Milan centre-left mayor Beppe Sala re-elected. Milan plane crash: 8 dead. Milan exhibition of Disney stories and sketches. Milan exhibition of paintings by women artists from 16th- and 17th centuries. Language courses resume in Italy. Ravenna Festival returns in Dante Alighieri is making news around the world, years after his death, particularly in Italy where is a national icon.
Born in Florence in , the mediaeval poet and philosopher would become known as the Father of the Italian language thanks to his epic work, The Divine Comedy. But why exactly did La Divina Commedia make such an indelible impression on both literature and theology, and why is it so important seven centuries after it was written?
Representing a 14th-century vision of the afterlife , the long narrative poem describes Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead : Inferno hell , Purgatorio purgatory , and Paradiso heaven.
Crucially, Dante wrote the poem's 14, lines in the vernacular, opting for the Tuscan dialect which was accessible to the masses rather than the traditional Latin reserved for the most educated readers. Domenico di Michelino, Dante e il suo poema , Fresco, Cattedrale di S. Maria del Fiore, Florence. This unorthodox approach paved the way for Italian writers such as Boccaccio and Petrarch, while his depictions of Hell , Purgatory and Heaven had a profound influence on western art, from Sandro Botticelli to William Blake.
Dante began composing the groundbreaking trilogy in Florence in or around , completing the masterpiece in Ravenna a year before his death in Today, The Divine Comedy is widely considered the most important poem of the Middle Ages, and the pre-eminent work in Italian literature.
It is also viewed as one of the greatest works of world literature; from the Romantics to the contemporary, there are few poets in western literature who have not been inspired by Dante. The first printed edition of the book was published in Foligno on 11 April , and there are 14 of the original copies still in existence. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The seven levels of Purgatory, called terraces, correspond to the seven deadly sins of pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust.
The punishments aim to teach the sinners in each terrace the virtue opposite of whatever sin they have committed. Roman Catholic Christians who believe in purgatory interpret passages such as 2 Maccabees 2 Timothy , Matthew , Luke 26, Luke , 1 Corinthians — and Hebrews as support for prayer for purgatorial souls who are believed to be within an active interim state for the dead ….
Catholicism teaches that the souls in purgatory want to be in purgatory, because they know that they have some leftover attachment to sin that they want to be removed.
Catholics believe that God and heaven are worth it. Most Christian churches do not accept the idea of Purgatory, believing instead that once judgement happens, people will either be in Heaven or Hell for all eternity. There is no clear explanation of how this belief will come into practice. Catholics may use a rosary as they meditate on the life of Jesus and call on Mary to offer their prayers to God. The rosary can help someone remain focused in prayer as there is always a danger that their mind can wander.
Catholics do not worship Mary or the saints, but ask them to pray to God on their behalf. They believe that because of his love for all people, he died so that all people will live forever in heaven. Catholic view Roman Catholic Church doctrine supports intercessory prayer to saints. Intercessory prayer to saints also plays an important role in the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. The Inferno is about the narrator, Dante, traveling through the layers of Hell and learning about the men and women in Hell, and ultimately why God is punishing them there.
One of the most representative parts of The Inferno as a whole is Canto Canto 18 is the. Throughout time and historical events, the imagery reflected the attitude held by powerful members of society and the church. In cantos , the central three of this the central canticle, we learn about love and free will, perhaps the two principles most important to an understanding of the whole of the Comedy.
Because our modern novelistic tradition of structure has led us to expect our plots to be arranged climactically, we tend to find this kind of geometric construction artificial and surprising, even though the practice was fairly common in medieval.
It also traces the biographical, historical, sociological, religious, economic, political and literary reasons for the outbreak. The Divine Comedy wasn't popular in the English-speaking world until poet William Blake, who made many illustrations for it such as this, advocated strongly for it Credit: Alamy.
Barrators, the term for politicians who are open to taking bribes, are stuck in hot pitch because they had sticky fingers when they were alive. Caiaphas, the high priest who helped condemn Christ, is himself crucified. These are stunning images, but made all the more powerful by the language in which Dante chose to convey them: not Latin, the language of all serious literary works in Italy to that point, but Florentine Tuscan.
In the early 14th Century, Italy, a patchwork of city states with various external imperial powers vying for influence, was also a patchwork of different languages. Writing in the Florentine dialect of the Tuscan language could have limited the appeal of The Divine Comedy. It helped that he also incorporated, where appropriate, elements of other local dialects as well as Latin expressions, to widen its appeal. Florentine Tuscan became the lingua franca of Italy as a result of The Divine Comedy, helping to establish Florence as the creative hub of the Renaissance.
Through the force of his words, Dante helped create the very idea of the Italian language that is spoken today. Depictions of Dante are found all over Italy, as with this statue in Verona, but Florence did not pardon him for the alleged crimes that exiled him until Credit: Alamy.
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