Do you know why the medieval poet Dante Alighieri wrote? / Script

Dante’s reply letter to Cangrande is said to have survived, and he replies something like this: “My goal in this life is to take those who are in misfortune out of their sorrows and bring them into a state of happiness.” (Literally – to grab a person at the moment of misfortune and make them happy, show the possibility of happiness.)

So – if you read Dante’s “Divine Comedy” (“La Divina commedia”) and don’t get happier, Dante has lost…

The work is not intended for contemplation, but for action – to move and touch the reader. I would encourage you to get up, not to give up, to look for a way out. The goal is unusually high: neither to express oneself, nor to become famous, nor to imitate someone, nor to entertain, nor to make money, although Dante probably had all this. Dante became famous because of his work. However, this was not his main goal.

The second motivation for writing: Dante wanted to perpetuate the memory. Which one? A memory of love. Dante’s love for Beatrice Portinari (Beatrice “Bice” di Folco Portinari, 1265–1290).

Everything begins with the smile of a young girl, continued with love for a lifetime, which he also captures in his brilliant poem “The Divine Comedy”. In this meeting with Betarici, he saw not a coincidence, but a gift from God, a life task entrusted to him, a challenge.

The first meeting with Beatrice Portinari was said to have taken place at the age of nine, when the two children were playing at some parties, because they lived nearby and were from the same block.

In 1283, the second and most important meeting with Beatrice takes place. The girl’s gaze lingers on the poet for a moment, and he feels an unusual change in himself. A smile makes the whole world shine brighter, and Dante feels like he could forgive everyone and everything now. Moreover, such a state of mind does not come as a result of prolonged meditation and spiritual training, but as an undeserved gift. Beatrice seems to have been married at that time. What to do? Dante thinks that all movement comes from God; so this encounter is a gift, an offer, a challenge, an opportunity…

Two common human reactions when encountering something beautiful: detach, split off, separate one’s passion from the relationship (“privatize”, appropriate, enjoy alone), or give it up altogether (ignore, forget, give up out of duty – that’s from Dante’s point of view is false restraint and treachery). The third way, known to medieval knights: to serve the object of his passion, his ideal, his muse (as Dante served Beatrice): “If she is happy, then I am happy.”

In 1290, Beatrice died at the age of 24. In 1292, Dante writes his collection of poems “The New Life” (“La vita nuova”) – at the end of it he vows not to write any more poetry until he has found words of praise that no one has ever written about a woman.

In 1298, Dante marries Gemma Donati. In 1302, he was exiled together with the party of “white Guelphs”, but his wife remained in Florence. Later he also lives in other Italian cities (Verona, Lucca) and also in Paris. He died in exile at the age of 56.

Paradox: only in 2008 (!) Florence cancels the decision on Dante’s exile.

The hero of the “Divine Comedy” (1306–1321) has to go through hell, the mountain of purgatory and fly to Heaven in order to get to his beloved. No one has ever sung about their love like this…

Could we love like Dante?

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