Dante Alighieri`S Inferno Essay, Research Paper

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in May, 1265, of an old family, of noble origin but no longer wealthy. He studied the triviun and quadrivium, he spent a year of so at the University of Bologna, and while there he came under the influence of some of the learned men of his day. The most notable of these men where Ser Brunetto Latini, whose influence Dante records in his poem (Inferno 15). As Customs of that time period Dante was betrothed in his youth to Gemma Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati. The betrothals and marriages were matters of family alliance, and Germma’s dowry was fixed as early as 1277, when he was 12 years old. The great love of Dante’s life, and his greatest influence for his works was his Beatrice. In 1289 Dante began when he fought against Arezzo at Campaldino. In 1295 he was one of the council for the election of priors of Florence, and in May, 1300, went as ambassador to San Gemignano to invite that commune to an assembly of the Guelph cities of Tuscany. Dante spent his last years in Ravenna, under the protection of Guido Novello da Polenta.