He was a literary giant that had a decisive impact on the development not only of Italian literature but on many other aspects of the Renaissance.ĭante made significant contributions to the early Renaissance and many of his ideas and themes were developed by later writers, artists, and thinkers. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in the Western literary tradition and he is viewed as the national poet of Italy. 'O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?'.'The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.'.The circles include:įamous quotes and Lines From Dante’s The Divine Comedy: The Divine Comedy is perhaps most famous for its depictions of the different circles of Hell, each one detailing different punishments that go along with the most heinous sins. Botticelli’s painting is just one part of a larger illustrated manuscript he created based on the poem, 92 pages of which still survive. Hell has been the subject of countless artistic interpretations over the centuries, but one of the most long-lasting and influential came from Sandro Botticelli’s Map of Hell painting, based on The Divine Comedy, which is currently located in the Vatican Library. Dante’s death mask, which is on display in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, probably isn’t real.Īn example of how artists interpreted the nightmarish scenes from Dante's The Divine Comedy. Boniface was partly responsible for Dante's real-world exile, so being banished to hell, even a fictional one, was part of the writer's revenge. Once the mistaken identity gets cleared up, Nicholas reveals to Dante that Boniface is due to replace him in the burial hole once he dies (in this world, the damned can see into the future). In this circle, sinners are buried in the ground headfirst, and as Dante is walking through, the submerged Nicholas mistakes him for Pope Boniface. In Inferno, Dante comes across Pope Nicholas in Hell's eighth circle, which is designated for the act of simony (the buying or selling of religious privileges).

Two famous figures that gained his ire were Pope Nicholas III and Pope Boniface VIII, whose notorious tenure was marked by his interference in foreign affairs as he attempted to grow the power of the Catholic Church.

When writing Inferno, Dante basically allowed himself to play god, by sentencing fictionalized versions of his earthly enemies to an eternity of damnation in the hell he created for his epic poem. Dante's Hell as depicted in this illustration of The Divine Comedy.

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri