Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri was one of the most renowned writers in world literature. His great masterpieces have influenced the world immensely. He was not only a great writer and poet but he also was a man that overcame great odds to write awe inspiring works of art. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, Italy either in late May or early June, 1265. His childhood was somewhat troubling because of the early death of his mother and then his father when he was 18. He managed to get through these bad occurrences and fell in love with a Florentine noblewoman named Beatrice Portinari in 1274 but she also died not long afterwards. He once said that the most significant occurrence of his childhood was his meeting with his love, Beatrice. She was glorified in “La vita nuova” (“The New Life”) and again later in “La divina commedia” (“The Divine Comedy”). Although his great literary works prove that he had a great education, little is known about where he studied. It is known that he was in Bolonga in about 1285 and it is possible that he studied at the university there. He supported the Guelphs against the Ghibellines; two political parties of the time, and fought with them victoriously in 1289. Around this same time he married a member of a prominent Guelph family, Gemma Donati. During the following few years, Dante was active in Florence’s disorderly politics.Records show that in 1295, he served several offices. In 1300, he was sent on a mission to San Gimignano for diplomatic purposes and later that same year was elected one of the six magistrates of Florence. That position was his for only two months. In 1301, Dante was fined and banned from Florence for two years by the newly returning leaders of the Blacks; a faction within the Guelph. Failing to pay the fines, it was decided that he would be put to death if he ever returned. During his exile, Dante Alighieri spent time in Verona and other northern