“Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
Biography
Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 to a family of ancient lineage. When Dante was twelve years old, his family arranged for him to marry Gemma Donati, the daughter of a prominent Florentine family. They married in 1285, and had several children Dante’s great love and muse, however, was Beatrice. Dante met Beatrice… [Read More]
Introduction
“You were not made to live like brute beasts, but to pursue virtue and knowledge.” Inferno 26.119-120 Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is one of the great poetic geniuses of the Western tradition. His Divine Comedy, composed between 1308-1320, chronicles the author’s (or “the pilgrim’s”) journey through Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. The influence of this masterpiece is… [Read More]
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Giuseppe Mazzotta introduces his online course Dante in Translation presented at Yale University.