Dante Alighieri’s vivid depictions of hell in The Divine Comedy have inspired numerous composers through the centuries; on the 700th anniversary of the writer’s death, Claire Jackson takes us on a tour
Dante Alighieri: All About Love
When the Beatles crooned “Love is all you need” in 1967, they coined an anthem for the flower power age, but when Dante Alighieri composed “The Love that moves the sun and the other stars,” he created the theme song of the Renaissance and beyond.
Worldwide celebrations are underway for the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, the Italian philosopher poet whose early amorous ditties would give way to an epic poem capable of uniting a scattered nation, inspiring generations of artists, and reflecting a universal human story.
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence Italy in 1265, and as a scion of a distinguished house, he followed the usual track of medieval young influencers: military duty in a few skirmish battles with neighboring towns, a stint at the University of Bologna (then merely a century old), and participation in public political life. But neither war nor statesmanship drew Dante; his path lay in the art of poetry.