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Renaissance and humanism
Renaissance and humanism
The relationship between renaissance and humanism
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Considering Dante’s Humanist Perspective in Commedia To many historians Dante Alighieri lies firmly beyond the reach of early Renaissance Florence, on the cusp yet still belonging to the late Middle Ages. Few concede that the famous poet belonged to the former, but here proposed is an alternative: approaching history as it truly played out, as a continuum. Early humanist thought did not suddenly appear in Florence shortly after Dante’s death, but rather the ideas and attitudes of the city and its people began to change quite slowly, gaining momentum in the latter half of the fourteenth century. Though Francesco Petrarca may be considered the father of humanism, it is seen in Alighieri's most famous work, La Divina Commedia, that Dante demonstrated …show more content…
In the third canto, the guide of Dante’s altar ego, Virgil, leads the duo through the vestibule just before entering the gates guarding Hell. The poet places those who are acceptable neither to Hell nor to Paradise here, emphasizing the choices these individuals made to endure eternal torture, “... Hateful to God and his enemies. // These miscreants, who never were alive, / Were naked, and were stung exceedingly / By gadflies and by hornets that were there.” (Alighieri, Inferno 3.64-66, Longfellow). It is here that Alighieri reinforces his belief than man should be God-fearing above all else, a pillar of both the time and humanist thought, but it is most notable that emphasis is placed on the lack of action taken by these individuals who lived their lives on the fence, neither worthy of “infamy [n]or praise” (Alighieri, Inferno 3.36, Longfellow). Renaissance humanism celebrates those in antiquity who have lived the best lives they possibly could, created the most beauty and spread the most knowledge, a trait that the sufferers in the vestibule are decidedly lacking, and in Dante’s eyes, this earns them perhaps the worst punishment in the first cantica. Dante’s creation of the realm of the vestibule also clearly demonstrates the work’s first major deviation from Latin theological teachings, as he felt it was entirely necessary to create a special eternal horror for the contemptible …show more content…
just as Aristotle describes with his lofty erudition and gravity” (Thompson). Leonardo Bruni himself wrote of Dante’s life, and contemporaries like Cristoforo Landino spoke of the Commedia as a prime example of “the divinity of Dante’s genius” that, when faced with the poet and scholar’s sheer depth and volume of knowledge and thought, inspired great awe in them likened to being a “blind rat in such brightness” (Thompson). It must be concluded that, if Renaissance humanists so epitomizing of the spirit of that intellectual movement held Dante in such esteem, agreeing with and extolling most of what he put forth in his Commedia, the values he expresses in the epic poem must be aligned with the values of
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Inferno. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. Notes Allen Mandelbaum and Gabriel Marruzzo. New York: Bantam Books, 1980
Out of ever perplexity Dante faces throughout his journeys in Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, this one of merit and grace is the most significant one. This thought entails what the whole Comedia is about by essentially determining the principal matter of his revolutionary work – each one’s merit produced by God’s grace. His use of “merit” and “grace” brings the reader’s attention to focus on how this determines the measurement of understanding. The tension between merit and grace plays one of the most important roles in the Divine Comedy because it is seen everywhere especially when Dante finally learns to understand each step of his journey. Dante is enlightened on the judgment of souls and he devotes himself to reach grace and, ultimately, sanctity.
In Purgatorio, Dante’s journey continues under Virgil’s guidance from preparing to ascend the mountain of Purgatory until reaching the garden of earthly paradise, at which point Beatrice arrives to take on the role of guide through the rest of purgatory. However, along the way, Dante interacts with several other secondary guides on brief portions of his journey. Individually, Cato, Sordello, Statius, and Matelda serve as corrected counterparts to other characters in the Divine Comedy, classical mythology, and the Bible. Collectively, Cato, Sordello, Statius, and Matelda serve to bridge classical and Christian teachings, both of which are critical in defining the values of Dante-author’s Purgatory, and in shaping Dante-character’s will as the purpose of the journey through purgatory.
...father of Renaissance humanism. Dante wrote “The Divine Comedy”, a book about the soul’s journey to salvation; his main points questioned the Catholic Church. The goals of humanism were individualism and to study fulfillment. They wanted people to mainly challenge tradition.
Rudd, Jay. Critical Companion to Dante: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York. 2008. Print.
Two important figures of philosophy and literature of the Renaissance era include Dante and Petrarch. In at least four of Dante’s works,Vita Nuova, Convivio, com media, and Timaeus, Neoplatonism shines through. In fact, Dante served as a well known initial predecessor of the Platonic Academy in Florence. Petrarch was inspired by Plato in even greater ways. He was the first to distinctively link Plato with the ideals of Italian humanism. Through his work, Petrarch foreshadowed the “central motive of the Florentine Neoplatonist’s: the deification of
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” This maxim applies to the poet Dante Alighieri, writer of The Inferno in the 1300s, because it asserts the need to establish oneself as a contributor to society. Indeed, Dante’s work contributes much to Renaissance Italy as his work is the first of its scope and size to be written in the vernacular. Due to its readability and availability, The Inferno is a nationalistic symbol. With this widespread availability also comes a certain social responsibility; even though Dante’s audience would have been familiar with the religious dogma, he assumes the didactic role of illustrating his own version of Christian justice and emphasizes the need for a personal understanding of divine wisdom and contrapasso, the idea of the perfect punishment for the crime. Dante acts as both author and narrator, completing a physical and spiritual journey into the underworld with Virgil as his guide and mentor. The journey from darkness into light is an allegory full of symbolism, much like that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which shows a philosopher’s journey towards truth. Therefore, Dante would also agree with the maxim, “Wise men learn by others’ harms; fools scarcely by their own,” because on the road to gaining knowledge and spiritual enlightenment, characters who learn valuable lessons from the misfortunes of others strengthen their own paradigms. Nonetheless, the only true way to gain knowledge is to experience it first hand. Dante’s character finds truth by way of his own personal quest.
Dante Alighieri presents a vivid and awakening view of the depths of Hell in the first book of his Divine Comedy, the Inferno. The reader is allowed to contemplate the state of his own soul as Dante "visits" and views the state of the souls of those eternally assigned to Hell's hallows. While any one of the cantos written in Inferno will offer an excellent description of the suffering and justice of hell, Canto V offers a poignant view of the assignment of punishment based on the committed sin. Through this close reading, we will examine three distinct areas of Dante's hell: the geography and punishment the sinner is restricted to, the character of the sinner, and the "fairness" or justice of the punishment in relation to the sin. Dante's Inferno is an ordered and descriptive journey that allows the reader the chance to see his own shortcomings in the sinners presented in the text.
Dante’s The Divine Comedy illustrates one man’s quest for the knowledge of how to avoid the repercussions of his actions in life so that he may seek salvation in the afterlife. The Divine Comedy establishes a set of moral principles that one must live by in order to reach paradiso. Dante presents these principles in Inferno where each level of Hell has people suffering for the sins they committed during their life. As Dante gets deeper into Hell the degrees of sin get progressively worse as do the severity of punishment. With that in mind, one can look at Inferno as a handbook on what not to do during a lifetime in order to avoid Hell. In the book, Dante creates a moral lifestyle that one must follow in order to live a morally good, Catholic
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is taken on a journey through hell. On this journey, Dane sees the many different forms of sins, and each with its own unique contrapasso, or counter-suffering. Each of these punishments reflects the sin of a person, usually offering some ironic way of suffering as a sort of revenge for breaking God’s law. As Dante wrote this work and developed the contrapassos, he allows himself to play God, deciding who is in hell and why they are there. He uses this opportunity to strike at his foes, placing them in the bowels of hell, saying that they have nothing to look forward to but the agony of suffering and the separation from God.
In Dante’s Inferno, the relationship between Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil the Guide is an ever-evolving one. By analyzing the transformation of this relationship as the two sojourn through the circles of hell, one is able to learn more about the mindset of Dante the Poet. At the outset, Dante is clearly subservient to Virgil, whom he holds in high esteem for his literary genius. However, as the work progresses, Virgil facilitates Dante’s spiritual enlightenment, so that by the end, Dante has ascended to Virgil’s spiritual level and has in many respects surpassed him. In Dante’s journey with respect to Virgil, one can see man’s spiritual journey towards understanding God. While God loves man regardless of his faults, His greatest desire is to see man attain greater spirituality, in that man, already created in God’s image, may truly become divine, and in doing so, attain eternality.
Many arguments have been made that Dante’s Inferno glimmers through here and there in Milton’s Paradise Lost. While at first glance the two poems seem quite drastically different in their portrayal of Hell, but scholars have made arguments that influence from Dante shines through Milton’s work as well as arguments refuting these claims. All of these arguments have their own merit and while there are instances where a Dantean influence can be seen throughout Paradise Lost, Milton’s progression of evil and Satan are quite different from Dante. Dante’s influence on Milton is noted by many scholars and is very apparent in several instances throughout Paradise Lost, however, Milton shows a progression of evil through his own vision of Satan and creates a Hell that is less meticulously constructed than Dante’s and more open to interpretation.
Dante’s work Inferno is a vivid walkthrough of the depths of hell and invokes much imagery, contemplation and feeling. Dante’s work beautifully constructs a full sensory depiction of hell and the souls he encounters along the journey. In many instances within the work, the reader arrives at a crossroads for interpretation and discussion. Canto XI offers one such crux in which Dante asks the question of why there is a separation between the upper levels of hell and the lower levels of hell. By discussing the text, examining its implications and interpretations, conclusions can be drawn about why there is delineation between the upper and lower levels and the rationale behind the separation.
Wetherbee, Winthrop. "Dante Alighieri." Stanford University. Stanford University, 29 Jan. 2001. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
... Moreover, such belief in human reason signifies Dante's hope towards a bright society and the pursuit of God’s love as the other part of self-reflection. In conclusion, a great deal of tension and contrast between “dark” and “light” in The Inferno helps us to explore Dante’s self portrait—he fears dangerous desires and sinful darkness, but shows much courage and hope towards life since he nevertheless follows his guide Virgil to dive into horrible Hell. As shown in Canto I, such emotional reaction to dark and light symbols lays a great foundation for developing Dante’s broad and universal traits as his journey progresses.