Dante Alighieri Research Paper

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence some unsure time between mid-May and mid-June. Florence finally became a single nation in 1861, during the centuries leading up to that it was a loose confederation, each with their own government. The only thing uniting the regions was the Catholic Church, which had tremendous military and political power, so powerful that even a street fight between two rival families could end with the Pope dispatching peacekeeping troops. At that time Florence was politically divided into two groups: the Ghibellinis, who believed Italians should pledge their loyalty to the emperor of Rome and the Guelphs, who believed that the Pope should be the leader of Italy. With both their beliefs staked, the two parties

were always clashing. Dante was born during this feisty Italian ambience to Gabriella “Bella” Abati and Alighiero di Bellincione. When he was just seven years old Gabriella (his mother) died and his father remarried another woman called Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi who bore his half-sister Gaetana and half-brother Francesco. In 1274 when Dante was only nine years old he and his father were invited to Falco Portinari’s party for his neighbours, where he spotted Falco’s eight year old daughter named Beatrice Portinari and immediately fell in love. Dante enrolls into two convent schools: Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce. Two years later Dante is promised to marry Gemma di Manetto Donati at the age of 12, he marries her six years later and they have five children together: Giovanni, Gabrielle, Pietro, Jacopo and lastly a girl named Antonia. Unfortunately that same year in 1283 his father died and his beloved Beatrice gets married to another man. During the year 1290 Dante’s lifelong love: Beatrice who he had spoken to only a few times passed away at the young age of 24 and Dante was devastated.