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Topic/Theme
General
Notes

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Dante
(1265-1321)

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Exile

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NOTES
RELEVANT READINGS
Divine Comedy consists of 3 canticae
i
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Purgatorio 33 canto’s
iii
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The realm of the stars is the realm of God
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class man who was exiled—he
Issue between the Guelphs (papacy) and the Ghibellines (empire): cities tended to be divided b/w who
turns out to be right in placing
supported the pope and who supported the emperor
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**irony: Dante was a Guelph and hated the papacy
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Black
the reality or legal identity of
Dante was a White Guelph—Black Guelphs took over Florence in 1302 and Dante was exiled because
Dante's existence
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this unquestioned reality, the
1308-1313: big historic time
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*Mazzotta
our history and was so much
1308: Henry VII crowned emperor; Dante himself hailed his arrival as a new messianic advent
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(Mazzotta)
extraordinary as only fictional
1309: Papacy moves to Avignon
characters are, that accounts for
1314: Inferno published
the persistent fascination he
1315: Florence proposes to repeal Dante's exile on the condition that he acknowledges his guilt
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(Mazzotta)
refuses
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In modern western tradition, Dante is synonymous with exile
Lamentations- O
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His exile was originally temporary but was made permanent within
- Written in reaction to exile, asking “why this is happening”
2 months
- Jerusalem to the O
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This wandering could mean a spiritual sense of being lost (in
sin/corruption)

**Think how the structure of the commedia connects to the theme of exile
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Your citizenship
identified you
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Those within were identified as the lost, separated from the divine,
“Primal Love
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Dante’s
identification of Hell as a city brings with it several key ideas:
boundaries, citizenship, and identity
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Those inside the walls were citizens, while those who did
not hold citizenship were kept at bay
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They are on pilgrimage to paradiso
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He makes clear that sin is in exile (a mental exile)…commedia is
the journey out of sin, on the shores of purgatory he becomes a
pilgrim
Throughout Canto III of the Inferno, themes of citizenship and
identity hint at the inner struggles of Dante the wanderer, exiled
from his home and forced to roam the Italian peninsula
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As an exile, he lost not only material things (his home, wealth, and
possessions) but also the identity and security that came from being
attached to his city
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The way out of the darkness of partial
and relative viewpoints, as he was ceaselessly to argue in the two major
works he started but never finished in the early stages of his nomadic
existence, the De vulgari eloquentia and the Convivio, is a universal
standpoint
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The Wanderer
- From Exeter book, 10th century
- Conveys the meditations of a solitary exile on his past
happiness as a member of his lord's band of retainers, his
present hardships and the values of forbearance and faith in the
heavenly Lord
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Amis and Amiloun
- From the late 13th century
- Amis and Amiloun are born to different parents in different
parts of a kingdom but look identical and serve the same Duke
- Amis falls in love with a beautiful women who seduces him
but the duke steward betrays Amis to the Duke
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- Amis and the women get married, but Amiloun is now struck
with leprosy and is driven out of the land by his wife
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Amis indeed performs the act, and
Amiloun is cured
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- Relates to Abraham
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Purgatory is the being tended to for a year
and killing the children…paradise is everyone healed and
better
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They pass their days on earth, but they

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The City

Still a vital religious practise today
For some it is a form of penance/bodily mortification (John the
B)—denying the world to gain holiness…or just people seeking a
salvific experience
There is value in suffering= felix culpa: punishment of an innocent
man for our sins…salvation would not have otherwise been
possible
Because of the crucifixion, Christianity becomes a very historical
religion
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Dante is also on a pilgrimage
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are citizens of heaven
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St
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Both natural
and supernatural journey – like 2 cities…living in the world
but not being of the world
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After a long voyage of seven years they reached the "Terra
Repromissionis", or Paradise, a most beautiful land with
luxuriant vegetation
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Took Brendan 7 years
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Revelation 21 **2 cities
- The new heaven and the new earth
- Jerusalem: the site of Happy Crime (Felix Culpa)
- But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood—this is why there is purgatorio
Augustine’s City of God
- Written when Christianity becomes a state religion 380AD under Theodosius
- 410- sack of Rome
- Rome was an important city for Western Christianity, cultural and political center of Roman empire
- The worship of new gods (no longer Pagan gods) was to blame for the sack…people are that all should go back to pagan worship
- Aug attacks this idea…he rewrites the history of Rome to show how the pattern of events were divinely inspired
- 2 cities: earthly and heavenly
Earthly—not devout, seek peace in earthly rewards of life
Heavenly—they have to be citizens of earthly city but try to keep their mind on divine while inundated by earthly things
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Uti “to use” vs
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- The earthly city enjoys material things for their own sake…wrong emphasis
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Canto 16, Dante encounters 3citizens from his hometown of Florence
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Inability to learn from sin and move on
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Canto 6—Dante directly references Florence as lacking peace, not an ideal city—very worldly
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Canto 31—Dante’s new Jerusalem…ideal City of God

Rome: The
Empire

Dante’s Political Theories
Life of Charlemagne
- Charles the Great- the earliest and most influential French king
- Created a politically cohesive Carolingian empire (he was Germanic)
- He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, Dec 25, 800 by Pope Leo…ruled Western Europe
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- Rome has two halves, like the City of God/Earthly City
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- He is a big fan of the City of God-Charles rules city of man but always has his mind set on city of God; good example for the people he ruled
- Every aspect of the kings life was on display—always accessible/available
- He spoke more than one language, his ruled spanned across many territories so he was able to speak across linguistic lines
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Minor Works

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Monarchia
This work is not poetic, more scholastic way of writing
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Title is deceptive; not about how we should have monarchs as traditional king but instead that one ruler should rule the world
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A major stage of development for
Dante, very different from the visionary world of the Vita Nuova
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Convivio is more sober,
temperate, and scholastic
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