25/03/2022
it pays to do your homework
Buon Dantedì! Established in 2020, Dantedì is the national day dedicated to Dante Alighieri, the father of the Italian language. March 25th was chosen as it is recognized by scholars as the day the poet started his journey in the afterlife in the Divine Comedy.
Dante Alighieri is Italy’s foremost poet, the “Father of the Italian language,” and one of the greatest Italian writers on the subject of love. Born in Florence – when Florence was still its own independent republic – around approximately 1265, Dante was raised in a relatively well-off family and is believed to be educated at home. At the age of 9, he fell in love with a young girl by the name of Beatrice Portinari, who would go on to play a pivotal role in his writing of “Divine Comedy.” Sadly for him, Dante was betrothed to another girl, Gemma di Manetto Donati, at the age of 12. He continued to love Beatrice, and not only wrote many poems about her, but also wrote sonnets TO her. Due to his involvement in tumultuous Florentine politics and wars, Dante was exiled from his beloved Florence after his political rivals took control of the city.
From there, he moved to Verona, then Liguria, and then back to Tuscany, to the city of Lucca. His exile from Florence was straining on him, as it was such a large part of his identity and heritage. He passed away at the age of 56 (approximately) in Ravenna, still unable to return to his city, but he left behind a great literary legacy. Dante’s “Divine Comedy” – specifically, “Inferno” – was poetry that focused greatly on his childhood love of Beatrice, amongst many other Christian and classical themes. He also wrote a great deal of other poetry and works, much of it on the subject of love.
Dante's unorthodox approach is credited with making literature accessible to the public, as well as paving the way for important Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio. Dante also had a profound influence on Western art through his depictions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.
Most notably, Dante wrote in the regional dialect of Tuscany, and by writing such an epic poem in this dialect, which was shared throughout Italy, Dante essentially established the standard Italian language as the Tuscan dialect, which is why he is known as the “Father of the Italian language.” Over the centuries, he became extremely well-read and by the 1800's, Dante had become widely-recognized as one of the greatest literary powerhouses of the western world. He continues to be one of Italy's greatest writers.
His tomb can be visited today at the Basilica di San Francesco in Ravenna.
