Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy

PENGUIN CLASSICS DELUXE EDITION THE DIVINE COMEDY DANTE ALIGHIERI was born in Florence in 1265 into a family from the lower ranks of the nobility. He may have studied at the university of Bologna. When he was about twenty, he married Gemma Donati, by whom he had four children. He first met Bice Portinari, whom he called Beatrice, in 1274, and when she died in 1290 he sought consolation by writing the Vita nuova and by studying philosophy and theology. During this time he also became involved in the conflict between the Guelf and Ghibelline factions in Florence; he became a prominent White Guelf, and when the Black Guelfs came to power in 1302, Dante was, while absent from the city, condemned to exile. He took refuge initially in Verona but eventually, having wandered from place to place, he settled in Ravenna.

While there he completed the Commedia, which he began in about 1307. Dante died in Ravenna in 1321. ROBIN KIRKPATRICK graduated from Merton College, Oxford. He has taught courses on Dantes Commedia in Hong Kong, Dublin and for more than thirty years at the university of Cambridge, where he is a Fellow of Robinson College and Emeritus Professor of Italian and English Literatures. His books include Dantes Paradiso and the Limitations of Modern Criticism (1978), Dantes Inferno: Difficulty and Dead Poetry (1987) and, in the Cambridge Landmarks of World Literature series, Dante: The Divine Comedy (2004). His own published poetry includes Prologue and Palinodes (1997), and currently he is working on several volumes in which notions of performance are pursued in conjunction with a range of theological considerations.

DANTE ALIGHIERI

Translated, edited and introduced by
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Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, China Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England The translation of Inferno first published in Penguin Classics 2006 The translation of Purgatorio first published in Penguin Classics 2007 The translation of Paradiso first published in Penguin Classics 2007 This combined edition, with a revised introduction, first published 2012 Published in Penguin Books (USA) 2013 Translation and editorial material copyright Robin Kirkpatrick, 2006, 2007, 2012 All rights reserved ISBN: 978-1-101-60838-8 CIP data available Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated. THE DIVINE
COMEDY 1224 Saint Francis receives the stigmata 1250 Death of Emperor Frederick II 1260 Defeat of the Guelfs at the battle of Montaperti, leading to seven years of Ghibelline domination in Florence 1265 Dante born, probably 25 May 1266 Defeat of imperial army by the Guelfs and the French under Charles of Anjou at the battle of Benevento 1267 Birth of Giotto; restoration of Guelf rule in Florence under the protection of Charles of Anjou 1274 Deaths of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure 1282 The influence of the guilds starts to grow in Florence 1283 Dante begins his association with the poet Guido Cavalcanti 1289 Dante fights at the battle of Campaldino; Florence, having defeated Arezzo and Ghibelline factions at Campaldino, begins to extend its supremacy over Tuscany 1290 Death of Bice (Beatrice) Portinari 1292 Dante compiles the Vita nuova1293Ordinamenti di Giustizia promulgated in Florence 1294 Election and abdication of Pope Celestine V; election of Pope Boniface VIII 1295 Dante enrols in a guild 1296 For five years, Dante is actively involved in the political life of the Florence commune; Rime Petrose probably composed 1300 Dante elected to the office of prior; fictional date of the Commedia1301 Crisis and coup dtat in Florence; Charles de Valois enters the city; return of Corso Donati; defeat of the White Guelfs by the Black Guelfs 1302 In his absence, Dante formally exiled and sentenced to death by the Black Guelfs 1303 Dante seeks refuge for the first time in Verona; death of Pope Boniface VIII 1304 Dante probably engaged until 1307 on the Convivio and the De Vulgari Eloquentia; birth of Petrarch 1305 Pope Clement V detained in Avignon 1307 Possible date for when Dante started the Commedia; accession of Edward II to English throne 1308 Henry VII of Luxembourg elected Holy Roman Emperor in Rome 1310 Dante writes his epistle to Henry: Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile; Henry enters Italy 1312 Possible (though much debated) date for when Dante started De Monarchia; Henry crowned Holy Roman Emperor 1313 Emperor Henry VII dies; Boccaccio born 1314 Dante begins living for six years in Verona, under the protection of Can Grande della Scala 1318 Dante in Ravenna: in close contact with Guido Novello da Polenta 1320 Dante in Latin verse correspondence with the humanist Giovanni del Virgilio; lectures at university of Verona: Questio de Aqua et Terra1321 Dante dies in Ravenna, 13 September Dante: Life and Times In January 1302, at the age of thirty-six, Dante Alighieri was exiled from his native Florence.

In the five or six years before that date, he had played an increasingly important role in the political life of the Florentine commune and in 1300 was elected to the governing authority of the city, the Council of Priors. It is this period of Dantes life that is celebrated in a fresco painted by a contemporary, Giotto di Bondone (12671337), which depicts the poet among the most prominent citizens of his day. His look is keen, gaunt and defiant. Yet he also seems capable (almost) of smiling; and it is easy to see in Giottos portrait something not only of the political activist but also of the delicate young poet who in the 1290s had already dedicated his poetry to Beatrice the Florentine neighbour, Bice Portinari, who married a banker and died an early death in 1290. Under the impetus given by poets and intellectuals such as Dante himself, a highly sophisticated culture was developing in thirteenth-century Florence. But the city was also wracked by internal dissension and susceptible to pressures from the world beyond its civic boundaries.

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