Tag: Renaissance

Dante’s “Divine Comedy” and Its Influence on the Renaissance

The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri, is a three-part Italian narrative poem published in 1472. In this poem, Dante takes the reader through Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise). While doing this, he explores the essence of sin and how it disengages humans from their relationship with God. The Nine Circles of Hell include Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Avarice and Prodigality, Wrath and Sullenness, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. The Seven Terraces of Purgatory, which relate to the seven deadly sins, are Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust. The Nine Spheres of Heaven include the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Fixed Stars, and the Primum Mobile. Because of its significance over centuries, The Divine Comedy has been translated into several languages, even so, that Inferno has over 200 translations in English.

The publication of the Divine Comedy has had a monumental involvement with the Renaissance as a whole. For instance, the language that the Divine Comedy was written in. During this time, it was common to read poems written only in Latin because it was “considered to be the only language suitable for literary and philosophical purposes” (How Did Dante Influence the Renaissance – DailyHistory.Org, n.d.). He later resulted in writing the Divine Comedy in the language of Tuscan and also used influences from other Italian regional languages and Latin. This encouraged and motivated future writers to write in Tuscan, such as Petrarch and Boccaccio.

Sandro Botticelli’s illustration of Lucifer in Canto 34.

Another way The Divine Comedy influenced the Renaissance was through his description of Lucifer and Inferno. A painter by the name of Sandro Botticelli illustrated The Divine Comedy in its entirety. One painting, in particular, depicts the image of Lucifer in Canto 34. Dante describes Lucifer with three faces and in each mouth, he is chewing up sinners, and six ginormous wings: “Oh how great a marvel did it seem to me, when I saw three faces on his head! One was in front, and that was crimson;”… “In each of his mouths he was breaking a sinner with his teeth in the manner of a scutch, so that he made three suffer at once.” (Canto 34). Botticelli illustrated exactly that. Dante’s portrayal changed the way many viewed Lucifer in this time, and with the help of Botticelli, readers are able to place an image in their heads of what Lucifer looks like.

These are only a few of the immense amount of ways Dante’s Divine Comedy has influenced the Renaissance, and he will forever be recognized as one of the first “Renaissance Men” in history.

  • How did Dante influence the Renaissance – DailyHistory.org. (n.d.). Daily History. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://dailyhistory.org/How_did_Dante_influence_the_Renaissance
  • Inferno Quotes | Explanations with Page Numbers. (n.d.). LitCharts. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www.litcharts.com/lit/inferno/quotes
  • Dante’s Divine Comedy in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance art (article). (n.d.). Khan Academy. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/late-gothic-italy/florence-late-gothic/a/dantes-divine-comedy-in-late-medieval-and-early-renaissance-art
  • Shibboleth Authentication Request. (n.d.). Ebookcentral.Proquest.Com. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from http://ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=http://ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ebrary/ccny-ebooks/unauthorized&url=https%3A%2F%2Febookcentral.proquest.com%2Flib%2Fccny-ebooks%2Freader.action%3FdocID%3D693941

Dante & His Impact on Literature

Dante Alighieri is widely considered one of the greatest poets of all time, and for good reason. His most famous work, The Divine Comedy, is still greatly influential today despite being released around 650 years ago. It’s notoriety and long-lasting impact can be attributed to the way Dante’s work revolutionized literature in his time, popularizing certain styles of poetry and inspiring many great authors to write in their native tongue.

One of Dante’s many accomplishments includes helping to popularize the sonnet. The Sicilian School was a renowned group of poets from Sicily, Tuscany, and southern Italy that gathered in the court of Emperor Frederick II, and they came together to invent the poetic style known as the sonnet (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Sicilian school). Dante was greatly inspired by this group of poets, and eventually began writing sonnets of his own. At the age of 18, Dante published La Vita Nuova, which was 42 chapters long and included 25 sonnets centered around his love for Beatrice (Quinones, Legacy and influence of Dante). La Vita Nuova also included themes of “courtly love” (Amazon Affiliate Program, How did Dante influence the Renaissance 2021), which later spread all throughout Europe during the Renaissance. Dante also invented his own style of poetry, known as terza rima, which follows the pattern of the second line of a stanza rhyming with the first and third line of the next stanza (a pattern of ABA, BCB, CDC, etc) (Academy of American Poets, Terza Rima). An example of the terza rima style is shown in Dante’s very first canto of Inferno, which features the lines “Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte; ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai, dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte. Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai, tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto che la verace via abbandonai. Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto, là dove terminava quella valle che m’avea di paura il cor compunto,” (Alighieri, Canto 1, lines 7-15). This style inspired many poets; ranging from famous Italian poets such as Boccaccio and  Petrarch, and spreading outside of Italy to the rest of Europe after being brought to England by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th-century with the poem “Complaints to his Lady”  (Academy of American Poets, Terza Rima). 

The cover of Dante’s ‘La Vita Nuova’, which helped popularize the sonnet in poetry across Europe.

Unsurprisingly, Dante also inspired many authors to start writing in their native language. During the Middle Ages (500-1500 CE), literature and philosophical works were typically only written in Latin, which made these works inaccessible to the general public. However, Dante believed that one’s own vernacular was suitable enough to use in these genres, which was a radical idea at the time. Dante later wrote The Divine Comedy in his Tuscan dialect, but also borrowed from other Italian dialects and even from Latin itself (Amazon Affiliate Program, How did Dante influence the Renaissance 2021) . Due to the success of The Divine Comedy, Tuscan became the standard language for works of literature and many Renaissance writers began to write in their own unique dialect. 

  1. Amazon Affiliate Program. (2021, September 21). How did Dante influence the Renaissance. How did Dante influence the Renaissance – DailyHistory.org. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://dailyhistory.org/How_did_Dante_influence_the_Renaissance. 
  2. Baldwin, E., (2020, October 15). Terza Rima. Poem Analysis. Retrieved from https://poemanalysis.com/poetic-form/terza-rima/
  3. Academy of American Poets. (n.d.). Terza Rima. Poets.org. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://poets.org/glossary/terza-rima. 
  4. Quinones, R. J. (n.d.). Legacy and influence of Dante. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dante-Alighieri/Legacy-and-influence. 
  5. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Sicilian school. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/art/Sicilian-school. 
  6. Blauvelt, C. (2018, June 5). Dante and the divine comedy: He took us on a tour of hell. BBC Culture. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180604-dante-and-the-divine-comedy-he-took-us-on-a-tour-of-hell.