poems which were dedicated to Beatrice. The book La Vita Nuova contained the poems he wrote from before she died and the ones he created after her death. In this book he describes all of the moments that their paths had crossed each other. How he had reacted to the events where he saw her. But not only that, he also describes events that occurred in both their lives and how his love for Beatrice became and evolved. He also became more involved with Florentine politics. Since the thirteenth

century, there had been a conflict between two great factions called the Guelfs and the Ghibellines. They competed for the control of Florence. Dante was an ally of the Guelfs. After a few victorious battles, the Guelfs became dominant in Florence. The faction became bigger and had a lot of family and economic interests at the end of the century. Dante was active in the life of Florence. He held a few political offices and he fought in a few battles as a soldier. However, Dante was accused of corruption and wrongdoing. The Guelfs where divided into two groups, the white (Guelfi Bianchi) who were more modest and the black (Guelfi Neri) who were associated with the pope. Dante had been named Priore, which is a city judge. He was sent to Rome to persuade the pope Boniface VIII to not choose the side of the Neri. But the Neri had already taken Florence and exiled the Bianchi. Dante could not go back, for he had a death sentence above his head and would be burned at the stake if he were ever to come back. His wife’s family, was part of the Neri, so when Dante was exiled from Florence, Gemma and all of their children stayed in Florence. Which made it complicated for Dante to see his children. Beatrice was Dante’s inspiration and muse for Divine Comedy. Divine comedy is divided into a three part poem, which consists of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. This translates to Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. It is seen as a major work for over 650 years. It gives a visual description of how the Christian’s afterlife looks like. He wrote it to give a warning to corrupt christians that they should change their ways in order to lead themselves to Paradise. The three separate parts, are the levels of a Christian’s afterlife. It is written in a new language Dante called “Italian”, instead of the usually used language, Latin. Because of this, Dante is seen as one of the first to break from the standards of publishing in Greek or Latin. This created an opportunity that literature could be published for a wider audience. Dante was the first to describe the 9 circles of Hell. He did this in Divine Comedy. The first circle is Limbo, are for non-christians and non-baptized pagans. They are punished in a inferior form for eternity. The second is Lust, for those who were overcome by lust. They are pushed around by strong winds, this way they cannot find peace or rest. The third circle is Gluttony, for people who overindulged with food, drinks and other pleasures. They have to lie down on the ground with icyrain pouring down on them forever. The fourth circle is Greed, those who are punished for greed are in this circle. The fifth circle is Anger, which is for the

wrathful and the sullen. The wrathful have to fight each other for always, while the sullen are gurgling beneath the surface of the Styx river. The sixth circle is Heresy. It is for the heretics, who are suffering in flaming tombs for always. The seventh circle is Violence. This circle is divided into three groups, the outer ring is for the murderers and violent to other people, who are sunk into a river of boiling blood and fire. The middle ring is for suiciders, who are transformed into trees and bushes and are fed from. But also people who have spent a lot, were chased after and torn to pieces by dogs. The inner ring is for those who make fun of god and sodomites, they stand for eternity in burning sand, while burning rain falls upon them. Then the eighth circle is Fraud. Here the seducers, flatterers, sorcerers, false prophets, corrupt politicians, thieves and much more are found. Then lastly, the ninth circle is Treachery. This circle has four rounds in it. Every resident here are frozen in ice, however those who are more sinful than others are deeper in the ice. Round 1 is named Caina, round 2 is named Antenora, round 3 is named Ptolemaeus, while round 4 is named Judecca. In the last round resides Lucifer, Brutus, Cassius and Judas. In Inferno at the beginning of the story, Dante is lost in the Dark Wood of sin. His way further in is blocked by three beasts. The Leopard, the Lion and the She-wolf. A silhouette of an unknown creature walks towards him, which later is revealed as the Roman poet Virgil. He says that Beatrice had sent him to guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory. But he does not only guide Dante, he also explains to him why people sin so much. He says that they do it because people love pleasure too much and too little of the seven virtues of Heaven. The Heavenly virtues are charity, chastity, diligence, humility, kindness, patience and temperance. Because Virgil does not possess grace or the Christian faith, he cannot guide Dante through Heaven. A more worthy soul will take over Virgil’s place then. This new guide is Beatrice herself. Beatrice is described as this powerful woman. She reflects divine love and serves as the bridge to salvation. She ends up descending into Hell to ask help from Virgil, who is supposed to lead “Dante” or also known as “the pilgrim” in this book, to Heaven. With her love she saves him from the Dark wood of sin, by sending Virgil to help him. This inspires the pilgrim to go through the flames of Mount Purgatory to make his way into Heaven. She is quite a stern guide as she guides him through Heaven and does scold him when he behaves badly. When Dante arrives in Paradise, Beatrice appears dressed in white, red and green, which

represents faith, hope and charity. Dante traveled a lot and lived in different cities after he was exiled from Florence. When Dante got an offer to live with his wife and children in 1318, he accepted it. He moved with them into the home of Guido II da Polenta in Ravenna. Here he finished the last part of Divine Comedy, Paradiso. His daughter Antonia became a nun and took the name of Beatrice, the divine figure in her father’s poetry. Dante traveled a lot, in August 1321 he traveled in and around Venice. But here he got sick. It seemed to be a fever, but later was found out to be malaria. He returned to his family and shortly died after on the 17th of September 1321. Since then Florence wanted to have his remains, but Ravenna refused to do so. Now, Dante still lies in Ravenna. He really is seen as a inspirational human being. His love for Beatrice and his life experiences which he described in his books has formed not only him, but also changed a lot of people close by him personally, as well as thousands of people hundreds years later.

Bibliography:

Websites: Chin. “Dante and Beatrice: A Pilgrimage of Love.” Government of Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Heritage Information Network, 2004, http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/edu/ViewLoitLo.do;jsessionid=0C5E6DFB295 74F9CEA3297C25583F143?method=preview&lang=EN&id=5642. “Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321.” EBooks @ Adelaide, The University of Adelaide, 2014, https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dante/index.html. “Dante Alighieri: His Life, The Divine Comedy & Other Books.” Museo Casa Di Dante, Firenze, UNIONE FIORENTINA , 2018, https://www.museocasadidante.it/en/dante-alighieri/biography/. “Dante's Early Life.” Library Exhibits :: Dante's Biography, Villanova University, https://exhibits.library.villanova.edu/dante-illustrated/dante-s-biography. Delmolino, Grace. “Dante Alighieri: A Chronology.” Digital Dante. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2017. https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/history/chronology/ Montanari, Simone. “Beatrice and Dante Alighieri: A Love Story.” Florence Inferno, Termetour S.r.l., 31 July 2013, https://www.florenceinferno.com/beatrice-portinari/. “The Romance of Dante Alighieri and Beatrice Portinari.” HP298 Humanities Research, University of Virginia, https://www2.bc.edu/michelle-principi2/dante1.html. Wetherbee, Winthrop, and Jason Aleksander. “Dante Alighieri.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 19 Januari 2001, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dante/.

Books/E-books Alighieri, Dante, and Stanley Appelbaum. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_Life_La_Vita_Nuova/jfrW ezMWVNsC?hl=en&gbpv=0. Alighieri, Dante. Divine Comedy - Inferno Josef Nigrin, 2008, https://wyomingcatholic.edu/wp-content/uploads/dante-01-inferno.pdf. Reynolds, Barbara. The Poet, the Political Thinker, the Man. I.B. Tauris, 2006, https://books.google.com/books?id=7d1cHJsqBFoC&printsec=frontcover&q =dante&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivj_P74vjlA

hVhrlkKHXp8A-sQ6AEwAXoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q&f=true. Shaw, Prue. Reading Dante: from Here to Eternity. Liveright Publishing Corporation, a Division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2014. Wilson, A. N. Dante in Love. Atlantic Books, 2011....