Dante (born c. Might 21–June 20, 1265, Florence [Italy]—died September 13/14, 1321, Ravenna) was an Italian poet, prose author, literary theorist, moral thinker, and political thinker. He’s finest recognized for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy).
Dante’s Divine Comedy, a landmark in Italian literature and among the many best works of all medieval European literature, is a profound Christian imaginative and prescient of humankind’s temporal and everlasting future. On its most private stage, it attracts on Dante’s personal expertise of exile from his native metropolis of Florence. On its most comprehensive stage, it might be learn as an allegory, taking the type of a journey by means of hell, purgatory, and paradise. The poem amazes by its array of studying, its penetrating and complete evaluation of latest issues, and its inventiveness of language and imagery. By selecting to write down his poem within the Italian vernacular relatively than in Latin, Dante decisively influenced the course of literary growth. (He primarily used the Tuscan dialect, which might turn out to be commonplace literary Italian, however his vivid vocabulary ranged broadly over many dialects and languages.) Not solely did he lend a voice to the rising lay culture of his personal nation, however Italian grew to become the literary language in western Europe for a number of centuries.
Along with poetry, Dante wrote necessary theoretical works starting from discussions of rhetoric to moral philosophy and political thought. He was totally conversant with the classical custom, drawing for his personal functions on such writers as Virgil, Cicero, and Boethius. However, most uncommon for a layman, he additionally had a formidable command of the newest scholastic philosophy and of theology. His studying and his private involvement within the heated political controversies of his age led him to the composition of De monarchia (On Monarchy), one of many main tracts of medieval political philosophy.
