Dante’s INFERNO: How epic poem is criticism of Italy’s political past

Dante Alighieri’s nearly 700-year-old, three-part epic poem, the Divine Comedy, of which “Inferno” is the initial part remains an influential piece of literature in exploring the origins of evil. It is a world-renowned work of literature and has influenced and inspired music, novels, films, mobile apps, and even video games. Medieval manuscript illuminators and artists, including Sandro Botticelli and Salvador Dalí, have produced paintings mirroring stories Dante told.

Dante (who was born in 1265) wrote The Divine Comedy somewhere between 1308 and his death in 1321, while he was in exile from his hometown of Florence, Italy, which had been enduring civil war.

Dante lived in a time of great and tumultuous change in his native Florence and in the Italian peninsula as a whole.

There was no unified Italy to speak of in the 13th-14th century.

Indeed, when Dante speaks of Italy in the Divine Comedy, he speaks of an ideal that would not be realised until the eventual unification of the country’s various regions in 1861.

The city of Florence was growing tremendously with regard to commerce and influence but was rife with factional violence and political conflict.

With the passing of the Ordinances of Justice in 1294, prominent noble families of the city were barred from government and only those who belonged to a professional or artisanal guild were permitted to seek public office.

Conditions worsened at the beginning of 1300 when the Guelphs fragmented and split into two separate factions, the Neri (Black) Guelphs and the Bianchi (White) Guelphs, giving way to three unique factions battling for political supremacy.

Dante engages with these political and commercial issues both in his life and in his poetry.

His election as one of the six priors of Florence in 1300, the highest public office in the city, reflects the extent of his involvement in government.

source: express.co.uk