The Life of Dante

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dante was born at Florence in May, 1265. His mother’s name was Bella, but of what family is no longer known. His father⁶ he had the misfortune to lose in his childhood; but by the advice of his surviving relations, and with the assistance of an able preceptor, Brunetto Latini, he applied himself closely to polite literature and other liberal studies, at the same time that he omitted no pursuit necessary for the accomplishment of a manly character, and mixed with the youth of his age in all honourable and noble exercises.

In the twenty-fourth year of his age, he was present at the memorable battle of Campaldino, ⁷ where he served in the foremost troop of cavalry, and was exposed to imminent danger. Leonardo Aretino refers to a letter of Dante, in which he described the order of that battle, and mentioned his having been engaged in it. The cavalry of the Aretini at the first onset gained so great an advantage over the Florentine horse, as to compel them to retreat to their body of infantry. This circumstance in the event proved highly fortunate to the Florentines; for their own cavalry being thus joined to their foot, while that of their enemies was led by the pursuit to a considerable distance from theirs, they were by these means enabled to defeat with ease their separate forces. In this battle, the Uberti, Lamberti, and Abati, with all the other ex-citizens of Florence who adhered to the Ghibelline⁸ interest, were with the Aretini; while those inhabitants of Arezzo, who, owing to their attachment to the Guelph party had been banished from their own city, were ranged on the side of the Florentines. In the following year, Dante took part in another engagement between his countrymen and the citizens of Pisa, from whom they took the castle of Caprona, ⁹ situated not far from that city.

 

From what the Poet has told us in his Treatise, entitled the Vita Nuova, we learn that he was a lover long before he was a soldier, and that his passion for the Beatrice whom he has immortalized, commenced¹⁰ when she was at the beginning and he near the end of his ninth year. Their first meeting was at a banquet in the house of Folco Portinari¹¹ her father; and the impression, then made on the susceptible and constant heart of Dante, was not obliterated by her death, which happened after an interval of sixteen years.

But neither war, nor love, prevented Dante from gratifying the earnest desire which he had of knowledge and mental improvement. By Benvenuto da Imola, one of the earliest of his commentators, it is related, that he studied in his youth at the universities of Bologna and Padua, as well as in that of his native city, and devoted himself to the pursuit of natural and moral philosophy. There is reason to believe that his eagerness for the acquisition of learning, at some time of his life, led him as far as Paris, and even Oxford;¹² in the former of which universities he is said to have taken the degree of a Bachelor, and distinguished himself in the theological disputations; but to have been hindered from commencing Master, by a failure in his pecuniary resources. Francesco da Buti, another of his commentators in the fourteenth century, asserts that he entered the order of the Frati Minori, but laid aside the habit before he was professed.

   But the fact of his having visited England rests on a passage alluding to it in the Latin poems of Boccaccio, and on the authority of Giovanni da Serravalle, Bishop of Fermo, who, ax Tlrnboschl observes, though he lived at the distance of a century from han to, might have known those who were contemporaries with him. This writer, in an inedited com- montiiry on the Coinmedia, written while lie was attending the council of Constance, says of our Poet: “Anagorice di- lexit theologlnm sacrum, In quA din studuit tain in Oxoniis in regno Angllm, quam Parlslls in regno Francia?,” &c. And again: “Dantes so in Juventuto dedit omnibus artibus libe- raiibus, studens oas Pndme, Bononite, demum Oxoniis et Parisiis, ubi fecit inultos actus mirnbiles, intantum quod ab aliquibus dicebatur mngnus philosophus, ab aliquibus mag nus Theologus, ab aliquibus mngnus poeta.” Tiraboschi Stor. della Poes. Itai., vol. ii. cap. iv. p. 14, as extracted from Tiraboschi’s great work by Mathias, and edited by that gentleman. Lond. 1803.

In his own city, domestic troubles, and yet more severe public calamities, awaited him. In 1291, he was induced, by the solicitation of his friends, to console himself for the loss of Beatrice by a matrimonial connection with Gemma, a lady of the noble family of the Donati, by whom he had a numerous offspring. But the violence of her temper proved a source of the bitterest suffering to him; and in that passage of the Inferno, where one of the characters says, his own conjugal unhappiness must have recurred forcibly and painfully to his mind.¹ It is not improbable that political animosity might have had some share in these dissensions; for his wife was a kinswoman of Corso Donati, one of the most formidable, as he was one of the most inveterate of his opponents.

La fiera moglie più ch’ altro, mi nuoce.

Canto xvi.

——me, my wife

Of savage temper, more than aught beside,

Hath to this evil brought,

 1 Yet M. Artaud, in his “ Histoire de Dante,” (8vo. Paris, 1841, p. 85,) represents Gemma as a tender, faithful, and affectionate wife. I certainly do not find any mention of her unhappy temper in the early biographers. Regard for her or for her children might have restrained them. But in the next century, Landino, though commending her good qualities, does not scruple to assert that in this respect she was more than a Xanthippe.

 

In 1300 he was chosen chief of the Priors, who at that time possessed the supreme authority in the state; his colleagues being Palmieri degli Altoviti and Neri di Jacopo degli Alberti. From this exaltation our Poet dated the cause of all his subsequent misfortunes in life. 2

 2 Leonardo Aretino. A late biographer, on the authority of Marchionne Stefani, assigns different colleagues to Dante in his office of Prior. See Balbo. Vita di Dante, vol. i. p. 219 Ediz. Torin. 1839.

In order to show the occasion of Dante’s exile, it may be necessary to enter more particularly into the state of parties at Florence. The city, which had been disturbed by many divisions between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, at length remained in the power of the former ; but after some time these were again split into two factions. This perverse occurrence originated with the inhabitants of Pistoia, who, from an unhappy quarrel between two powerful families in that city, were all separated into parties known by those denominations. With the intention of composing their differences, the principals on each side were summoned to the city of Florence ; but this measure, instead of remedying the evil, only contributed to increase its virulence, by communicating it to the citizens of Florence themselves. For the contending
parties were so far from being brought to a reconciliation, that each contrived to gain fresh partisans among the Florentines, with whom many of them were closely connected by the ties of blood and friendship ; and who entered into the dispute with such acrimony and eagerness, that the whole city was soon engaged either on one part or the other, and even brothers of the same family were divided. It was not long before they passed, by the usual gradations, from contumely to violence. The factions were now known by the names of the Neri and the Bianchi, the former generally siding with the Guelphs or adherents of the papal power, the latter with the Ghibellines or those who supported the authority of the Emperor.

1 Yet M. Artaud, in his Histoire de Dante (8vo, Paris, 1841, p. 85), represents Gemma as a tender, faithful, and affectionate wife. I certainly do not find any mention of her unhappy temper in the early biographers. Regard for her or for her children might have restrained them. But in the next century, Landino, though commending her good qualities, does not scruple to assert that in this respect she was more than a Xanthippe.
2 Leonardo Aretino. A late biographer, on the authority of Marchionne Stefani, assigns different colleagues to Dante in his office of Prior. See Balbo, Vita di Dante, vol. i. p. 219. Ediz. Torin. 1839.

The Neri assembled secretly in the church of the Holy Trinity, and determined on interceding with Pope Boniface VIII to send Charles of Valois to pacify and reform the city. No sooner did this resolution come to the knowledge of the Bianchi, than, struck with appre- hension at the consequences of such a measure, they took arms, and repaired to the Priors ; demanding of them the punishment of their adversaries, for having thus entered into private delibera* tions concerning the state, which they represented to have been done with the view of expelling them from the city. Those who had met, being alarmed in their turn, had also recourse to arms, and made their complaints to the Priors. Accusing their op- ponents of having armed themselves without any previous public discussion ; and affirming that, under various pretexts, they had sought to drive them out of their country, they demanded that they might be punished as disturbers of the public tranquillity. The dread and danger became general, when, by the advice of Dante, the Priors called in the multitude to their protection and assistance ; and then proceeded to banish the principals of the two factions, who were these : Corso Donati,* Geri Spini, Giachonotto de’ Pazzi, Rosso della Tosa, and others of the Nera party, who were exiled to the Castello della Pieve in Perugia ; and of the Bianca party, who were banished to Serrazana, Gentile and Torrigiano de’ Cerchi, Guido Cavalcanti,’ Baschiera della Tosa, Baldinaccio Adimari, Naldo son of Lottino Gherardini, and others.

On this occasion Dante was accused of favouring the Bianchi, though he appears to have conducted himself with impartiality ; and the deliberation held by the Neri for introducing Charles of Valois’ might, perhaps, have justified him in treating that party with yet greater rigour. The suspicion against him was increased, when those whom he was accused of favouring were soon after allowed to return from their banishment, while the sentence passed upon the other faction still remained in full force. To
this Dante replied, that when those who had been sent to Serra- zana were recalled, he was no longer in office ; and that their return had been permitted on account of the death of Guido Cavalcanti, which was attributed to the unwholesome air of that
place. The partiality which had been shown, however, afforded
a pretext to the Pope * for dispatching Charles of Valois to Florence, by whose influence a great reverse was soon produced in the public affairs ; the ex-citizens being restored to their place, and the whole of the Bianca party driven into exile. At this juncture, Dante was not in Florence, but at Rome, whither he had a short time before been sent ambassador to the Pope, with the offer of a voluntary return to peace and amity among the citizens. His enemies had now an opportunity of revenge, and, during his absence on this pacific mission, proceeded to pass an iniquitous decree of banishment against him and Palmieri Altoviti ; and at the same time confiscated his possessions, which indeed had been previously given up to pillage. On hearing the tidings of his ruin, Dante instantly quitted Rome, and passed with all possible expedition to Siena.

* Of this remarkable man, see more in the Purg. xxiv. 81. 2 See notes to Hell, x. 59, and Purg. xi. 96. 3 gee Purg. xx. 69. * Boniface VIII had before sent the Cardinal Matteo d’Acquasparta to Florence, with the view of supporting his own adherents in that city. The cardinal is supposed to be alluded to in the Paradise, xii. 115.