Xavier Khoury

Ms. Skirtich

English 10

1/20/16

The Man

 Dante Alighieri lived from 1265–1321.

 Dante was born in Florence, Italy.
 Dante had a love for Beatrice would be his reason for poetry and for living, together with
political passions. In many of his poems, she is depicted as semi-divine, watching over him
constantly and providing spiritual instruction, sometimes harshly.
 “When Dante was around 12 years old, it was arranged that he would marry Gemma Donati, the
daughter of a family friend. Around 1285, the pair married, but Dante was in love with another
woman—Beatrice Portinari, who would be a huge influence on Dante and whose character
would form the backbone of Dante’s Divine Comedy.”
 Dante was a politician and a poet.
 Dante belonged to The Guelfs political party. ( the Guelphs themselves divided into two factions:
the White Guelphs, Dante’s party, who were wary of the Pope’s political influence; and the Black
Guelphs, who remained loyal to Rome. Initially the Whites were in power and kicked the Blacks
out of Florence, but Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of the city. A delegation of
Florentines, with Dante among them, was sent to Rome to ascertain the Pope’s intentions.)
 In 1302 Dante was exiled by Pope Boniface XIII.
 “Dante is credited with inventing terza rima, composed of tercets woven into a linked rhyme
scheme, and chose to end each canto of The Divine Comedy with a single line that completes
the rhyme scheme with the end-word of the second line of the preceding tercet. The tripartite
stanza likely symbolizes the Holy Trinity, and early enthusiasts of terza rima, including Italian
poets Boccaccio and Petrarch, were particularly interested in the unifying effects of the form.”

Divine Comedy

9.) The divine comedy is composed of 14,233

10.) The book was originally called the La Comedy Di Dante Alighieri

11.) The work was originally simply titled Comedìa and the word Divina was added by Giovanni
Boccaccio. The first printed edition to add the word divina to the title was that of the Venetian humanist
Lodovico Dolce, [8] published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.
12.) The book is an epic poem

13.) The purpose of the book is to talk about hell. He talks about hell because most people talk about
god. Dante is trying to talk about something new.

14.) He started the divine comedy when Beatrice died. In 1314, he was exiled for life by the leaders of
the Black Guelphs

15.) The book was written in in 1321

16.) The book was published in the language of lain

17.) The verse form that the poem was written in is terza rima, the pattern is A-B-A, B-C-B

18.) The book is about Dante and it is talking about hell and all the different rings and levels in hell.

19.) The fictional date that begins the book Inferno is on the evening of Good Friday in the year 1300

20.) There are numerous indications in the Purgatorio that Dante is himself on a penitential journey. He
is most clearly aware that he is proud: he says in Canto XIII that he most fears the torment on the
Terrace of Pride (133-8). A further indication is the fact that, in progressing through Purgatory-proper,
Dante has the Ps removed from his forehead - implying that, as he moves through Purgatory, he is being
cleansed. The clearest indication of Dante-personaggio’s state comes in the Earthly Paradise. Here,
Dante must make a confession. Why Virgil? That question needed to be asked in relation to the Inferno,
where Dante’s choice of the Roman poet as Dante’s guide - above any Christian figure, and above other,
more obvious pagan thinkers such as Aristotle - was surprising enough. But to maintain Virgil as Dante’s
guide through Purgatory is even more startling. It was unheard of in vision literature for a guide through
the realms of the saved to be an unsaved pagan, who had lived before Christ. One way of seeing
Beatrice is as being similar to Christ. (In the Vita Nuova, there were a number of references which
associated her with Christ.) The Bible stated that Christ would come at the end of time to judge
humanity; Beatrice appears to be judging Dante-personaggio. But strictly speaking she is not Christ: she
emphasizes her identity as Beatrice in the most emphatic terms, saying ‘“Guardaci ben! Ben son, ben
son Beatrice”’ [‘“Look. I am, truly, I am Beatrice.”’(XXX, 73). Rather like the penitent souls in Purgatory,
who assimilate themselves to Christ whilst still retaining their identity, Beatrice is playing a Christ-like
role which enables her to remain, emphatically, herself.

Define the words

Acheron-First of three infernal rivers in hell

Styx- Another one of the infernal rivers in hell

Charon-Is a ferryman of the dead who appears as an anthropomorphic boat.

Virgil- Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil (70 BC – 19 BC) is the once famous Roman
poet who acts as Dante's guide in Hell

Minos-a mighty king, rumored to be the son of Zeus

Francesca and Paolo de Rimini-Illicit lovers killed by Francesca's husband. They are in the second circle of
hell.

Pope Boniface XIII- a pope from 1294 to 1303, political enemy to Dante.

Filippo argenti-a enemy to Dante and is in the fifth circle next to the river of Styx

Ulysses- a great hero, was a bold and cunning man, eight circle of hell among those guilty of spiritual
thief

Archbishop Ruggeri- Archbishop Ruggieri was the driving force behind Count Ugolino being locked in the
tower. He had originally partnered with Ugolino to seize control of Pisa, but later spread the story of
Ugolino's treacheries as he had begun to assume power.
Count ugolino- is one of the damned which Dante must punish or absolve for "The Damned"
achievement/trophy. In the second ring of the ninth circle of hell.

Fra albergio-is one of the many damned which Dante must punish or absolve for "The Damned"
achievement/trophy. In the third ring of the ninth circle of hell

Branca d’ oria- Betrayer of Guests (9th Circle)

-murdered his father in law who was a guest in his home

Judas Iscariot-upon by a three-headed Satan, who also eats Cassius and Brutus for conspiring and
assassinating Julius Caesar.

Brutus- Betrayer of Benefactors (9th circle)

-Placed head-first inside Lucifer's central mouth, with his back skinned by the devil's claws

-betrayed Julius Caesar

Cassius- A Roman emperor.

Vocabulary

Allegory-a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral
or political one.

Persona-the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others.

Contrapasso- is one of the few rules in Dante's Inferno. It is the one “law of nature” that applies to hell,
stating that for every sinner's crime there must be an equal and fitting punishment.
Avarice-extreme greed for wealth or material gain.

Heretic-a person believing in or practicing religious heresy.

Pinacle-a high, pointed piece of rock.

Pagan-a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions.

Treason-the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or
overthrow the government

Hoard- a stock or store of money or valued objects, typically one that is secret or carefully guarded.
Bolgia-part of the Divine Comedy, Malebolge is the eighth circle of Hell. Roughly translated from Italian,
Malebolge means "evil ditches". Malebolge is a large, funnel-shaped cavern, itself divided into ten
concentric circular trenches or ditches.

Malebranche-The Malebranche (Italian pronunciation: [ˌmaleˈbraŋke]; "Evil Claws") are the demons in
the Inferno of Dante's Divine Comedy who guard Bolgia Five of the Eighth Circle (Malebolge). They figure
in Cantos XXI, XXII, and XXIII.