1. A Classical Quest through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise
The Divine Comedy
A Classical Quest through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise

2. DANTE ALIGHIERI Born in Florence, May, 1265.
His family was old and of noble origin, but no longer wealthy.
He held a number of significant public offices at a time of great political unrest in Italy, and, in 1302, he was exiled for life by the leaders of the Black Guelphs, the political faction in power at the time.

3. DANTE ALIGHIERI
Guelphs vs. Ghibellines Dante = Guelph, who in general favored the Papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor.
Guelphs split around 1300
White Guelphs wished to preserve Florence's independence
Black Guelphs favored the Pope's control of Florence.

4. DANTE ALIGHIERI
Dante was among the White Guelphs who were exiled in 1302 at the request of Boniface and in alliance with the Black Guelphs.
The Pope said if he had returned he would be burned at the stake.
Exile becomes an important topic in Dante’s work

5. HIS WORKS Wrote in Italian
De Vulgari Eloquentia, on the origin and development of language
 De Monarchia, on political theory
 Convivio, unfinished, a compendium of knowledge
 Vita Nuova, lyric poems and commentary; largely about Beatrice
 Commedia , dubbed The Divine Comedy, written from

6. BEATRICE
Dante had an arranged marriage in his youth to Gemma Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati.
But Dante’s greatest love was a woman named Beatrice.
Beatrice married another man about 1287, and died in 1290 at the age of 25.
Dante met Beatrice when he was nine and she eight, at his father’s home, most likely for a May Day festival.

7. DANTE’S ITALY

8. THE PAPACY The Vatican Rome, Italy Simony Indulgences Pope
Boniface VIII

9. STRUCTURE OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
DANTE’S WORLD WAS ONE THAT BELIEVED IN MYSTICAL CORRESPONDENCES AND THE POWER OF NUMBERS, STARS, AND STONES
EVENTS OF HISTORY—CONTAINED A MYSTICAL SIGNIFICANCE.
DANTE’S NUMERICAL SYMBOLISM:
3 A SYMBOL OF THE HOLY TRINITY
9 THREE TIMES THREE.
33 A MULTIPLE OF 3
THE 7 DAYS OF CREATION
10 CONSIDERED IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD A PERFECT NUMBER
100, THE MULTIPLE OF 10.

10. INFERNO, PURGATORIO, AND PARADISO
THREE SECTIONS OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
INFERNO, PURGATORIO, AND PARADISO
3 was a holy number to Dante— suggesting the Holy Trinity.

11. STRUCTURE OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
Each section has 33 cantos (small division of poetry; canto means “song.”)
The Inferno includes an introductory canto, which makes 100 cantos total (1oo representing the idea of perfection or spiritual enlightenment achieved after the journey).
Three major divisions of sin:
Incontinence
Violence
Fraudulence
By the time you finish reading, you will know which circle of hell you may find yourself in!
Three-line poetric structure:
Terza Rima

12. Dante’s Use of Terza Rima
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte che nel pensier rinova la paura!
Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte; ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai, dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.
Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai,10 tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto che la verace via abbandonai.
Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto, là dove terminava quella valle che m’avea di paura il cor compunto,
guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle vestite già de’ raggi del pianeta che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more; But of the good to treat, which there I found, Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered,10 So full was I of slumber at the moment In which I had abandoned the true way.
But after I had reached a mountain's foot, At that point where the valley terminated, Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders, Vested already with that planet's rays Which leadeth others right by every road.