The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (essential books to read TXT) 📕

retrospect of the time and exertions that have been thus employed, I do not regard those hours as the least happy of my life, during which (to use the eloquent language of Mr. Coleridge) “my individual recollections have been suspended, and lulled to sleep amid the music of nobler thoughts;” nor that study as misapplied, which has familiarized me with one of the sublimest efforts of the human invention.

 

To those, who shall be at the trouble of examining into the degree of accuracy with which the task has been executed, I may be allowed to suggest, that their judgment should not be formed on a comparison with any single text of my Author; since, in more instances than I have noticed, I have had to make my choice out of a variety of readings and interpretations, presented by different editions and commentators.

 

In one or two of those editions is to be found the title of “The Vision,” which I have adopted, as more conformable to the genius of our language than that of “The Divine Comedy.” Dante himself, I believe, termed it simply “The Comedy;” in the first place, because the style was of the middle kind: and in the next, because the story (if story it may be called) ends happily.

 

Instead of a Life of my Author, I have subjoined, in chronological order, a view not only of the principal events which befell him, but of the chief public occurrences that happened in his time: concerning both of which the reader may obtain further information, by turning to the passages referred to in the Poem and Notes.

 

January, 1814

 

A CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW

 

OF

 

THE AGE OF DANTE

 

A. D.

 

1265. Dante, son of Alighieri degli Alighieri and Bella, is born at Florence.

Of his own ancestry he speaks in the Paradise, Canto XV. and XVI.

 

In the same year, Manfredi, king of Naples and Sicily, is defeated and slain by Charles of Anjou. Hell, C. XXVIII. 13.

And Purgatory, C. III. 110.

 

Guido Novello of Polenta obtains the sovereignty of Ravenna.

H. C. XXVII. 38.

 

1266. Two of the Frati Godenti chosen arbitrators of the differences at Florence. H. C. XXIII. 104.

Gianni de’ Soldanieri heads the populace in that city. H. C.

XXXII. 118.

 

1268. Charles of Anjou puts Conradine to death, and becomes King of Naples. H. C. XXVIII. 16 and Purg C. XX. 66.

 

1272. Henry III. of England is succeeded by Edward I. Purg. C.

VII. 129.

 

1274. Our Poet first sees Beatrice, daughter of Folco Portinari.

 

Fra.

Guittone d’Arezzo, the poet, dies. Purg. C. XXIV. 56.

Thomas Aquinas dies. Purg. C. XX. 67. and Par. C. X. 96.

Buonaventura dies. Par. C. XII. 25.

 

1275. Pierre de la Brosse, secretary to Philip III. of France, executed. Purg. C. VI. 23.

 

1276. Giotto, the painter, is born. Purg. C. XI. 95. Pope Adrian V. dies. Purg. C. XIX. 97.

Guido Guinicelli, the poet, dies. Purg. C. XI. 96. and C. XXVI.

83.

 

1277. Pope John XXI. dies. Par. C. XII. 126.

 

1278. Ottocar, king of Bohemia, dies. Purg. C. VII. 97.

 

1279. Dionysius succeeds to the throne of Portugal. Par. C.

XIX. 135.

 

1280. Albertus Magnus dies. Par. C. X. 95.

 

1281. Pope Nicholas III. dies. H. C. XIX 71.

Dante studies at the universities of Bologna and Padua.

 

1282. The Sicilian vespers. Par. C. VIII. 80.

The French defeated by the people of Forli. H. C. XXVII. 41.

Tribaldello de’ Manfredi betrays the city of Faenza. H. C.

XXXII. 119.

 

1284. Prince Charles of Anjou is defeated and made prisoner by Rugiez

de Lauria, admiral to Peter III. of Arragon. Purg. C. XX. 78.

Charles I. king of Naples, dies. Purg. C. VII. 111.

 

1285. Pope Martin IV. dies. Purg. C. XXIV. 23.

Philip III. of France, and Peter III. of Arragon, die. Purg. C.

VII. 101 and

110.

Henry II. king of Cyprus, comes to the throne. Par. C. XIX. 144.

 

1287. Guido dalle Colonne (mentioned by Dante in his De Vulgari Eloquio) writes “The War of Troy.”

 

1288. Haquin, king of Norway, makes war on Denmark. Par. C.

XIX. 135.

Count Ugolino de’ Gherardeschi dies of famine. H. C. XXXIII. 14.

 

1289. Dante is in the battle of Campaldino, where the Florentines defeat the people of Arezzo, June 11. Purg. C. V. 90.

 

1290. Beatrice dies. Purg. C. XXXII. 2.

He serves in the war waged by the Florentines upon the Pisans, and is present at the surrender of Caprona in the autumn. H. C.

XXI. 92.

 

1291. He marries Gemma de’ Donati, with whom he lives unhappily.

 

By this marriage he had five sons and a daughter.

Can Grande della Scala is born, March 9. H. C. I. 98. Purg. C.

XX. 16. Par. C. XVII. 75. and XXVII. 135.

The renegade Christians assist the Saracens to recover St. John D’Acre. H. C. XXVII. 84.

The Emperor Rodolph dies. Purg. C. VI. 104. and VII. 91.

Alonzo III. of Arragon dies, and is succeeded by James II.

Purg. C. VII. 113. and Par. C. XIX. 133.

 

1294. Clement V. abdicates the papal chair. H. C. III. 56.

Dante writes his Vita Nuova.

 

1295. His preceptor, Brunetto Latini, dies. H. C. XV. 28.

Charles Martel, king of Hungary, visits Florence, Par. C. VIII.

57. and dies in the same year.

Frederick, son of Peter III. of Arragon, becomes king of Sicily.

Purg. C. VII. 117. and Par. C. XIX. 127.

 

1296. Forese, the companion of Dante, dies. Purg. C. XXXIII. 44.

 

1300. The Bianca and Nera parties take their rise in Pistoia.

H. C. XXXII. 60.

This is the year in which he supposes himself to see his Vision.

H. C. I. 1. and XXI. 109.

He is chosen chief magistrate, or first of the Priors of Florence; and continues in office from June 15 to August 15.

Cimabue, the painter, dies. Purg. C. XI. 93.

Guido Cavalcanti, the most beloved of our Poet’s friends, dies.

H. C. X. 59. and Purg C. XI. 96.

 

1301. The Bianca party expels the Nera from Pistoia. H. C.

XXIV. 142.

 

1302. January 27. During his absence at Rome, Dante is mulcted by his fellow-citizens in the sum of 8000 lire, and condemned to two years’ banishment.

March 10. He is sentenced, if taken, to be burned.

Fulcieri de’ Calboli commits great atrocities on certain of the Ghibelline party. Purg. C. XIV. 61.

Carlino de’ Pazzi betrays the castle di Piano Travigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines. H. C. XXXII. 67.

The French vanquished in the battle of Courtrai. Purg. C. XX. 47.

James, king of Majorca and Minorca, dies. Par. C. XIX. 133.

 

1303. Pope Boniface VIII. dies. H. C. XIX. 55. Purg. C. XX.

86. XXXII.

146. and Par. C. XXVII. 20.

The other exiles appoint Dante one of a council of twelve, under Alessandro da Romena.

He appears to have been much dissatisfied with his colleagues.

Par. C. XVII. 61.

 

1304. He joins with the exiles in an unsuccessful attack on the city of Florence.

May. The bridge over the Arno breaks down during a representation of the infernal torments exhibited on that river.

H. C. XXVI. 9.

July 20. Petrarch, whose father had been banished two years before from Florence, is born at Arezzo.

 

1305. Winceslaus II. king of Bohemia, dies. Purg. C. VII. 99.

and Par. C. XIX 123.

A conflagration happens at Florence. H. C. XXVI. 9.

 

1306. Dante visits Padua.

 

1307. He is in Lunigiana with the Marchese Marcello Malaspina.

Purg. C. VIII. 133. and C. XIX. 140.

Dolcino, the fanatic, is burned. H. C. XXVIII. 53.

 

1308. The Emperor Albert I. murdered. Purg. C. VI. 98. and Par. C. XIX. 114.

Corso Donati, Dante’s political enemy, slain. Purg. C. XXIV. 81.

He seeks an asylum at Verona, under the roof of the Signori della Scala. Par. C. XVII. 69. He wanders, about this time, over various parts of Italy. See his Convito. He is at Paris twice; and, as one of the early commentators reports, at Oxford.

 

1309. Charles II. king of Naples, dies. Par. C. XIX. 125.

 

1310. The Order of the Templars abolished. Purg. C. XX. 94.

 

1313. The Emperor Henry of Luxemburg, by whom he had hoped to be restored to Florence, dies. Par. C. XVII. 80. and XXX. 135.

He takes refuge at Ravenna with Guido Novello da Polenta.

 

1314. Pope Clement V. dies. H. C. XIX. 86. and Par. C. XXVII. 53. and XXX. 141.

Philip IV. of France dies. Purg. C. VII. 108. and Par. C. XIX.

117.

Ferdinand IV. of Spain, dies. Par. C. XIX. 122.

Giacopo da Carrara defeated by Can Grande. Par. C. IX. 45.

 

1316. John XXII. elected Pope. Par. C. XXVII. 53.

 

1321. July. Dante dies at Ravenna, of a complaint brought on by disappointment at his failure in a negotiation which he had been conducting with the Venetians, for his patron Guido Novello da Polenta.

His obsequies are sumptuously performed at Ravenna by Guido, who himself died in the ensuing year.

 

End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Divine Comedy of Dante as translanted by H. F. Cary