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Historical and Personal Background of the Divine Comedy

By Joseph Crane

May 2012

This essay is to accompany Between Fortune and Providence: Astrology and the Universe

in Dante’s Divine Comedy.

What follows is the overview and timeline I wish I had when I first started reading the

Divine Comedy. Many commentaries of the Divine Comedy give background historical

information, usually consisting of a general introduction and brief explanations when specific

characters and events come up within the poem. Here I will proceed sequentially, beginning

centuries before Dante’s birth and concluding in the year of his death. When I first mention a

historical person whose character appears in the Divine Comedy, the name will be in bold,

followed by page references from Between Fortune and Providence. Because this section gives

an overview specific to the Divine Comedy, Italy and the city-states of northern Italy, especially

Florence, is our focus.

This essay is partly organized according to the modern astrological practice that uses

cycles of the modern planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. When relevant, we will look at outer

planet configurations when they form conjunctions, opening squares, oppositions, and closing

squares that correspond to New, First Quarter, and Full, and Third Quarter Moons. Since many

readers of Between Fortune and Providence are astrologers or are interested in modern

astrology, this will be useful for them. Those who are not astrologers can pass over this

material.

Here’s a preliminary summary of some the interacting themes of Church, politics, and

economics that provide some background for the Divine Comedy.

Religion: Understanding the medieval Church takes a special leap of the imagination.

The Church had a dominant role in organizing and giving cohesiveness to Europe over a very

long time. Yet the Church had its ups and downs, politically and spiritually. Because of its

wealth and political power, the Church was also vulnerable to being abducted by strong secular

rulers, and this is the case throughout the medieval era. In this essay we first encounter the

Church as largely controlled by secular authorities, but reform movements were afoot that

would help give it greater independence and spiritual authority over time. As the Church grew

stronger, however, it would become more empire than religion and at times was unbelievably

worldly.

Over the centuries the papacy sometimes inaugurated some attempts to reform the

Church. There were also reform movements from the monastic side. Other Church reform

movements, like the orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans, began with charismatic leaders.

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There were also some failed attempts that have come down to us as “heresies.” Two centuries

after Dante’s death, one heretical preacher, Martin Luther, would help launch the Protestant

Reformation.

Politics: In Dante’s lifetime, the Italian peninsula was comprised of many autonomous

and economically diverse regions. In the south were the vulnerable but cosmopolitan kingdoms

of Sicily and Naples. The central region was governed by the Pope. In the wealthier and more

urbanized north, including Florence, there were many independent and prosperous city-states

that were frequently at war with each other and with the larger political entities around them.

Beginning around the time of Dante’s birth, the “Holy Roman Empire” was a loose

confederation of warring German princes and their territories that were governed by an

Emperor – at least in theory. In the centuries before Dante, the Holy Roman Empire was more

dominant in Italian affairs.

Just before and during the poet’s lifetime, however, the French monarchy had become

a major player in European affairs. Dante resented this greatly. He was nostalgic for a renewed

Roman Empire, but the reality was the perpetually disappointing contemporary “Holy Roman

Empire.” Dante did not know that Europe’s future would favor not empires but nations like

France, England, and Spain.

Economics: The monetary and banking systems of Dante’s world would be more familiar

to us than its religious and political institutions. Unlike the more rural and feudal Europe to its

north and west, northern Italy contained commercial and banking institutions similar to ours.

Italy benefited from its proximity to major trade routes and, with the Crusades, more traffic

that moved back and forth across the Mediterranean. Toward Dante’s lifetime, Florence was a

prosperous banking center and was also known for its textile industry. Dante loathed the

commercialization of Florence and northern Italy in general. Yet this commercial activity would

help bankroll Italy’s greatest eras in the centuries to come.

In short, Dante’s conceptions of the flow of history into the future turned out to be

completely wrong. He longed for a renewal of times that would never return.

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905: A Fine Place to Start

We begin in an

astrological manner by noting

that there was a Neptune/Pluto

conjunction in 905.

Neptune and Pluto are

the two outermost planets and

their cycles represent the life

span of long-term historical

patterns. Neptune suggests an

era’s ideals, while the grim task

of turning them into reality

belongs to Pluto. The beginning

of a cycle, like the New Moon, is

in the dark, but suggests a

future that will manifest more

clearly in the quarter, halfway,

and three-quarter positions of

the cycle.

This particular Neptune-Pluto cycle that began in 905 found much of European culture

and civilization at a low point. The previous century had seen destructive Viking attacks

throughout Europe. This had done great damage to the fragmenting Carolingian Empire

(named after Charlemagne) that then included present-day France, Germany, and northern

Italy. It is more likely, however, that rivalries within the Carolingian dynasty caused their rulers

to become weaker and their Empire to become more fragmented throughout the previous

century.

Italy was also fragmented and was surrounded by greater powers. To its east were

invasions by the Magyars and this particularly impacted Italy; to the south and south-east and

in the Mediterranean Sea were the Muslims who by 905 had control of Sicily and much of

southern Italy. The Byzantine Empire also had holdings in southern Italy. Fearing the Muslims

over all, this would drive the Church in Rome into the hands of the secular powers of the north

(Carolingian rulers) and the east (Byzantine rulers) for protection.

At this time northern Italy was within the “Kingdom of Italy” and theoretically governed

by the Carolingian Empire and dominated by an older Lombard and Frankish aristocracy. But

this area’s regions were relatively free politically and had become more economically

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independent.

The year 905 was close to the end for the Eastern Carolingian kings who would be

gradually replaced by the Ottonian emperors. The Ottonians directly controlled an area roughly

where Germany is now, but they were quite interested in north Italy’s wealth and relative

stability. During this century Ottonian emperors would sometimes govern north Italy but this

was resented by other secular authorities. The Ottonian empire would become the “Holy

Roman Empire” that would have such an important role to play in the centuries ahead.

In 905 was also the beginning of the gradual diminishing of the Viking invasions

throughout Europe. A few years afterwards a group of Vikings were given a kingdom of their

own in on the Eastern coast of France; descendents of the Normans (“North-men”) would

dominate much of southern Italy for several hundred years. The 900’s became a period of

(very) relative peace that saw the growth of serfdom and of the feudal system, especially in the

remnants of the Carolingian Empire, yet these structures of social and economic relationship

never took firm hold in northern Italy with its stronger city life. There will be more of that to

come.

With greater security there was renewed political and commercial activity, and so there

would be more markets for the commercial cities of northern Italy. Its commercial activity and

proximity to the Mediterranean gave the area a more fluid political and class structure. At this

time the most prosperous Italian cities were Milan, Genoa, and Venice; Florence would join this

group much later.

The Papacy had politically allied themselves with the Carolingians and then with the

Ottonians. As a result, the Papacy was dominated by these secular powers. Ottonian rulers

could appoint and depose Popes and other church officials; the moral and religious authority of

the Papacy was at a low point throughout the tenth century.

There were other trends that began early in this century. The Church saw the

beginnings of a major reform movement when the first Cluniac monastery began in Burgundy in

910. Unlike the other Church institutions at this time, this monastery did not answer to local or

regional secular authorities but rather answered directly to the Pope himself. The Cluniac

movement aimed toward reducing the corruption of the Church and promoting a greater

separation between Church and secular authority. Although monastic in nature, this

movement would greatly affect the Church as a whole and promote a gradual renewal

throughout the next two centuries. This was the first of many reform movements during the

centuries prior to the life of Dante.

987: A New Set Of French Kings

In 987, the he last king of the Carolingian dynasty in the west died and Hugh Capet (p.

61) was elected king of (what we call) France by the nobility of the area. This began the

Capetian Dynasty that would last for several hundred years. We meet Capet in Purgatorio 20

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among the avaricious, and his appearance gives Dante a chance to criticize the line of French

kings as insufferably greedy.

Often when we think of French kings in history we think of very powerful and arrogant

individuals like Louis XIV of the seventeenth century. This was far from the truth for much of

the medieval period, when the area we call France was made up of many small principalities

governed by various ruling families and the king was often little more than a figurehead..

Additionally, much of what we now call France was held by England. During the next few

centuries the power of the French monarchy would gradually increase; by Dante’s time they

had become dominant in Europe and in the fourteenth century the Papacy itself moved to

Southern France.

1077: The Investiture Conflict.

We move forward a century and find a resurgent Papacy. From its nadir in the 900’s the

church itself moved to become more self-contained and respondent to the spiritual needs of its

believers. This process culminated in the mid-eleventh century.

The investiture conflict involved the major question of who appoints Church officials,

including appointing new popes. Was this a role for the secular authorities or the Church itself?

In a fundamental way this was an early controversy about the respective functions and powers

of Church and State.

Here is some background. In the middle of the eleventh century, before becoming Pope,

Gregory VII (then Hildebrand)1 was a senior advisor to Pope Leo IX who was attempting to

reform the church and centralize papal authority. Pope Leo and Pope Gregory aimed to (1) have

popes elected by senior clergy, not appointed by an Emperor, (2) enforce priestly celibacy, (3)

forbid the buying and selling of church offices, or “simony,” (see Inferno 19) and (4) turn over

the power of appointing bishops (“investiture”) to the Church hierarchy, not to secular leaders.

[Another of Pope Leo’s chief advisors, from the monastic side, was Peter Damian (p. 127-128)

who we meet in Paradise’s sphere of Saturn, Paradiso 21.]

When Pope Gregory sent an edict forbidding secular rulers from appointing clerics,

Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, appointed his own bishop in defiance. Gregory responded

by excommunicating the Emperor (excluding him from the church and its sacraments) and

proclaiming him deposed as secular ruler. If Henry didn’t repent within a year these two

proclamations would be made permanent.

In an attempt to be reconciled with the Church, Henry traveled over the Alps in the

winter, put on the garb of a penitent, and waited barefoot in the snow for three days awaiting

Pope Gregory. The place of this famous encounter between Emperor and Pope was the castle

in Canossa (north of Florence) occupied by the countess Mathelda (p. 71, 78-80). She was the

dominant noble in Northern and central Italy at the time and was strongly associated with the

1 He should not be confused with Pope Gregory the Great from the late sixth century.

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Church reform movement and Pope Gregory. This is the same name as the woman Dante

places as forest deity of the Earthly Paradise. It’s possible that that Dante was alluding to the

best relationship between secular and religious authorities: a reformed but commanding

church and a humbler and wiser secular ruler. If so, this “improved” relationship was illusory.

The meeting between Pope and Emperor did not solve the issue of lay investiture.

Although it looked very differently at the time, this was a shrewd political move by Emperor

Henry: as leader of the Church, the Pope had to “forgive” the Emperor. This gave Henry the

time and opportunity he needed to augment his position in Germany. A few years later Henry

came back to Italy with an army and

Gregory was forced to flee and he soon

died in exile.

Of interest to the astrologer is the

Neptune-Pluto cycle. At this time Neptune

(in mid-Gemini) was in an opening square

to Pluto (in mid-Pisces). Unlike the

conjunction in 905 that is about hidden

beginnings, the opening square is a turning

point of manifestation. This encounter

between Emperor and Pope would be

emblematic of many centuries of conflict

between religious and secular authorities

in Europe. This chart is set for January 15,

1077.

The investiture conflict continued

past the lifetimes of both men and was

formally resolved in 1122.

The issue was part of the much

larger question of ultimate authority for Europe. Would the continent become a secular

theocracy, whereby its temporal rulers also governed the church? Or was it to be a papal

theocracy, whereby the pope was the universal leader and bestowed authority to the secular

rulers? For centuries, momentum went back and forth between the two sides.

By Dante’s time, however, both Empire and Papacy had become seriously weakened,

which had resulted in generations of political chaos and violence in northern Italy before the

poet was born. The long-term result of this impasse was that Europe became neither a secular

nor a papal theocracy.

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1090 or 1091: Birth year of Cacciaguida2

In the middle of the Paradiso, while visiting the sphere of Mars reserved for crusaders

and martyrs, Dante the pilgrim meets his ancestor Cacciaguida from five generations before the

poet’s birth.

In Paradiso 15 and 16, the old crusader tells of his life, the life of the Florence of his era

and compares it (quite negatively) to the Florence of Dante’s day. Cacciaguida tells of a

Florence that was quite different from the large prosperous and politically conflicted city that

Florence has become. During his lifetime, he relates, Florence was smaller, less commercial,

and more homogenous. According to the account given by Cacciaguida, Florence during his

lifetime had fewer large homes, less conspicuous consumption by the wealthy, and people

dressed in a simpler style.

The city hadn’t expanded and become integrated with people from surrounding areas.

As stated by Dante’s character, the “original” medieval Florentines considered themselves

directly descended from the Romans and their society had degenerated due to the inclusion of

outsiders.

Historical records of Florence at this time are sparse but a few things are known.

Florence at this time was hardly more than a village surrounded by old Roman walls. It was

during Cacciaguida’s lifetime that Florence began to defeat and to assimilate many of the

surrounding feudal families and many of the neighboring cities. A generation after

Cacciaguida’s death, new city walls were constructed that tripled the city area.

A growing merchant class would help initiate moves toward self-government that would

be called the “commune movement”. Not to be confused with modern alternative living

arrangements, communes were set up in different places in Europe but especially in the more

urbanized northern Italy. It is likely that communes began as informal associations of groups

with common interests, such as town maintenance, defense, and especially by a dislike for

arbitrary taxes levied by surrounding nobles and Emperors. By acting on their own behalf, cities

were able to make alliances with Church, Emperor or King to obstruct the various nobles who

often surrounded the cities with their estates. Gradually these city groups would elect leaders

that were likely from a town’s aristocratic families – this was a system that had features of

democracy and features of oligarchy, where those from wealthy and connected families were

routinely the city’s leaders. By Dante’s time the different guilds were dominant in this system

of self-government, and Dante became one of its leaders.

During this time and for centuries afterwards people in northern Italy were inclined to

2 Commentators usually cite 1091 as the birth year for Dante’s ancestor. In Between Fortune and Providence, page

119, I discuss the provocative lines of Paradiso 16.37-39, where Cacciaguida states that Mars has returned to its position 580 times since the Annunciation. Recently it’s come to light that the correct interpretation of the Almanac that Dante used gives not 580 but 579 synodic periods that would bring us to 1090 when indeed Mars was in Leo. (Personal communication R. Martinez 3/21/2012) The birth year of the summer of 1090 also gives us a Mars-Jupiter conjunction that would certainly fit in well with the poet’s righteous ancestor.

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think of themselves not as Italian but as members of a particular city and during the medieval

period Italian cities frequently went to war with one another, including in Cacciaguida’s

lifetime.

Although there is no independent record of this man Cacciaguida, there is no reason to

doubt his existence.

1095: First Crusade called.

We return to the larger world.

In previous decades and far to the east of Italy, the Seljuk Turks had taken over a large

area including most of Asia Minor (our modern “Turkey”) from the Byzantine Empire. The

Byzantine Emperor had appealed to Pope Gregory for help, but at that time the Pope was too

busy feuding with Emperor Henry. Times changed though, and in November 1095 Gregory’s

successor Urban II called upon all Christians to “take up the cross” and recapture the holy lands

from the Muslims. This also occurred as Uranus was approaching a closing square to Neptune,

bringing about a focus on religious and secular structure.

Two years later an expedition later identified as the “First Crusade” left for the East and

by 1099 had conquered and occupied significant land held by the Muslims, especially

Jerusalem. The victorious crusaders established Latin-speaking medieval states in the original

Holy Land and on the Eastern Mediterranean coast.

This would be a financial windfall for Italian coastal cities (particularly Venice) that could

transport troops to the Holy Land and who could profit from the increased economic activity

military activity brings. Florence would also become involved in increased trade.

In spite of its idealistic agenda, the Crusades brought great pillage and unnecessary

slaughter. Future crusades were no more virtuous than the first, and they were less militarily

successful. In spite of the cavernous gap between ideal and reality, the activity of crusading as

taking up the cross for God remained powerful in the European imagination from the medieval

times up to the present day. Dante was no exception to this; in the Divine Comedy the poet

waxes nostalgic for the crusading ideal and, in his conversation with his ancestor Cacciaguida

who ostensibly had died on the Second Crusade, the poet casts himself also as a crusader.

1138: Astrological texts translated into Latin.

During this time and in different parts of Europe, important astrological works from the

Islamic areas were being translated into Latin. In this year Plato of Trivoli translated Ptolemy’s

Tetrabiblos, making the ancient writer of natural astrology available to the Latin West. Two

years earlier Hugh of Santilla translated the Centriquium, falsely attributed to Ptolemy, which

contained basic principles of applied astrology. Previously Adelard of Bath translated Arabic

astronomical tables, works of Abu Masar from the Arabic, and constructed an astrolabe.

The Jewish poet and astrologer Abraham Ibn Ezra, born late in the 11th century, lived in

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Italy and wrote many of his astrological works there. His writings were one of Dante’s sources

for astrology. Some of them are now available in English translations.

1145: Second Crusade and Bernard of Clairvaux.

In 1144 the Muslims recaptured the city of Edessa in present-day Iraq. Pope Eugenius III

called for another expedition to the Holy Land to take back Edessa and to continue the

conquest of the Holy Land for Christendom. The “Second Crusade” was an embarrassing

failure.

One who enthusiastically promoted this new crusade was Bernard of Clairvaux (p. 100,

129, 154-158). As the head of the Cistercian monastic order that was an offshoot of the Cluniac

movement, Bernard was the model of the disciplined and contemplative life. He was a writer,

preacher, strong adversary, and one of the most respected religious people of his age. Bernard

attributed the Second Crusade’s failure to the spiritual deficiencies of European Christendom.

Bernard was a staunch opponent of the new scholarly attraction for Aristotle whose

writings for the first time were widely available in the Latin west (“widely” being a relative

term, of course). Bernard was also highly critical of the dialectical method that has come down

to us as “scholasticism.” In particular he spared no effort in making life miserable for Peter

Abelard, one such dialectical intellectual. Instead of an approach of scholarship, Bernard

promoted personalized and experiential methods of religious practice and in particular

promoted the cult of the Virgin Mary. In the Divine Comedy Bernard appears only at the very

end of the poem, replacing Beatrice as the pilgrim’s guide to lead him to the Virgin Mary and

the vision of God.

Along with many kings and nobles, the Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad III took part in the

Second Crusade. One of his soldiers was the knighted Cacciaguida who died on the crusade.

See Paradiso 15.139-148.

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This chart is set for noontime on

December 5, 1151. This is the midpoint

in the Pluto/Neptune cycle that began in

905. At this time Western Europe saw a

tremendous amount of political and

religious activity: the second Crusade

had failed, the fight between Emperor

and Pope for northern Italy was just

beginning (as we will see just below),

and (as stated above) the conflict

between religious conservatism and the

new styles of philosophy had begun.

(The third quarter square occurred soon

after Dante’s death.)

1156: Emperor Frederick Barbarossa stirs up trouble.

The year 1156 saw an important meeting between Pope (Adrian IV) and Emperor

Frederick I (or Frederick Barbarossa, “Red-Beard”). The Emperor, far stronger than his

predecessors, had come to Italy with his army, subdued a popular revolt that had exiled the

Pope from Rome, and insisted that the Pope give him the crown. Reluctantly and after a short

impasse, Adrian crowned Frederick Holy Roman Emperor. In Germany there had been much

conflict between Frederick’s family and its German rivals, the “House of Welf”. the Emperor’s

first order of business was to bring some amity between rival factions. Being crowned by the

Pope was certainly one way of doing this.

Relative calm in Germany and legitimization by the Pope helped Emperor Frederick with

his next goal – appropriation of the relatively prosperous areas of northern Italy. These urban

centers were theoretically part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Frederick’s dreams of greater empire ran into strong but uneven opposition. Pope

Adrian and his successors were rather displeased with Frederick’s claims and the independent

cities resisted him. The red bearded Emperor invaded northern Italy six times but never could

establish a permanent foothold there. At times he would dominate the region but then chaos

in the German states would bring him back home.

Some regions in Italy allied with Frederick, others with his German opponents.

(Florence, closer geographically to the Papal States, generally supported the Pope but stayed

out of the fray.) After Frederick captured and burnt Milan to the ground in 1162, many of the

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nearby city-states formed the Lombard League, eventually routed Frederick’s troops in battle,

and the two sides settled in 1183. Although officially part of the “Holy Roman Empire”, these

cities retained their functional independence. Florence, to the south of the Lombard alliance,

was more firmly under the control of the Emperor, and had to work with competing needs from

the commune self-government and that imposed by the Empire.

Frederick then set his sights upon the Norman kingdom of Sicily and, to begin a claim to

that throne, married off his son to the niece of the Sicily’s ruler. This was to have major

consequences in the century ahead. But on his way to a Third Crusade, Frederick died in 1190.

These events helped set the stage for the Italian politics of the thirteenth century that

Dante was born into and that constitute much of the Divine Comedy’s background. Supporters

of the House of Welf (the rival German princes) became Italy’s “Guelfs” who would usually take

the Pope’s side in a dispute; followers of the Hohenstaufen family became the “Ghibellines”,

named after a Hohenstaufen castle named Waibingen. (You try to find an Italian equivalent to

“Hohenstaufen.”) Dante would be part of the Guelfs who dominated Florence during this

lifetime.

1181: Heresies threaten the religious status quo.

In 1181, Pope Alexander III designated two religious groups as heretical. One was called

the Waldensians, named after its founder Peter Waldo. This charismatic preacher, who had

once been a merchant, gave away his possessions and preached poverty, the superiority of the

simpler apostolic life, and self-study of the Bible. The other movement was even more

dangerous to the religious status quo. Slowly emigrating from the East were the Cathars who,

when they began to dominate southern France, were known as Albigensians. They promoted a

view that the world of matter was in the realm of Satan and therefore the Christian incarnation

was impossible. They also promoted a class of saintly people called the perfecti. This was not a

Christian reform movement but an entirely new religion. Aided by indifferent or sympathetic

local lords these groups began to attract many followers and became influential in southern

France and parts of northern Italy.

1187: A Virtuous Pagan Takes Back Jerusalem.

In 1187, Saladin and his force of Muslim troops recaptured Jerusalem and nearby

Crusader States from their Christian occupiers. Previously Saladin had managed to unite Egypt

and the area of Palestine and was a forceful political and military leader. Although a non-

Christian, Saladin was considered virtuous by his Christian contemporaries. (Unlike the

Christians in the eleventh century, Saladin spared Jerusalem’s inhabitants when he captured

the city.) We see Saladin in Dante’s first circle of Hell that is reserved for the virtuous pagans.

The result of Saladin’s success was another invasion from the west that history calls the “Third

Crusade.” This was the campaign that claimed the life of Frederick Barbarossa who accidently

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drowned. The Third Crusade ended in 1192 with a truce between Saladin and Richard “The

Lionhearted” and there was no re-conquest of the Holy Lands

1194: Emperor Henry, Constance and the young Frederick.

The Norman king of Sicily died without a male heir and Emperor Frederick’s son Henry

had a claim on the Sicilian throne, having been married to Constance (p. 102, 104, 105n), the

daughter of the previous king. We hear of Constance twice in the Divine Comedy. Manfred, one

of the last Hohenstaufen rulers, introduces himself in Purgatorio 3 not as the son of his father

but the grandson of “Constanze imperadrice”, “Empress Constance”. In Paradiso 3, in the

sphere of the Moon, Constance is next to Piccarda who speaks of her as having been taken

from cloistered life and forced to marry for political reasons.

With a claim to its throne, Frederic Barbarossa’s son Henry VI invaded and appropriated

the previously-Norman Kingdom of Sicily that included southern Italy. By this time the Normans

had been in control of this region for well over a century. Henry was also the Holy Roman

Emperor and had claim to Germany and northern Italy. He ruled for seven years.

Henry unexpectedly died in 1197, leaving his widow and a son three years old.

Constance had the good sense to name Pope Innocent III the young boy’s guardian, who in turn

proclaimed the toddler King of Sicily.

Innocent III would have been a natural ally of Sicily’s rival, the Welf-allied Otto IV in

Germany. The Pope crowned Otto Emperor but soon became disillusioned with him and

instead backed the young Frederick. Pope Innocent was hoping to take advantage of the young

heir’s minority even if that meant the Pope backing a Hohenstaufen. This strategy would

backfire, and Frederick II would become the Papacy’s affliction for decades.

1200: The University System and Aristotle

The year 1200 conventionally marks the beginning of the university system which

became the basis for the intellectual renaissance of the thirteenth century. The university

system became a fertile ground for the transmission of the works of Aristotle and others to the

medieval culture. During the 1200’s universities specialized in different studies: people flocked

to Bologna to study law, Salerno to study medicine, and notably the university at Paris to study

theology. There was a wide divergence of opinion on the relationship between these new

“pagan” sources and the Christian doctrine.

Accompanying the writings of “the Philosopher” were also the commentaries by the

Islamic Averroes that became the basis for a more radical Aristotelianism; opposing them were

those for whom philosophy was, at best, the “handmaiden of theology”. These new teachings

based on Aristotle were exciting and feared and there was conflict over them for decades. The

epicenter for this conflict was Paris although it would manifest throughout the intellectual

circles of Europe and take many forms.

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This was the time of the Uranus-Pluto

conjunction that signals radical

departures from orthodoxy

At this time the Catholic Church

was controlled by its most powerful

Pope, Innocent III. In Uranus-Pluto

fashion, there were many great

challenges to church orthodoxy. The

Cathars or Albigensians were at their

peak of popularity in Southern France;

in the universities, occasional bans on

the teachings from the pagan

philosopher and Islamic commentators

were usually ignored by university

professors and their students. This

chart is set for July 28, 1201.

1208: Dominic and the Albigensians.

Innocent III, having been unable to restrain the advance of the Albigensians, called a

crusade against them. At this time the French monarchy was now available for an armed

conflict and had an eye toward eventually expanding their realm into southern France to the

Mediterranean. This was also a golden chance for France’s northern nobility to engage in a

land-grab of territory confiscated from the Albigensians and their allies

Innocent III had tried to convert Albigensians back to Christianity more peacefully. A

few years earlier, arriving from the Spanish peninsula, Dominic de Guzman (p. 113-115) and his

bishop asked the Pope’s permission to preach to the non-Christians in the East. Seeing a greater

threat closer to home and surely impressed by Dominic’s abilities, the Pope instead sent them

to southern France to preach to the Albigensians.

Dominic, a brilliant and fierce defender of his contemporary church, encountered many

difficulties in southern France. The Church’s previous missions to France mostly communicated

the Church’s ostentatious wealth. Additionally, the Albigensian perfecti were generally quite

learned, and their ideas could be countered only by those skillful in dialectic. Dominic

presented himself as a less worldly man of God who was intelligent and adept at disputation.

Several years later his ministry grew into an international “Dominican Order. During the 1200’s

Dominicans would controversially dominate the universities in Europe.

In Paradiso 9 42-111, in the sphere of Venus, we hear from man who calls himself Folco

(p. 109). In 1205 he became the bishop of Toulouse, the major city in southern France and an

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Albigensian stronghold. Folco was a major player in the Albigensian crusades. In Paradiso 9,

Folco discusses his previously changed life from troubadour to person of God, but not his

subsequent actions against the Albigensians. Yet his presence in the Paradiso speaks much of

Dante’s bias in that conflict.

Things would not turn out well for the Albigensians or the autonomous kingdoms of

southern France. As the crusading invaders captured more cities the region became involved in

warfare between the various rulers and sovereigns. After many years and much loss of life,

southern France was firmly under the control of the French king. In addition many Dominican

friars became inquisitors working to ferret out heretics, and the Albigensian religion was

annihilated.

1210: Charismatic wanderer goes mainstream.

In 1210, Francis of Assisi (p. 113-115) went to Innocent III, requesting that that he and

his followers be given official permission to preach and to become an officially sanctioned

order. Francis and his followers received an audience with the Pope (probably a miracle in

itself), who gave his blessings to what would be later called the “Franciscan Order.” Perhaps

the Pope was taken by the barefoot preacher’s saintly presence, but likely this was a pragmatic

move by Pope Innocent. Francis would begin a movement that could help inspire alternatives

to the worldliness and wealth of the current Church. Innocent’s “big tent” approach, to find

avenues for the truly religious but leave its institutions unchanged, helped give the Church an

additional three hundred years of being “catholic” or universal. Francis was one of the great

and influential personalities of his age. For Dante, he was a strong influence, a spiritual

troubadour who wrote poetry, a contemplative who also preached to the Sultan.

1215: A Blood Feud in Florence leads to civil war.

In 1215, a man named Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti was betrothed to the daughter

of one family but left her suddenly and instead married the daughter of Gualdrada Donati (a

family name we will encounter again). A member of the aggrieved Amidei family that was allied

with the Uberti family (another family name we will encounter again), murdered Buondelmonti

on a bridge near an old statue of Mars. Cacciaguida discusses this incident in Paradiso 16.142-

147.

This led to a split among the leading families in Florence that gradually took on political

dimensions as the Guelf/Ghibelline conflict. This would last generations and help plunge

northern Italy and Florence itself into civil war.

From the point of view of Florence, the Guelfs promoted greater city independence

from the Empire (not that they particularly wanted clerical rule) and the Ghibellines were allied

with Emperor Frederick II who had hegemony over Florence during much of his reign. Dante,

although a loyal Guelf, wanted a rejuvenated and powerful Holy Roman Empire to turn chaos

15

into order. In Dante’s view Florence’s independence was not an unmixed blessing.

1220-1250: The Era of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.

After consolidating his gains in Sicily and buying off the nobles in Germany with large

concessions, Frederick II was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Pope Innocent’s

successor Honorius III. Frederick gained favor with the new Pope by promising to go on a

crusade about which he then dithered for years. He also promised the Pope he would not

attempt to unite Sicily and Naples with the Empire to the north.He didn’t keep that promise

either. The net result was that Emperor and Pope, this one and his successors, would be

combatants for the next three decades.

Advising the Emperor was Michael Scot (p.182), who, according to Inferno 20, had

skinny flanks and practiced “magic fraud”. Being born in 1175 he was an older man to the

young Emperor and was the Emperor’s personal astrologer. Previously he had translated

Aristotle into Latin and became steeped in the major philosophical trends of his day, wrote an

introductory book on astrology, and practiced different forms of sympathetic magic.

After years of dithering and then becoming excommunicated, Frederick II finally arrived

in the Holy Land. In a move that angered more orthodox Christians and Muslims, he made a

diplomatic deal with the Muslim leader of Jerusalem, the result of which was that Christians

could again occupy Jerusalem and surrounding areas for ten years. On his return to Italy in

1230, he made clear his intention to unite his Kingdom of Sicily and the city-states of northern

Italy -- sandwiching the Papal States in between. For the next twenty years, occasionally

interrupted by peace treaties, Frederick’s dream of a larger empire was opposed by both the

papacy and the northern cities. This would result in civil war among the cities of northern Italy

that would continue for decades, up to the time of Dante’s birth.

Like his grandfather who had the same ambition, Frederick’s plans to conquer and

control Italy were never realized. One difficulty was that he encountered a series of strong

popes who did what they could to thwart him. In addition to the use of military power and

material aid to Frederick’s enemies, the popes repeatedly excommunicated the Emperor,

making it more difficult for him to exert authority. In the 1240’s, Pope Innocent IV invited

everybody to join in a crusade against Frederick. In 1254 all of Frederick’s followers were

excommunicated by the Church.

For much of this time Frederick’s chancellor and personal confidant was Pier delle Vigne

(p 13, 19n), who was also a first-rate poet and man of letters. Pier delle Vigne had an abrupt

turn of fortune in the late 1240’s when he fell out of grace with Frederick. The once-favored

prime minister was jailed, blinded, and he eventually killed himself. We find delle Vigne

unforgettably portrayed in Inferno 13 among the suicides, as an elegantly speaking gnarled

bush.

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Frederick was far more Italian than German, was multilingual (including Arabic), was

tolerant of Islam and stocked his armies with Muslim mercenaries, discoursed in philosophy,

wrote his own poetry, and was a thoroughgoing religious skeptic. He helped found the

university at Salerno that specialized in medicine that took from multiple sources. Frederick

helped make Sicily a place of culture and refinement and, critical to Dante’s poetic lineage,

helped introduce the troubadour tradition of poetry from Provence to Sicily, from where it

would eventually move to central Italy. Frederick well earned the appellation Stupor Mundi

that sounds much better in translation: “Wonder of the World”.

After conducting decades of civil war in Italy, after some victories but many defeats,

Frederick II died of dysentery in 1250. After his death Italy would continue fragmented and

often at war with itself. Florence had been under the rule of Frederick, but it was quite divided

over whether this was a good thing, and Guelf and Ghibelline families fiercely contested the

matter. Frederick’s death prompted Florence toward greater self-sufficiency.

Where does one find Frederick in Dante’s afterlife? Dante mentions him only in passing:

he is in Inferno X in the place assigned to heretics. In the poet’s view Frederick would have

been the kind of ruler who could have brought order to Italy, and indeed Frederick’s dream of a

united Italy as the center of the Empire, was also Dante’s dream. However, Frederick, in

Dante’s eyes, was more religious skeptic (or even pagan) than Christian, nor could he have been

considered just or temperate. In Purgatory and Paradise we find many rulers but it seems that

the shadow of Frederick II hovers over all of them.

1252: Alfonse the Wise and his projects.

For 1252, we move to the Spanish peninsula, another place of international learning and

culture. This was another important year for the dissemination of astrology in the West.

Alphonse the Wise, king of Castille, had an abiding interest in astronomy and astrology. He

commissioned the “Alphonsine Tables” from an international group of scholars. These updated

the Toledan Tables from the second half of the 11th century and were in use for several

centuries afterwards. Alphonse also commissioned a translation of the Picatrix that became

the basic text for magic in the medieval era and the Renaissance.

1252: Florence’s gesture of independence.

Also in 1252, the city of Florence was looking to control its future. With Frederick II deceased

and his succession uncertain, Florence took the unusual step of introducing its own currency –

the florin – as gold coin. This was generally considered a matter for the Empire, not an

independent city. This move signaled Florence’s desire for autonomy in addition to its status as

a major economic powerhouse. This stable currency was soon in use throughout Europe. By

now an independent Florence had defeated many of its neighboring cities and became the

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most powerful city in Tuscany.

1254: Manfred Inherits the Hohenstaufen Dynasty.

Emperor Frederick’s son Conrad IV, who had been King of Germany, succeeded

Frederick. Pope Innocent IV preached another crusade, this time against Conrad. However the

young emperor died in 1254 and was succeeded by his half-brother, Frederick’s illegitimate son

Manfred (p. 31-32). At this time the focus of activity was south Italy and Sicily, leaving the

central and northern city-states to fend for themselves and feud with each other. Naturally

Manfred’s accession was met with a divided Florence: to the Guelfs he would be considered a

major threat; to the Ghibellines he was the savior who could restore the old families.

1257: The Four Schoolmen of Paris.

At the university in Paris, doctorates were awarded to two renowned teachers, possibly

in the same ceremony: Bonaventure (p. 113, 115) the Franciscan and Thomas of Aquinas (p.

112, 115) the Dominican.3

Bonaventure later would become the head of the entire Franciscan order and is credited

with compiling the definitive biography of Francis of Assisi. His theology stressed the role of

faith, intuition and the good will to provide means necessary from our side for salvation (God’s

grace is the other side). Although well-schooled in the philosophical trends of his time,

Bonaventure had little use for many of the speculations of his colleagues and considered

philosophy the “handmaiden of theology”. Among many he is considered the second founder

of the Franciscan order.

Thomas was from southern Italy and his family was related to Frederick II and the

Hohenstaufens. As a young man he felt the call for the priesthood and only after outlasting

great family resistance (including locking him up) did he become a Dominican at the age of 19.

One year later Thomas went to Paris and met Albertus Magnus there. He later followed his

teacher to Cologne and spent eight years at the papal court, but twice more returned to Paris

to teach and write. During Thomas’ third stay in Paris, beginning in 1268, he wrote the

monumental Summa Theologica.

Thomas endeavored to take the intellectual fight to Siger of Brabant, the best known of

the “Latin Averroists,” named after the great Arabic commentator from the previous century.

This group took its Aristotle to heart and endeavored to pursue a purely rational philosophy

without attempting to reconcile it with Christian teachings. Siger promoted the idea of “two

truths” whereby conflicting conclusions of philosophy and theology could both be valid within

their own spheres.

Thomas of Aquinas would have none of this. There are truths of our worlds that can be

3 See Catholic Encyclopedia, online: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02648c.htm

18

discovered by empirical investigation and philosophical dialectic, and further by Christian

revelation, but only one truth. The grand plan for The Divine Comedy with its widening ranges

of truth as it proceeds through the regions of the afterlife follows Thomas’ presentation. There

was also a strong political influence. Unlike the Augustinian tradition that regarded the “City of

Man” as subordinate to the “City of God” (the Church), Aquinas and others argued that the

political life has its own place to support the development of virtue and to provide a supportive

environment for the work of human salvation. Dante’s political theory presented in The Divine

Comedy is close to this view.

In Dante’s Paradise we see all four schoolmen of Paris – Thomas, Bonaventure, Siger,

and Albertus Magnus -- together as glittering lights among the circular garlands of stars that

comprise the Sphere of the Sun (See Paradiso 10-13). Their difficulties with each other in life

served to promote a greater good.

1260: Florence Goes Back and Forth.

Although Florence was considered a Guelf city there was an important interruption. In

1260, in the battle of Monteperti near Siena, an alliance of Ghibellines led by Farinata degli

Uberti (p. 7, 16, 26) routed the Florentine Guelfs. Another participant in this battle was Bocca

delgi Abati (p. 17-18), a Ghibelline leader who pretended to defect to the other side and helped

turn the battle against the Guelfs. In Inferno 32, Abati is stuck in ice with only his head above

the surface. When Dante finds out who he is, he kicks him in the head.

After this battle the Ghibellines and their allies took over the city of Florence. In a

council of the victors, Farinata stood against Florence’s destruction and the city survived.

(Faranata had been the head of the Ghibellines in Florence for decades previously, was exiled

with his fellows in 1248 but returned three years later.) Cast as a haughty aristocrat speaking

grandly from a flaming tomb, Farinata is one of the more interesting characters of the poem.

See Inferno 10.

Ghibelline domination of Florence wouldn’t last long.

During this time Guido Bonatti (p. 182-183) was the celebrity astrologer to various

Ghibellene leaders although not (as far as we know) to Farinata. At one time Bonatti worked for

the governor of Padua, Ezzelino da Romana (p. 109), known for his cruelty. Ezzelino appears in

Inferno 12 cast into a river of blood. Bonatti also worked for Count Novello who was the

Ghibellene leader of Florence after the battle of Montaperti. The great astrologer also worked

for Guido da Montefeltro (p. 204-205), a military and political leader who the poet assigned to

the place in Hell for evil counselors (Inferno 27).

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1265: Dante’s birth.

In 1265, the future poet was born to a notary father and a mother from family of minor

nobility. His family owned some land outside the city walls. Dante had one sister. Their mother

died when he was a child and their father died when he was a teenager.

1266: The Hohenstaufen Dynasty Ends; Sicily goes French.

In 1266, Manfred the son of Frederick II was killed in battle at Benevuto. Pope Clement

IV had previously excommunicated Manfred and formed an alliance with Charles of Anjou

(brother of Louis IX the king of France). Bankrolled by Florentine bankers, Charles sent a force

against Manfred who was betrayed by his own barons and was killed. Manfred makes a

dramatic appearance in Purgatorio 3 still showing the wounds of battle. Manfred’s son came

down from Germany to challenge Charles but he was captured and beheaded. This was the end

of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and began the long decline of the Holy Roman Empire. The

Empire would become a polyglot of German principalities; Dante would resent the Emperors’

neglect of Italy during his politically turbulent lifetime.

Charles of Anjou took over areas in southern Italy held by the Hohenstaufen but formed

an alliance with Venice and aimed his intentions east. Sicily would stay in French hands until

1272, when the Sicilians overthrew and massacred the French in the “Sicilian Vespers.” This

would result in further warfare and political complexity that would again reverberate to the

north.

1266: Peaceful Florence.

The Guelfs took back Florence for good in 1266, which ended the Ghibelline presence in

the city. Farinata’s family was exiled once again. Dante would grow up in a relatively peaceful

Florence. Later the political situation in Florence would once again become deadly as the

Guelfs themselves split into factions.

1274: Life-Changing Events.

At the age of nine the lad Dante first saw Beatrice and fell in love with her on the spot.

Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure both die.

1283: Dante’s Early Life.

In 1283, the teenage Dante was married to Gemma Donati whose ancestors we have

met and whose relatives we will meet soon enough. Dante and Gemma had four children and

appeared to have had a relatively happy marriage. Beatrice herself was married in 1287 to a

man from a family with similar wealth and social standing as hers. Dante mentions neither

marriage in his poetic writings.

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During his early adult years Dante may have spent time in University of Bologna. In

Florence one of his teachers was probably Brunetto Latini (p. 16-17), from whom Dante likely

learned classical literature and to read Virgil. Latini was also an example of a politically involved

literary person as Dante himself would become.

The Alighieri family had property outside of Florence, some of which was rental

property, and managing this property was a source of income for Dante and his family at this

time.

1289: Florence Victorious.

In 1289, Dante participated in the battle of Campaldino, where Florence and her allies defeated

neighboring Arezzo and their Ghibelline allies. In Purgatorio 5 we meet the Ghibelline leader

Buonconte da Montefeltro (p. 39-40), son of Guido who is in hell, who like Manfred was a late

penitent. This battle’s outcome insured that Florence would dominate Tuscany.

1290: Beatrice dies.

1291: End of the Crusader Era.

We take one last look at the Holy Lands. After laying siege to the city, the Muslims

captured the city of Acre, the last of the Crusader States, thus effectively ending the era of the

Crusades in 1291. The Divine Comedy, particularly the Paradiso, waxes nostalgic for the bygone

times of the crusades.

1293-1294: Dante the Poet.

From 1293-1294, Dante composed the Vita Nuova, (“New Life”) containing sonnets and

commentary that told of his love for Beatrice. It also provides a narrative of his poetic and

spiritual growth. The Vita Nuova, along with Dante’s other early poetry, helped established him

as an important poet in Florence. During this period he experimented with different contents

and poetic styles that would serve him well later.

The content of Dante’s poetry stemmed in part from the poetic troubadour tradition

that began in Provençal France, moved from Sicily (thank Frederick II) and then to the city-

states in central and northern Italy in the years before Dante’s birth. Over time this tradition

changed from a focus on love and affairs of the heart to include a more spiritual dimension

whereby personal love brings the lover closer to God.

In Purgatorio 26 we meet Guido Guinizzelli (p. 64, 68), a poet from Bologna in the

previous generation. As befits fashioners of love poetry, Guinizzelli and his fellow penitents are

purifying lust. Dante feels indebted to Guinizzelli, who defers to the Provençal poet Arnaut

Daniel (p. 68) from earlier in the century.

21

1294: Dante’s Important Friend.

In 1294, Dante met and became fast friends with Charles Martel (p. 107-109, 215-216).

Martel was the grandson of Charles of Anjou and son of the king of Sicily, heir to many

kingdoms, and briefly stayed in Florence on his way to Naples. In Paradiso 8 Dante and Charles

Martel converse as old friends reuniting. Martel also may have inspired Dante to enter political

life.

1294: Boniface VIII.

In 1294, Boniface VIII was elected Pope to replace Celestine V who had abdicated.

Celestine had considered himself more a contemplative than a public person. When called to

public life he preferred his private life. Celestine’s “Great Refusal” (see Inferno 3) was a refusal

of the call to becoming active in the world. A century after the papacy of Innocent III, Boniface

was convinced he could wield the same kind of power, but times had changed greatly. Even

contemporary historians view the new Pope Boniface VIII as “haughty, overbearing, vain, and

incredibly ambitious.”4 This is fairly charitable compared to Dante’s treatment of him. Later, it

was with his collusion that the Black Guelfs took over Florence and Dante was exiled from his

city.

We will discuss the tragic ending of Boniface’s reign below.

1295: Dante becomes a politician.

The year 1295 sees the the poet entering a period of active participation in the affairs of

Florence. Based on the increasing power of the trade guilds, there had been a reform of the

commune system in Florence. To qualify for holding office, Dante had to be a member of a

guild. He chose to become a member of Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries (he was neither).

Dante was quite successful as a man of influence, becoming known as a very persuasive

speaker with strong convictions.

April 1300: the time of the Divine Comedy’s narrative.

Spring-Summer 1300: Setting up Dante’s downfall.

4 Tierney, B. & Painter, S. p. 387

Because Boniface was still alive at the time of the Divine Comedy’s narrative, Dante has

to find another way to depict the pope’s eventual destination. In Inferno 19, Nicholas III, who was pope when Dante was a teenager, is placed with many others in a flaming baptismal font upside down, with his feet kicking in the air. Not seeing Dante but knowing somebody is nearby, Nicholas exclaims, “Se’ tu già costì ritto,/se’ tu già costì ritto, Bonifazio?” “Are you already standing there, are you already standing there, Boniface?” (Durling translation)

22

In 1300 Dante became one of Florence’s six Priors who would govern the city. One

would think this was good news for the poet, but he inherited a very difficult situation.

By this time Florence’s ruling Guelfs had split into “black” and “white” factions and a

family struggle between the Cerchis and Donatis and their respective allies. Dante belonged to

the whites, who were more willing to oppose the pope and church establishment than their

opponents.

Beginning at a May Day dance, violence had broken out between the two factions. To

restore order, the six new priors, including Dante, banished the leaders of both sides, including

Guido Calvacanti from the whites and Corso Donati from the blacks. Calvacanti returned to

Florence and died of malaria at the end of the summer; Donati’s exile continued.

Donati then appealed to Pope Boniface who asked the French nobleman Charles of

Valois (brother of King Phillip IV of France) to become Florence’s “peacemaker”. This created

an unholy alliance between a greedy Pope (Boniface), an ambitious French nobleman (Charles),

and a ruthless Florentine political leader (Corso Donati) and an evil brew for the poet turned

politician.

June 19, 1301: “Nihil fiat.”

Through his cardinal as emissary, Pope Boniface asked for military support from

Florence for an excursion into southern Tuscany. The white Guelfs opposed this proposal and

on this date Dante gave his famous Nihil fiat speech (“that nothing be done”). This only

increased tensions between the Florentine whites and the Pope.

November 1, 1301: The Black Guelfs take Florence.

At the instigation of (and with payment by) Pope Boniface, Charles of Valois entered

Florence with his army and occupied it. Although he had promised a peaceful occupation, he

let Corso Donati and other exiled black Guelfs back into the city, and within a week they had

complete control. Donati and his allies began a bloody purge of their adversaries while the

French looked the other way.

Dante, however, was elsewhere at the time of the takeover. He may have been on a

prior mission to the Pope to attempt an agreement with him, and he may have been detained

there when Charles and the Black Guelfs occupied Florence. Had Dante been in Florence he

could easily have been killed.

January 27, 1302: Dante’s Exile Begins.

The Black Guelfs controlling Florence condemned Dante and others of the white faction

on trumped-up charges of financial mismanagement and for defying the pope. They were

sentenced to banishment. On March 10 Dante was sentenced to death if he attempted to

return to the city. Dante never returned to Florence.

23

Once Dante had accepted the reality of his exile he continued studying and writing and

gradually built up to the Divine Comedy. He continued to write poetry, of course. He wrote but

did not complete De Vulgari Eloquentia about the evolution of language. He also wrote the

Convivio that contained philosophical speculations that would later appear (and sometimes to

be refuted) in the Divine Comedy. De Monarchia, which contains his political theory, was

written during his last years. Many of Dante’s letters also survive.

In Paradiso 17, Cacciaguida tells Dante about his life as an exile. Dante would try to get

back into Florence by allying himself with other white Guelfs but they turn out to be the wrong

people and their enterprise will fail. This would leave Dante, Cacciaguida says, “a party for

yourself.” The poet continued to be involved in politics, not as an office holder but as a partisan

and writer of polemics and occasionally as a diplomat. In exile he was generally hosted well,

yet, says Cacciaguida, to an exile the host’s stairs always feel heavier and the bread tastes

saltier.

September 1303: Pope vs. French King.

The papacy of Boniface VIII did not end happily. The French King Philip IV was as tough a

political fighter and the two feuded over the issue of taxing the French clergy. Eventually they

made a truce but Phillip emerged with the advantage. In September 1303, troops led by a

representative of Phillip went to a papal residence at Anagni. Some of them assaulted and

imprisoned Boniface, and the Pope, although freed quickly, died soon afterwards.

Dante was horrified by this incident. Although he detested this Pope, he likened Phillip’s

part to Pilate letting Christ be attacked. (See Purgatorio 20.85-90.) The following Pope,

Benedict XI, died shortly after taking office. His successor Clement V was a puppet of the

French monarchy. The

papacy itself moved to

Avignon in 1309 where

the French would call

the shots for the next

several decades.

The year of the

Uranus-Neptune

conjunction (1307) was

not momentous in the

history of northern

Italy, yet we will see

that in less than two

years the Papacy

would move to France.

24

Probably in the following year Dante began The Divine Comedy. This chart is for November 3,

1307.

1310: Florence threatened by one more Emperor.

The Black Guelfs ruled Florence in the early 1300’s but they faced many crises, particularly in

the next decade from an outside invader. Although the Holy Roman Empire had become weak

and divided since the times of Frederick II and Manfred, a new Emperor Henry VII of

Luxembourg was intent upon uniting northern Italy under imperial rule. By 1310 the exiled

Dante was writing letters to the people of Florence telling them to surrender to a legitimate

monarch and overall great person. The Florentines thought of the matter differently, however.

Backed by outside forces concerned about the balance of power, the city put up a tough

resistance and repelled Henry who died the next year. This clearly broke the poet’s heart. In

Paradiso 30.133-141, the pilgrim sees a seat in high Heaven that Henry will someday inhabit.

1308-1321: Divine Comedy and aftermath.

Dante began the Inferno in 1308 – probably. In 1312, Dante moved to Verona where he lived

well as favored guest of its ruler Can Grande della Scala. During his stay in Verona he finished

much of The Divine Comedy and he dedicated the Paradiso to its ruler. At least one of Dante’s

sons and possibly the rest of his family joined him there. Toward its completion, the Divine

Comedy had made Dante revered as a poet and as a regional celebrity. The Florentines offered

to take him back into the city if the poet portrayed himself as penitent, which he refused to do.

In 1319 Dante moved to Ravenna and finished the Paradiso the following year. On a diplomatic

mission Dante became ill and he died in September 1321.

Resources

Collins, Roger, Early Medieval Europe 300-1000 (1991) New York: St. Martin’s Press

Durling, Robert & Martinez, Ronald, Paradiso (2011) New York: Oxford University Press

Holmes, George, Oxford History of Italy (1997) New York: Oxford University Press

Hollander, Robert & Jean, Paradiso (2007) New York: Doubleday

Holmes, George, Oxford History of Italy (1997) New York: Oxford University Press

Lewis, R.W.B. Dante. (2001) New York, Viking.

Schevill, Ferdinand History of Florence (1961) New York: Frederick Ungar

Tierney, Brian & Painter, Sidney, Western Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475. (1970) New

York: Alfred Knopf

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Ward-Perkins, Byron, “The Medieval Centuries 400-1250: A Political Outline”. From (ed.)

Wickham, Chris, Inheritance of Rome (2009) New York: Penguin