Very few authors gain fame from their works while they’re still alive. As an example, H.P. Lovecraft, creator of the Cthulhu mythos, died alone and deeply depressed at 42 from intestinal cancer virtually unknown. Of course, there are exceptions to this. Harry Potter was, and to some extent, still is, incredibly popular and made J.K. Rowling very rich (although, really,? Racism, transphobia, and a dash of misogyny despite your feminist claims? How many spots do you need on your bad rich person card till you get bingo, Joanne?)
Point is, it’s hard to be famous from writing while still in the realm of the living. One such person who accomplished this feat is the renowned Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Or, if you wanna call him by his baptized name, Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri. What a mouthful, right? Luckily, he’s more colloquially known as just Dante, so that’s what I’ll be calling him for the sake of my sanity.
A huge reason Dante’s works were popular when he was alive is his use of vernacular, or the common tongue. He was one of the first to write his works in a manner that the lower class could understand and paved the path for others to do the same. See, education used to be considered something only for holy men or the upper class. A vast majority of people couldn’t read. However, there was an influx of commoners gaining noble titles by becoming merchants, and thus becoming literate. This scared the older noble families, because oH nO iF tHe PeoPLe LEarNed We TReat theM LIke TRash TheY’LL RevoLt! They kinda sucked.
So, books were pretty much always written in Latin, and in a really fanciful, hard to understand manner, in order to keep commoners from being educated and realize that they could do something about the shitty rich people. I guess Dante woke up one morning and chose violence or something, because my mans even wrote the first scholarly defense of the use of vernacular. His De vulgari eloquentia, or On Eloquence in the Vernacular, spoke in detail about the importance of the origin and philosophy of using vernacular, and he made some pretty damn good points. This isn’t what made him famous, though. His real claim to fame is his three-part self-insert historical fanfiction simply titled Commedia. Later, it was renamed La Divina Commedia, translating to The Divine Comedy. And, man, is it not a comedy.
The Divine Comedy is split into three very distinct parts, Inferno, Purgatio, and Paradiso. Basically, Dante wrote his journey from the depths of hell to purgatory, all the way to heaven. Each of these works represent different things, but I’ll go into detail about that later. First, a little backstory of how and why the Divine Comedy was written.
Dante was more than just a poet! He was actually really active in the politics of his city, Florence. See, in the early 13th century, there were two main factions vying for power in Florence, the Guelfs and the Ghibellines (Don’t ask me how to pronounce either of those). Our friend Dante was a Guelf, which was the group that wanted more political anatomy. They pretty strongly opposed the Holy Roman Empire and backed the Papacy. The Ghibellines were the opposite, they were not fans of the Papacy and backed the Holy Roman Emperor. Florence was smack dab in the middle of the conflict between these factions, and the favor between Guelfs and the Ghibellines often switched depending on the ruling family’s side. The Ghibellines eventually fell, and the Guelf party was split into the “Whites” and the “Blacks.” Not racially charged – it simply was different colors to express different views. The White Guelfs opposed the Papacy (Especially Boniface VIII) and the Black Guelfs supported it.
Dante was unlucky enough to be a popular outspoken White Guelf when Pope Boniface Vlll allowed the Black Guelfs to be in charge of Florence to kick out any pesky opposers. Thus, Dante was exiled from Florence and never returned.
Okay, you might be thinking. There was an internal power struggle within Florence and Dante was on the losing side, what’s the big deal? How would this help him write anything? Well, damn, calm down, I’ll explain. Dante wrote the entirety of The Divine Comedy in exile. Poor guy spent over twenty years wandering between various cities while scribbling down one the single most important pieces of Italian classic philosophical literature. I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty damn impressive to me.
So, that’s Dante’s story. After he died, he became revered for his works of literature and as a politician, so good for him! Now, I guess you’re a bit curious about what all the fuss is about. So, let’s talk about the first part of The Divine Comedy, the Inferno, which is my favorite part. Check up in a few days once I’ve posted it. If I EVER post it. Dun Dun.