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MIGRATION,
DIASPORAS AND
CITIZENSHIP

International Immigration,
Integration and
Sustainability in Small
Towns and Villages
Socio-Territorial Challenges
in Rural and Semi-Rural Europe

Ricard Morén-Alegret
Dawid Wladyka
Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship

Series Editor
Olga Jubany
Department of Social Anthropology
Universitat de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
For over twenty years, the Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship series
has contributed to cross-disciplinary empirical and theoretical debates on
migration processes, serving as a critical forum for and problematising
the main issues around the global movement and circulation of people.
Grounded in both local and global accounts, the Series firstly focuses on
the conceptualisation and dynamics of complex contemporary national
and transnational drivers behind movements and forced displacements.
Secondly, it explores the nexus of migration, diversity and identity,
incorporating considerations of intersectionality, super-diversity, social
polarization and identification processes to examine migration through
the various intersections of racialized identities, ethnicity, class, gender,
age, disability and other oppressions. Thirdly, the Series critically engages
the emerging challenges presented by reconfigured borders and
boundaries: state politicization of migration, sovereignty, security, trans-
border regulations, human trade and ecology, and other imperatives that
transgress geopolitical territorial borders to raise dilemmas about con-
temporary movements and social drivers.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14044
Ricard Morén-Alegret · Dawid Wladyka

International
Immigration,
Integration
and Sustainability
in Small Towns
and Villages
Socio-Territorial Challenges in Rural
and Semi-Rural Europe
Ricard Morén-Alegret Dawid Wladyka
Autonomous University of Barcelona University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain Brownsville, TX, USA

ISSN 2662-2602 ISSN 2662-2610 (electronic)

Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship
ISBN 978-1-137-58620-9 ISBN 978-1-137-58621-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58621-6

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020

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with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
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 Acknowledgements

This book is mainly based upon an international research pro-

ject funded by the Spanish Government Ministry for Science and
Innovation (ref. CSO2009-13909), with participation of Danièle Joly,
Warwick University; Lucinda Fonseca, Lisbon University; Graeme
Hugo, Adelaide University; Charalambos Kasimis, Agricultural
University of Athens; and directed by the main co-author Ricard
Morén-Alegret. In addition, this book is also partly based on a research
project funded in 2014 by the Poitou-Charentes Region (France) that
was carried out by Ricard Morén with local support from Naïk Miret
and William Berthomière (MIGRINTER, Université de Poitiers/
CNRS). Moreover, some data and information provided in this
book were also collected in 2013 during a three months research
visit of Ricard Morén at the United Nations University Institute on
Globalization, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM), where he was
hosted by Parvati Nair. On the other hand, in 2017 the RecerCaixa
Program (an initiative of Obra Social ‘la Caixa’ and the Association of
Public Universities in Catalonia, ACUP) awarded the UAB research
project titled ‘HAMLETS. Immigration and Sustainable Development
in Small Villages’ (2017–2020), directed by Ricard Morén. This book

v
vi   Acknowledgements

is not directly based on results from the ongoing HAMLETS research

project, but sometimes this project is quoted as child of previous rural
immigration projects directed by the main co-author.
Regarding fieldworks in the study areas and other specific tasks,
together with the main co-author Ricard Morén-Alegret (who did
fieldwork in the four countries along the last decade), there were the
following contributions: in Portugal, Albert Mas did interviews (2011–
2013); in Spain, Sandra Fatorić, Albert Mas and Dawid Wladyka also
did some interviews (2011–2013); and in England, Dawid Wladyka
did some interviews too (in 2011). Besides that, David Owen (Warwick
University) was helpful with British statistics and, on the other hand,
in 2016, Virginie Baby-Collin (Aix-Marseille Université) kindly invited
Ricard Morén to an additional research visit to France that helped too.
Additionally, Dawid Wladyka thanks Xóchilth Román and Brianna
Bautista, Research Assistants at the University of Texas Rio Grande
Valley, for their assistance in updating parts of the literature review.
Apart from all that, the research upon which this book is based
was possible thanks to the facilities of the Department of Geography
of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona, UAB) and to the administrative support from its directors
Antoni Tulla, Antoni Durà and Carme Miralles. In addition, Dawid
Wladyka is grateful to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
the College of Liberal Arts and the Graduate College at the University
of Texas Rio Grande for their continuous support, and especially for
providing technical means and staff thanks to which was possible to
develop maps that accompany this book.
Fundamentally, we are also very grateful to the interviewees for their
time, to the local residents in Alentejo, Empordà, Poitou-Charentes and
Warwickshire for hosting us; to Danièle Joly and Zig Layton-Henry for
kindly provoking the writing up process of this book; to Nadia Young
for the English language editing; to Ruth McAreavey and Stefan Kordel
for triggering up the publication of papers that helped to write prelim-
inary versions of some book sections; to Palgrave Macmillan editors for
their patience and help along the years, particularly to Beth Farrow and
Poppy Hull; and to the anonymous reviewers for their generous com-
ments to a draft proposal of this book. In addition, Dawid Wladyka is
 Acknowledgements   vii

very grateful to Kasia for her patience and support. On the other hand,
Ricard Morén is very grateful to Roser C. for her general support, to
Magda and Aina for her patience and joy, and, at last but not least, to
William Shakespeare for his deep human touch, poetic truth and sense
of humour.
This book is dedicated to Carlos Morén-Alegret (1973–2017), with
brotherhood and love. After a long and tough struggle for life, he passed
away. He made a difference. Rest in peace.
 Contents

1 Introduction: Small Can Be More Than Beautiful 1

1.1 Small Human Population Settlements Can Be More
Than Beautiful 2
1.2 Introducing Research Questions 7
References 11

Part I Setting the European Stage in a Changing World:

Sustainability and Migration Challenges

2 Conceptualising (Rural) Sustainability in the Migration

Age 19
2.1 Sustainability Debates 20
2.2 International Immigration and Sustainability 31
References 41

ix
x      Contents

3 Integration, Immigration and Sustainability in European

Small Towns and Rural Areas: Achieving Long-Term
Immigrants’ Settlement Beyond the Metropolitan Areas? 47
3.1 Integration in Complex Societies and Integration of
Complex Societies: The Importance of Place and Space 51
3.2 International and Foreign Immigrants’ Integration 62
3.3 International Immigrants’ Integration
and Sustainability (Goals): The Case of Rural Areas
and Small Towns 76
References 95

Part II Outcomes of Investigating in Various European

Small Towns and Rural Areas

4 International Comparative Research in Europe:

Introducing Research Methods 111
4.1 Introducing Research Methods: Data Generation,
Data Characteristics and Data Analysis 117
4.2 Earth Grounded Results: Beyond Utopian
and Dystopian Visions 121
References 123

5 Southern Europe: Comparing the Cases of Empordà

in NE Catalonia, Spain, and Alentejo Litoral in SW
Portugal 129
5.1 Approaching the Southern European Case Studies 129
5.2 Results on Southern Europe and Discussion 162
References 196

6 North-West Europe: Comparing the Cases of South

Warwickshire in Central England, UK, and of
Poitou-Charentes in New Aquitaine, West France 207
6.1 Approaching the North-West European Case Studies 208
6.2 Results on North-West Europe and Discussion 239
References 286
 Contents      xi

Part III Beyond Small Town Talks: Reflections

and Proposals for a Better Europe and Planet

7 Final Considerations: How to Improve Future Policies

on Rural and Small-Town Sustainability and Immigrants’
Integration? 295
7.1 Smallness Diversity: Hamlets Also Matter 296
7.2 Human Mercy, Sustainability, Reflections and Policy
Recommendations 303
References 316

Appendix A: L
 ist of Interviewees in Portugal, Spain, France
and the UK 319

Appendix B: Semi-structured Interview Script 323

Appendix C: Enquiring Researchers’ Stance and Positionality 327

Bibliography 339

Index 373
 List of Figures

Photo 5.1 Cattle in pastures located in Castelló d’Empúries sur-

rounding area 147
Photo 5.2 Rural bed and breakfast in Rabós village, Alt Empordà 148
Photo 5.3 View of Vilanova de Milfontes village and the Mira river
estuary, Odemira municipality 156
Photo 5.4 View of the ‘Skydive’ air club, in Empuriabrava, Castelló
d’Empúries 164
Photo 5.5 Housing development in Vilanova de Milfontes outskirts 171
Photo 5.6 ‘Selling machine’ estate agency in Vilanova de Milfontes 171
Photo 5.7 Chinese general stores in Vilanova de Milfontes’ main
street (a) 176
Photo 5.8 Chinese general stores in Vilanova de Milfontes’ main
street (b) 177
Photo 5.9 Building of ‘Belgian’ touristic apartments in Roses 178
Photo 5.10 French-Spanish estate agent located in Roses 179
Photo 5.11 Greenhouses in São Teutonio area, Odemira
municipality 181
Photo 5.12 Indian and Nepali grocer stores in Sao Teutonio (a) 184
Photo 5.13 Indian and Nepali grocer stores in Sao Teutonio (b) 185
Photo 5.14 Social library sign, Xarxa de Convivència, Roses 191
Photo 6.1 Chinese takeaway restaurant in Shipston-On-Stour 216

xiii
xiv   List of Figures

Photo 6.2 Spanish café in Shipston-On-Stour 217

Photo 6.3 View of Stratford-upon-Avon from the top
of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, RSC 225
Photo 6.4 Recent housing development in Alderminster village.
Stratford-on-Avon district 227
Photo 6.5 Local Fish and Chip shop van parked in
Confolens street 238
Photo 6.6 Pakistani restaurant in Montmorillon 239
Photo 6.7 Alderminster village, Stratford-on-Avon district 242
Photo 6.8 Environmental stickers placed in Ile de Ré,
including one that commemorates the 100 years
anniversary of a French nature conservation association 245
Photo 6.9 Bilingual road sign in Fôret de la Coubre,
Charente-Maritime 247
Photo 6.10 External view of disappeared Community Centre.
Stratford-upon-Avon 262
Photo 6.11 Adverts in bilingual estate agents in Montmorillon
and in Civray, respectively 266
Photo 6.12 Adverts in bilingual estate agents in Civray 267
Photo 6.13 Road sign near a village in the
Stratford-on-Avon district 271
Photo 6.14 Poster of a campaign to save the local
pub placed in the main window of a house
in Great Wolford village 274
Photo 6.15 Details of a Polish shop in one of the main streets
in Stratford-upon-Avon 275
Photo 6.16 Nurseries placed in the outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon,
where some immigrants work 277
Photo 6.17 Irish tearoom in Confolens 283
Photo 6.18 Irish Laundry in L’Isle Jourdain 284

Map 1.1 Approximate Location of Case Studies.

The dimensions of study areas are not representative 5
Map 5.1 Percentage of foreign residents in continental Spain
and Balearic Islands by provinces according to 2001
census 137
Map 5.2 Percentage of foreign residents in continental Spain
and Balearic Islands by provinces according to 2011
census 138
 List of Figures   xv

Map 5.3 Main case study areas in Alt Empordà 144

Map 5.4 Population density in Alt Empordà according to 2011
census 145
Map 5.5 Total population in Alt Empordà according to 2011
census 149
Map 5.6 Foreign-born residents in Alt Empordà according
to 2011 census 150
Map 5.7 Main case study areas in Alentejo Litoral 158
Map 5.8 Population density in Alentejo Litoral according
to 2011 census 159
Map 5.9 Total population and percentage of foreign residents
in Alentejo Litoral municipalities according
to 2001 census 160
Map 5.10 Total population and percentage of foreign residents
in Alentejo Litoral municipalities according to 2011
census 182
Map 5.11 Total population and foreign residents percentage
in ‘freguesias’ of Odemira according to 2011 census 183
Map 6.1 Percentage of Foreign-Born Residents in Warwickshire
by Wards according to 2011 Census 219
Map 6.2 Main Case Study Locations in Warwickshire 220
Map 6.3 Population Density in South Warwickshire
according to 2011 Census 222
Map 6.4 Population in South Warwickshire by Wards
according to 2011 Census 223
Map 6.5 Main Case Study Areas in Poitou-Charentes 233
Map 6.6 Population Density in Poitou-Charentes
according to 2011 Census 234
Map 6.7 Percentage of Foreign-Born Residents in
the Main Studied Areas of Poitou-Charentes 235
 List of Tables

Table 3.1 Indicators of Immigrant Integration 74

Table 3.2 MIPEX2015 ranking and scores by countries 75
Table 3.3 The sustainable development goals (SDGs) 78
Table 5.1 Annual immigration flows from abroad. Foreigners
1997–2017 134
Table 5.2 Foreign population in Spain according to 2001 and 2011
censuses (Spanish National Statistical Institute, INE).
Nationalities with a share equal or over 1% of total
foreigners shown 140
Table 5.3 Foreign population in Spain according to local register
(Padrón municipal) for 1 January 2017 (Spanish National
Statistical Institute, INE). Nationalities with a share equal
or over 1% of total foreigners shown 141
Table 5.4 Population of Spain by region of citizenship/geographical
area of origin, 2011 143
Table 5.5 Foreign population in case study areas according
to 2011 census (INE 2011) 149
Table 5.6 Foreign population in Portugal according to 2001
and 2011 censuses (Eurostat). Nationalities with a share
equal or over 1% of total foreigners shown 152

xvii
xviii   List of Tables

Table 5.7 Foreign population in Alentejo Litoral municipalities

according to 2011 census (INE 2011) 161
Table 5.8 Population of Portugal by region of citizenship/
geographical area of origin, 2011 161
Table 6.1 Foreign-born population in the United Kingdom
according to 2001 and 2011 Censuses (Eurostat).
Countries of birth with a share equal to or over 1%
of total foreign born shown 212
Table 6.2 Annual inflow of foreign immigrants to the United
Kingdom, 2007–2016 213
Table 6.3 Foreign-born population in the town of Stratford-
upon-Avon, UK for 2001 and 2011 (ONS Crown
Copyright Reserved [from Nomis on November 2018]).
Countries of birth with a share equal or over 1% of total
foreign born shown 214
Table 6.4 Foreign-born Population in Stratford on Avon district,
UK for 2001 and 2011 (ONS Crown Copyright
Reserved [from Nomis on November 2018]). Countries
of birth with a share equal to or over 1% of total foreign
born shown 215
Table 6.5 Annual foreign immigrants inflows to France, 2007–2016 230
Table 6.6 Foreign-born population in France according to 2001
and 2011 Censuses (Eurostat). Countries of birth
with a share equal to or over 1% of total Foreign born
are shown 231
Table 6.7 Foreign population in Poitou-Charentes region, France
for 2006 (The National Institute of Statistics
and Economic Studies—INSEE, 2009). Major
Nationalities and Groups of Nationalities shown 236
Table 6.8 Foreign population in Poitou-Charentes region,
France for 2011 and 2013 (The National Institute
of Statistics and Economic Studies, 2014 and 2016).
Nationalities with a share equal to or over 1%
of total foreigners shown 237
Table A.1 Interviewees in Alentejo Litoral, Portugal 319
Table A.2 Interviewees in Alt Empordà, Spain 320
Table A.3 Interviewees in Poitou-Charentes, France 320
Table A.4 Interviewees in South Warwickshire, UK 321
 1
Introduction: Small Can Be More
Than Beautiful

‘- But small to greater matters must give way’.

- Not if the small come first’
(William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, II, 2)
[Bold added by authors]

In 2012, the British Museum in London organised an exhibition titled

Shakespeare. Staging the World (Bate and Thornton 2012). Right from
the beginning of this book, one may wonder if places with relatively
small population numbers can be main characters on the current world
stage. In addition, following the aforementioned William Shakespeare’s
quote (taken from one of his most intercultural plays), one may also
wonder if small matters do come first (and if they will give way to
greater matters). For more than half a century, the nation-state has been
the prevailing geographical level to comparatively study international
migration (e.g. Favell 1998; Kondo 2001; Layton-Henry 1990; Rex and
Drury 1994; Simon 2015), but during the last two decades there has
been a growth in academic literature in the field of migration at subna-
tional scales. However, the focus has usually been on large cities or met-
ropolitan areas (e.g. Rogers and Vertovec 1995; Rogers and Tillie 2001;
© The Author(s) 2020 1
R. Morén-Alegret and D. Wladyka, International Immigration, Integration and
Sustainability in Small Towns and Villages, Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58621-6_1
2    
R. Morén-Alegret and D. Wladyka

Penninx et al. 2004; Kilkey et al. 2013; Lundström 2014; Lee 2015)
and, in more recent years, at the urban neighbourhood level too (e.g.
Fonseca and McGarrigle 2012; Pastore and Ponzo 2016).
Cities have been praised by some authors as the triumphant ‘greatest
invention’ on earth that makes people richer, smarter, greener, health-
ier and happier (Glaeser 2012), while others place cities at the heart of
worldwide key sociopolitical and geographical conflicts as well as capi-
tal and class struggles (Harvey 2012) or, in contrast, as the cradles for
crucial artistic visions and aesthetically innovative viewpoints (Gualdoni
2014). In addition, cities are explicitly mentioned first in one of the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, concretely in Goal 11,
titled ‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and
sustainable’ (UN 2015). However, since ancestral times and in a wide
variety of places, it is possible to hear pros and cons in debates about
sizes regarding human life, organisations and settlements. In addition,
as Eleanor Roosevelt (1958) indicated in her famous speech titled On
Our Hands,1 human rights begin in small places ‘so small that they can-
not be seen on any maps of the world’.

1.1 Small Human Population Settlements

Can Be More Than Beautiful
For some people, with respect to popular culture, large sizes are pre-
ferred to small sizes, while for others it is the opposite.2 In addition, in
the scientific and political debate, the situation is even more complex.
An illustrative example is the classical book titled Small Is Beautiful,
written by economist Ernst Friedrich Schumacher (1973) who advo-
cated, in a moment when the trend was directed towards giant political

1From “In Our Hands”, speech delivered on the 10th anniversary of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. See: http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/humanrights/quotes.
shtml.
2For instance, in English, the idiom ‘look/feel small’ means to look or feel stupid, embarrassed

or ridiculous (see appendix on methodological elements), while in Catalan language one can find
also an equivalent with opposite meaning: ‘Al pot petit hi ha la bona confitura’, literally meaning
that the good marmalade is in the small pot.
 1 Introduction: Small Can Be More Than Beautiful    
3

and economic organisations, for the usefulness and practical aspect of

smaller sizes regarding a variety of political and economic issues, includ-
ing the governance of territories and the management of companies.
However, Schumacher (1973, p. 70) emphasised the ‘duality of the
human requirement when it comes to the question of size: there is no
single answer’. According to Schumacher, humans need many struc-
tures with different sizes, both small ones and large ones, in order to be
constructive: ‘the principal task is always the restoration of some kind
of balance. Today we suffer from an almost universal idolatry of giant-
ism. It is therefore necessary to insist on the virtues of smallness – where
this applies’ (Schumacher 1973, p. 70). The latter part of the quote
(‘where this applies’) should be emphasised, because sometimes the
debate about sizes is simplified to a big vs. small discussion, while there
are multiple options. Big, intermediate and/or small sizes may apply,
depending on the situation, time, place, phenomenon or context. In
fact, Schumacher also noted that if ‘there were a prevailing idolatry of
smallness, irrespective of subject or purpose, one would have to try and
exercise influence in the opposite direction’ (Schumacher 1973, p. 70).
Regarding human population settlements, in countries like the
United States and in parts of Europe, there are strong popular stereo-
types both in favour and against small towns and villages (Butterfield
2000, p. 1884). For some, small towns host people with positive val-
ues like kindness, honesty or mutual help among neighbours, while for
others ‘small-town attitudes’ make reference to negative prejudice or
small-mindedness. For instance, in the context of rural England, the rel-
atively recent huge literary success of James Rebanks (2015), a shepherd
himself, underlines that paradoxical situation. Depending on the point
of view, the Lake District area in which he lives has been considered
‘poor, unproductive, primitive, harsh, ugly and backward’ or, in con-
trast, ‘beautiful’, ‘stimulating’, ‘ideal’ and ‘a model for a good society’.
In any case, cities, metropolitan areas and megalopolises are of grow-
ing importance (UN 2014) and there has usually been bias towards
them in sustainability narratives, as some recent relevant publications
illustrate (e.g. Portney 2015; Rosenzweig et al. 2016). However, as it
has been noted elsewhere (Morén-Alegret et al. 2018a), rural areas and
small towns are equally relevant for human and planetary sustainability.
4    
R. Morén-Alegret and D. Wladyka

As early as the 1980s, the Brundtland Commission report Our Common

Future, a key document in sustainability studies, proposed the develop-
ment of explicit settlement strategies that would take the pressure off
the largest urban centres and build up smaller towns and cities, while
closely integrating them with the rural hinterlands (The Brundtland
Commission 1987).3 These small towns and rural areas can be a com-
plementary type of human settlement: ‘one while globally linked and
increasingly cosmopolitan, remains more small-scale, more balanced
between natural and built environment, more personal, and more
responsive to local values and governance’ (Afshar 1998, p. 376).
Recently, the 2nd Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of the 2030
UN Development Agenda pays explicit attention to rural issues. In par-
ticular, as Morén-Alegret et al. (2018a) noted, target 2.a specifically asks
to increase investment in rural infrastructure, including the enhance-
ment of international cooperation (UN 2015). Additionally, within the
context of the European Union (EU), the importance of people-centred
rural development and promotion of sustainable food production sys-
tems have been underlined (EUROSTAT 2016, 2017), while the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization FAO (2018) has recently noted
that ‘one of the key challenges facing sustainable rural development is
information sharing and dissemination’. In this sense, in a recent report
on migration and 2030 SDGs agenda, published by the International
Organization for Migration (IOM), it has been stated that ‘data gaps
include the impact of migration policy, migratory movements to and
from rural areas’ (Mosler Vidal 2018, p. 31).
Thus, in order to contribute filling that gap and informing more tar-
get policymaking, this book offers quantitative population data as well
as qualitative information on challenges for rural and small-town sus-
tainability in four different European countries (see Map 1.1): Alentejo
Litoral (Portugal), Poitou-Charentes (New Aquitaine, France), Alt

3This report is one of the publications that paved the way to the seventeen Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs) that should be achieved by year 2030. See: https://sustainabledevel-
opment.un.org.
 1 Introduction: Small Can Be More Than Beautiful    
5

Map 1.1 Approximate Location of Case Studies. The dimensions of study areas
are not representative (This map includes Intellectual Property from European
National Mapping and Cadastral Authorities and is licenced on behalf of these
by EuroGeographics. Original product is available for free at www.eurogeo-
graphics.org. Terms of the licence available: https://eurogeographics.org/services/
open-data/topographic-data/. Elaborated by: Dawid Wladyka)
6    
R. Morén-Alegret and D. Wladyka

Empordà (Girona province, Catalonia, Spain) and South Warwickshire

(West Midlands, England, UK).
Today, the idea of small towns and rural areas as isolated and back-
ward places is usually outdated, especially in many regions of OECD
countries such as those in the EU, the USA, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand or Chile (Morén-Alegret et al. 2018a). Globalisation and mod-
ernisation processes—including international immigration—are also
occurring, with some particularities, in many rural areas and small
towns (Woods 2007). According to Cid-Aguayo (2008), many rural
localities and small towns are ‘global villages’ in a literal, rather than in
the metaphorical sense, as suggested by Marshall McLuhan and Bruce
R. Powers (1989).4 Global villages are also ‘all small settlements that
participate in the globalisation of processes related to the economy,
ecology, culture, migration, technology and other aspects of life’ (Cid-
Aguayo 2008, p. 543). In this book, we argue along with other scholars
(e.g. Scott et al. 2000; Morén-Alegret et al. 2018a) that rural sustaina-
bility studies should give more consideration to migration and ethnic
diversity, including elements of livelihood, social participation, justice
and equity.
In international immigration studies most research has been focused
on the arrival of immigrants in big cities and large metropolitan areas,
while much less attention has been paid to international immigra-
tion in small towns and rural areas (Hugo and Morén-Alegret 2008;
­Morén-Alegret 2010; Jentsch and Simard, 2009; McAreavey 2012).5
In nationalistic and nation-state times (Simon 2015), one may won-
der why we should take the views of immigrants seriously, and what
their insights could contribute to our understanding of sustainability.
However, if immigrants’ views were left unattended, an important part
of reality would be lacking in the picture because today immigration is
forging a ‘new reality’ in various places of rural Europe (Woods 2016):

4For instance, in this sense, see Milazzo (2015, 2018) for reflections on the case of Cadaqués

(Catalonia, Spain), a coastal village with various international connections and a semi-rural
background.
5However, internal immigration in rural areas was studied earlier (e.g. Halfacree and Boyle 1998).
 1 Introduction: Small Can Be More Than Beautiful    
7

Not only are traditional rural industries such as farming and meat-
processing dependent in some regions on international migrant work-
ers, but international migrants can also occupy traditional positions of
authority in rural communities such as doctors and dentists. (Woods
2016, p. 583)

By engaging various immigrants’ voices, this book assists to unveil

threats and challenges for local sustainability that were under the radar
of some regional or local institutions (Morén-Alegret et al. 2018b). In
other words, ‘the transformative capacity of international migration in
rural areas is not only economic, but is also social and cultural’ (Woods
2016, p. 588) as well as environmental, as is explained below.
In recent decades, some European countries have attracted interna-
tional immigration from various continents to rural areas and small
towns, especially in regions where internationalised sectors like tourism
and export-oriented agriculture are important drivers of the economy
(Kordel et al. 2018). Some studies (e.g. Donato et al. 2010) have shown
that despite economic crises, international immigration can constitute a
key factor in the small town and rural ‘rebound’ (i.e. process of popula-
tion growth following years of demographic stagnation or decline). We
argue that immigrant stakeholders’ voices should be heard in order to
avoid reinforcing methodological nationalism from academia (Wimmer
and Glick-Shiller 2003) as well as to better inform the implementation
of inclusive local and regional policies (Morén-Alegret et al. 2018a).

1.2 Introducing Research Questions

The main aim of this book is to explore the immigrant stakeholders’
perspectives and perceptions of key challenges for achieving sustainabil-
ity in small towns and rural areas of Portugal, Spain, France, and the
UK. According to Ragin (1994), the three main objectives of qualita-
tive research are to give voice, to interpret significant historical or cul-
tural phenomena, and to propose theory. In this book, the analysis is
mainly focused on international immigrants’ narratives because their
voices have often been neglected in academic literature on sustainability,
8    
R. Morén-Alegret and D. Wladyka

especially regarding rural and semi-rural areas. Listening to a variety of

immigrants’ voices (including both those from wealthier countries and
impoverished countries) has the added value of obtaining various points
of view, which helps us to learn about different contexts of diversity
(UNU-GCM 2015).
Therefore, in this book, an effort is made to shed light on the con-
tents of perceptions: Which dimensions of sustainability are underlined?
What are, altogether, the main challenges for sustainability and the
proposals for improvement? What is the content of local sustainability
challenges?
Small can be more than beautiful, smallness is part of human life
and, even in global times, voices from small places should be heard, as
the lifeworld is composed by a variety of small but potentially big expe-
riences and opinions (Seamon 1979/ 2015). Thus the main objectives of
this international and comparative research book are, among others, the
following:

a. To identify and learn from the experience of social, economic and

environmental organisations or relevant individuals, regarding the
arrival of foreign immigration in rural areas and small towns as well
as local sustainability challenges.
b. To offer a set of ideas that can be useful for implementing sustainable
integration policies in rural and semi-rural EU regions where interna-
tional immigration has arrived (or will arrive).
c. To study the extent to which having natural protected areas in rural
and semi-rural places can be useful for realising both local sustaina-
bility and newcomers’ integration.

This book project started in 2015. However, among other issues,

the shock of the Brexit referendum outcome in June 2016 (and the
increasingly difficult situation in the UK) together with the progres-
sively complex political situation in Catalonia due to the challenging
pro-independence and re-centralisation processes (particularly prob-
lematic in 2017 and the first semester of 2018) obliged us to stop
writing. Consequently, it was time to rethink and to revise earlier
 1 Introduction: Small Can Be More Than Beautiful    
9

versions of this book and other related publications (e.g. Morén-Alegret

et al. 2018a, b). In this context, William Shakespeare and other authors
like Franz Kafka were helpful as they published work that invites us to
overcome simple narratives, to be more self-critical as human beings
as well as to try to wait for the best moment to do the right thing.
Hopefully, after overcoming various painful circumstances, this book
provides more relevant results from our field studies on sustainability
and immigrants’ integration in various European countries.
This is an academic book built upon research projects but it con-
tinues building bridges across some cultural divides, incorporating
artistic inputs in order to illustrate or complement scientific accounts
(see Morén-Alegret 2002, 2010). In this sense, this book is in tune
with recent trends in current modern science that have raised aware-
ness on the part of some scientists on the heritage of artists and vice
versa (Nature 2005). In addition, this book also pays a modest hom-
age to older forms of research results combining science and art in a
synthetic and practical way, such as the Majorca island cartographers
and geographers during the late Middle Age and the Renaissance
(Hernando 1995). In particular, this book pays special homage to
William Shakespeare, 455 years after he was born in a small town, in
Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. He later moved to the city of
London in order to carry out his entrepreneurial artistic life and, once
retired, he went back to that same small town where he first saw the
light. Across the literary works of William Shakespeare, one can find
wisdom and reflections that are related to a variety of human challenges
and experiences. The main co-author of this book, Ricard Morén-
Alegret, lived in Warwickshire for a few years and, during recent stormy
times, has visited that area periodically from his Iberian home ‘upon the
Mediterranean’ (William Shakespeare, The Tempest, I, 2). During the
last years, he has also been reading, studying and watching a number of
William Shakespeare’s works as well as related publications. In addition,
the second co-author, Dawid Wladyka accepted that Shakespearean
thread from his Texan home placed close to the Mexican border,
where he lives after he left ‘the main of Poland… for some frontier’
(William Shakespeare, Hamlet, IV, 4). Thus, along this book, some of
10    
R. Morén-Alegret and D. Wladyka

William Shakespeare’s words help us to introduce chapters, sections or

ideas, providing a narrative thread as well as some perspective on var-
ious current human and planetary affairs.6 In fact, for centuries, vari-
ous links of the term ‘theatre’ and geography have been relevant in one
way or another. For instance, Guiljelmun and Iohannem Blaeu titled
one of their publications The Theatre of the World or New Atlas (1635)
and, in military geography, one can usually talk about the ‘theatre of
operations’, including operations both in war and in peace times, i.e.
‘military operations other than war’, MOOTW (Palka 2003). In addi-
tion, some professors in drama have studied, among other issues that
are relevant for this book, the links between theatre and migration (Cox
2014), theatre and race (Young 2013), theatre and the rural (Robinson
2016), theatre and interculturalism (Knowles 2010) and theatre and
globalisation (Rebellato 2009). Regarding William Shakespeare, Ania
Loomba (2002), for instance, examined the relation of his plays with
concepts such as ‘race’, ‘ehnicity’, ‘nation’, ‘xenophobia’ and ‘coloni-
alism’; Carole Levin and John Watkins (2009) investigate ‘foreign’,
‘national’ and ‘transnational’ identities in Shakespeare’s world; and
Randall Martin (2015) has explored the ecological and environmen-
tal knowledge and politics of Shakespeare and his audiences. On the
other hand, in relation to theatre performances, in summer 2018, The
Globe Theatre in London organised a festival titled Shakespeare and Race
(including among other activities a workshop on ‘staging race and diver-
sity in Shakespearean theatre’7) and, moreover, theatre director Lluís
Pasqual—who for decades has been a promoter of Shakespeare in var-
ious European countries—explicitly linked the 2017–2018 season of
Barcelona’s Teatre Lliure (i.e. Free Theatre) to geography, mapping and
migration.

6The William Shakespeare’s texts are public domain and some quotes were selected thanks to the

Open Source Shakespeare, published by George Mason University. In addition, the fundamental
volume William Shakespeare Complete Works (Bate and Rasmusen 2007) was helpful along the
writing up process of this book.
7 See: https://blog.shakespearesglobe.com/post/176992141418/staging-race-and-diversity-

workshop-summary.
 1 Introduction: Small Can Be More Than Beautiful    
11

Thus, in the next chapters, hand in hand with some of William

Shakespeare’s words, we provide an overview of recent conceptual
debates on sustainability, bearing in mind the importance of human
migration in today’s world. Following this, the European study areas are
presented and the main findings are offered for the two South European
countries (Portugal and Spain) and the two North-West European
countries (France and the UK). In this sense, the main findings are
organised by perceived perspective on challenges for economic, social
and environmental sustainability in our various case studies. Finally,
the book concludes with some initial results from an ongoing project
focusing on the particular case of small villages as well as some gen-
eral remarks, reflections and suggestions for further research and policy
recommendations.

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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dante
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Dante

Author: Edmund G. Gardner

Release date: October 31, 2023 [eBook #71990]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1923

Credits: Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading

Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced
from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE ***

 DANTE
BY
EDMUND G. GARDNER, M.A.

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 Fifth Avenue
 Copyright, 1923
By E. P. Dutton & Company

All Rights Reserved

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 TO
PHILIP H. WICKSTEED
A SMALL TRIBUTE
OF
DEEP AFFECTION AND HIGH ESTEEM
 AUTHOR’S NOTE
I would ask the reader to take the present volume, not as a new
book on Dante, but merely as a revision of the Primer which was first
published in 1900. It has been as far as possible brought up to date,
the chief modifications being naturally in the sections devoted to the
poet’s life and Opere minori, and in the bibliographical appendix; but
the work remains substantially the same. Were I now to write a new
Dante Primer, after the interval of nearly a quarter of a century, I
should be disposed to attach considerably less importance to the
allegorical meaning of the Divina Commedia, and to emphasise,
more than I have here done, the aspect of Dante as the symbol and
national hero of Italy.
E. G. G.
London, July, 1923.
 N.B.—The “Sexcentenary Dante” (the testo critico published under
the auspices of the Società Dantesca Italiana) adopts a slightly
different numbering of the chapters, or paragraphs, of the Vita Nuova
and the second treatise of the Convivio from that presented by the
“Oxford Dante” and the “Temple Classics.” I have kept to the latter
(which is indicated in brackets in the testo critico). Similarly, I have
followed the numbering of the Epistolae in Dr. Toynbee’s edition and
the “Oxford Dante” (also given in brackets in the testo critico). In the
section on the lyrical poetry, Rime refers to the testo critico as edited
by Professor Barbi, O. to the new Oxford edition revised by Dr.
Toynbee. In the closing passage of the Letter to a Florentine friend, I
have followed the reading retained by Dr. Toynbee. I have frequently
availed myself of Dr. Wicksteed’s translation of the Letters and
Monarchia, of Mr. A. G. F. Howell’s version of the De Vulgari
Eloquentia, and occasionally of Carlyle’s rendering of the Inferno.
Every student of Dante must inevitably owe much to others; but, in
this new edition of my Primer, I would express my indebtedness in
particular to the writings of Dr. Paget Toynbee, Dr. Philip H.
Wicksteed, the late Ernesto Giacomo Parodi, and Prof. Michele
Barbi.
⁂ To the Bibliographical Appendix should be added: A.
Fiammazzo, Il commento dantesco di Graziolo de’ Bambaglioli
(Savona, 1915), and P. Revelli, L’Italia nella Divina Commedia
(Milan, 1923).
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Dante in his Times—
i. The End of the Middle Ages.—ii. Dante’s 1
Childhood and Adolescence.—iii. After the
Death of Beatrice.—iv. Dante’s Political Life.
—v. First Period of Exile.—vi. The Invasion of
Henry VII.—vii. Last Period of Exile.—viii.
Dante’s Works and First Interpreters
CHAPTER II
Dante’s Minor Italian Works—
i. The Vita Nuova.—ii. The Rime.—iii. The 67
Convivio
CHAPTER III
Dante’s Latin Works—
i. The De Vulgari Eloquentia.—ii. The 102
Monarchia.—iii. The Epistolae.—iv. The
Eclogae.—v. The Quaestio de Aqua et Terra
CHAPTER IV
The “Divina Commedia”—
i. Introductory.—ii. The Inferno.—iii. The 136
Purgatorio.—iv. The Paradiso
Bibliographical Appendix 223
Diagrams and Tables 233
Index 249
DANTE
 CHAPTER I
DANTE IN HIS TIMES
1. The End of the Middle Ages
From Gregory VII. to Frederick II.—The twelfth and thirteenth
centuries cover the last and more familiar portion of the Middle Ages.
They are the period of chivalry, of the crusades and of romance,
when the Neo-Latin languages bore fruit in the prose and poetry of
France, the lyrics of the Provençal troubadours, and the earliest
vernacular literature of Italy; the period which saw the development
of Gothic architecture, the rise of scholastic philosophy, the
institution of the Franciscan and Dominican orders, the recovery by
western Europe of the works of Aristotle, the elevation of Catholic
theology into a systematic harmony of reason and revelation under
the influence of the christianised Aristotelianism of Albertus Magnus
and Thomas Aquinas. The vernacular literature of Italy developed
comparatively late, and (until the time of Aquinas and Bonaventura)
her part in the scholastic movement was secondary to that of
France, but she had led the way in the revival of the study of Roman
law and jurisprudence, which centred at Bologna, where the great
Irnerius taught at the beginning of the twelfth century. It was thus that
the first European university, studium generale, came into being, and
Bologna boasts the proud title alma mater studiorum.
There are two predominant political factors in Italy which appear at
the end of the twelfth century, and hold the field up to the time of
Dante’s birth. Out of the war of investitures between Pope and
Emperor, the struggle which we associate mainly with the name of
Hildebrand (Gregory VII.), emerged the Italian city-states, the free
communes of northern and central Italy, whose development
culminated in the heroic resistance offered by the first Lombard
League to the mightiest of mediaeval German Caesars, Frederick I.
(Barbarossa), which won the battle of Legnano (1176) and obtained
the peace of Constance (1183). In the south, the Normans—
conquering Apulia and Calabria, delivering Sicily from the Saracens
—consolidated their rule into a feudal monarchy, making their capital
Palermo one of the most splendid cities of the mediaeval world. The
third and last of these Norman kings of Sicily, William II. (Par. xx. 61-
66), died in 1189. The son of Barbarossa, Henry VI., claimed the
kingdom in the right of his wife Constance (Par. iii. 115-120), and
established the Suabian dynasty on the throne. His son, Frederick
II., continued the cultured traditions of the Norman kings; but the
union in his person of the kingdom of Sicily with the Empire led to a
continuous struggle with the Italian communes and the Papacy,
which embittered his closing years until his death in 1250. The reign
of Frederick II. is the period of the Guelf and Ghibelline factions, and
the beginning of the rise of tyrants in the Italian cities, tyrants of
whom the most terrible example was Ezzelino da Romano (Inf. xii.
110).
The Battle of Benevento.—The policy of Frederick II. was
continued by his son Manfred (crowned King of Sicily in 1258),
against whom Pope Clement IV., claiming the right to dispose of the
kingdom as a fief of the Church, summoned Charles of Anjou, the
brother of St. Louis of France. Charles entered Italy (Purg. xx. 67),
encountered and defeated Manfred on the plains of Grandella near
Benevento, in February 1266, and the papal legate refused the rites
of Christian burial to the fallen king (Purg. iii. 124-132). This battle of
Benevento marks an epoch in Italian history. It ended for the time the
struggle between the Roman Pontiffs and the German Caesars; it
initiated the new strife between the Papacy and the royal house of
France. Henceforth the old ideal significance of “Guelf” and
“Ghibelline,” as denoting adherents of Church and Empire
respectively, becomes lost in the local conflicts of each Italian district
and city. The imperial power was at an end in Italy; but the Popes, by
calling in this new foreign aid, had prepared the way for the
humiliation of Pope Boniface at Anagni and the corruption of
Avignon. The fall of the silver eagle from Manfred’s helmet before the
golden lilies on Charles’s standard may be taken as symbolical. The
preponderance in Italian politics had passed back from Germany to
France; the influence of the house of Capet was substituted for the
overthrown authority of the Emperor (Purg. xx. 43, 44). Three weeks
after the battle Charles entered Naples in triumph, King of Apulia and
Sicily; an Angevin dynasty was established upon the throne of the
most potent state of Italy.
Art and Letters.—This political transformation was profoundly
felt in Italian literature. A new courtly poetry, that of the so-called
“Sicilian School,” had come into being in the south, partly based on
Provençal models, in the first quarter of the thirteenth century. Its
poets—mainly Sicilians and Apulians, but with recruits from other
parts of the peninsula—had almost given to Italy a literary language.
“The Sicilian vernacular,” writes Dante in his De Vulgari Eloquentia,
“seems to have gained for itself a renown beyond the others; for
whatever Italians produce in poetry is called Sicilian, and we find that
many native poets have sung weightily.” This he ascribes to the
fostering influence of the imperial rule of the house of Suabia:
“Those illustrious heroes, Frederick Caesar and his well-begotten
son Manfred, showing their nobility and rectitude of soul, as long as
fortune lasted, followed human things, disdaining the bestial;
wherefore the noble in heart and endowed with graces strove to
cleave to the majesty of such great princes; so that, in their time,
whatever the excellent among Italians attempted first appeared at
the court of these great sovereigns. And, because the royal throne
was Sicily, it came about that whatever our predecessors produced
in the vernacular is called Sicilian” (V. E. i. 12). The house of Anjou
made Naples their capital, and treated Sicily as a conquered
province. After Benevento the literary centre of Italy shifted from
Palermo and the royal court of the south to Bologna and the
republican cities of Tuscany. Guittone d’Arezzo (Purg. xxvi. 124-126)
founded a school of Tuscan poets, extending the field of Italian
lyrical poetry to political and ethical themes as well as love (which
had been the sole subject of the Sicilian School). The beginnings of
Italian literary prose had already appeared at Bologna, with the first
vernacular models for composition of the rhetoricians, the masters of
the ars dictandi. Here, within the next eight years, St. Thomas
Aquinas published the first and second parts of the Summa
Theologica; and the poetry of the first great singer of modern Italy,
Guido Guinizelli (Purg. xxvi. 91-114), rose to spiritual heights
undreamed of in the older schools, in his canzone on Love and true
nobility: Al cor gentil ripara sempre Amore; “To the gentle heart doth
Love ever repair.” And, in the sphere of the plastic arts, these were
the years that saw the last triumphs of Niccolò Pisano, “the Father of
Sculpture to Italy,” and the earliest masterpieces of Cimabue, the
teacher of Giotto (Purg. xi. 94-96), the shepherd boy who came from
the fields to free Italian painting from Byzantine fetters, and who
“developed an artistic language which was the true expression of the
Italian national character.”

2. Dante’s Childhood and Adolescence

Birth and Family.—Dante Alighieri, in its Latin form Alagherii, was
born at Florence in 1265, probably in the latter part of May, some
nine months before the battle of Benevento. His father, Alighiero di
Bellincione di Alighiero, came of an ancient and honourable family of
that section of the city named from the Porta San Piero. Although
Guelfs, the Alighieri were probably of the same stock as the Elisei,
decadent nobles of supposed Roman descent, who took the
Ghibelline side in the days of Frederick II., when the city was first
involved in these factions after the murder of young Buondelmonte in
her “last peace” in 1215 (Par. xvi. 136-147). Among the warriors of
the Cross, in the Heaven of Mars, Dante meets his great-great-
grandfather Cacciaguida. Born probably in 1091, Cacciaguida
married a wife from the valley of the Po, a member of one or other of
the families afterwards known as the Aldighieri or Alighieri at Ferrara,
Parma, and Bologna, was knighted by Conrad III., and died in battle
against the infidels in the disastrous second crusade (Par. xv. 137-
148). None of Cacciaguida’s descendants had attained to any
distinction in the Republic. Brunetto di Bellincione, Dante’s uncle,
probably fought for the Guelfs at Montaperti in 1260, where he may
have been one of those in charge of the carroccio, the battle-car
which accompanied the army. Besides Cacciaguida and his son
Alaghiero, or Alighiero, the first to bear the name, who is said by his
father to be still in the purgatorial terrace of the proud (Par. xv. 91-
96), the only other member of the family introduced into the Divina
Commedia is Geri del Bello, a grandson of the elder Alighiero and
cousin of Dante’s father, a sower of discord and a murderer (Inf. xxix.
13-36), whose violent and well-deserved death had not yet been
avenged.
The Florentine Republic.—As far as Florence was concerned,
the real strife of Guelfs and Ghibellines was a struggle for
supremacy, first without and then within the city, of a democracy of
merchants and traders, with a military aristocracy of partly Teutonic
descent, who were gradually being deprived of their territorial and
feudal sway, which they had held nominally from the Emperor in the
contado, the country districts of Tuscany included in the continually
extending Florentine commune. Although the party names were first
introduced into Florence in 1215, the struggle had virtually begun
after the death of the great Countess Matilda in 1115; and had
resulted in a regular and constitutional advance of the power of the
people, interrupted by a few intervals. It was in one of these intervals
that Dante was born. The popular government (Primo Popolo), which
had been established shortly before the death of Frederick II. in
1250, and worked victoriously for ten years, had been overthrown in
1260 at the disastrous battle of Montaperti, “the havoc and the great
slaughter, which dyed the Arbia red” (Inf. x. 85, 86). The patriotism of
Farinata degli Uberti saved Florence from total destruction, but all
the leading Guelf families were driven out, and the government
remained in the power of a despotic Ghibelline aristocracy, under
Manfred’s vicar, Count Guido Novello, supported by German
mercenaries. After the fall of Manfred, an attempt was made to effect
a peace between the Ghibellines and the people; but a revolution on
St. Martin’s Day, November 11th, 1266, led to the expulsion of Guido
Novello and his forces, and the formation of a provisional democratic
government. In January 1267 the banished Guelfs—many of whom
had fought under the papal banner at Benevento—returned; on
Easter Day French troops entered Florence, the Ghibellines fled, the
Guelfs made Charles of Anjou suzerain of the city, and accepted his
vicar as podestà. The government was reorganised, with a new
institution, the Parte Guelfa, to secure the Guelf predominance in the
Republic.
 The defeat of young Conradin, grandson of Frederick II., at
Tagliacozzo in 1268, followed by his judicial murder (Purg. xx. 68),
confirmed the triumph of the Guelfs and the power of Charles in Italy.
In Florence the future conflict lay between the new Guelf aristocracy
and the burghers and people, between the Grandi and the Popolani;
the magnates in their palaces and towers, associated into societies
and groups of families, surrounding themselves with retainers and
swordsmen, but always divided among themselves; and the people,
soon to become “very fierce and hot in lordship,” as Villani says,
artisans and traders ready to rush out from stalls and workshops to
follow the standards of their Arts or Guilds in defence of liberty. In the
year after the House of Suabia ended with Conradin upon the
scaffold, the Florentines took partial vengeance for Montaperti at the
battle of Colle di Valdelsa (Purg. xiii. 115-120), where the Sienese
were routed and Provenzano Salvani (Purg. xi. 109-114) killed. It is
said to have been Provenzano Salvani who, in the great Ghibelline
council at Empoli, had proposed that Florence should be destroyed.
Dante’s Boyhood.—It is not clear how Dante came to be born in
Florence, since he gives us to understand (Inf. x. 46-50) that his
family were fiercely adverse to the Ghibellines and would naturally
have been in exile until the close of 1266. Probably his father, of
whom scarcely anything is known, took no prominent part in politics
and had been allowed to remain in the city. Besides the houses in
the Piazza San Martino, he possessed two farms and some land in
the country. Dante’s mother, Bella (perhaps an abbreviation of
Gabriella), is believed to have been Alighiero’s first wife, and to have
died soon after the poet’s birth. Her family is not known, though it
has been suggested that she may have been the daughter of
Durante di Scolaio degli Abati, a Guelf noble. Alighiero married
again, Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi, the daughter of a prominent
Guelf popolano; by this second marriage he had a son, Francesco,
and a daughter, Tana (Gaetana), who married Lapo Riccomanni.
Another daughter, whose name is not known, married Leone Poggi;
it is not quite certain whether her mother was Bella or Lapa. Dante
never mentions his mother nor his father, whom he also lost in
boyhood, in any of his works (excepting such indirect references as
Inf. viii. 45, and Conv. i. 13); but, in the Vita Nuova, a “young and
gentle lady, who was united to me by very near kindred,” appears
watching by the poet in his illness. In the loveliest of his early lyrics
she is described as

Adorna assai di gentilezze umane,

which Rossetti renders:

Exceeding rich in human sympathies.

This lady was, perhaps, one of these two sisters; and it is tempting to
infer from Dante’s words that a tender affection existed between him
and her. It was from Dante’s nephew, Andrea Poggi, that Boccaccio
obtained some of his information concerning the poet, and it would
be pleasant to think that Andrea’s mother is the heroine of this
canzone (V. N. xxiii.); but there are chronological difficulties in the
identification.
Sources.—Our sources for Dante’s biography, in addition to his
own works, are primarily a short chapter in the Chronicle of his
neighbour Giovanni Villani, the epoch-making work of Boccaccio,
Filippo Villani’s unimportant sketch at the end of the fourteenth and
the brief but reliable life by Leonardo Bruni at the beginning of the
fifteenth century. In addition we have some scanty hints given by the
early commentators on the Divina Commedia, and a few documents,
including the consulte or reports of the deliberations of the various
councils of the Florentine Republic. Boccaccio’s work has come
down to us in two forms: the Vita di Dante (or Trattatello in laude di
Dante) and the so-called Compendio (itself in two redactions, the
Primo and Secondo Compendio); the researches of Michele Barbi
have finally established that both are authentic, the Compendio
being the author’s own later revision. The tendency of recent
scholarship has in a considerable measure rehabilitated the once
discredited authority of Boccaccio, and rejected the excessive
scepticism represented in the nineteenth century by Bartoli and
Scartazzini.
Beatrice.—Although Leonardo Bruni rebukes Boccaccio, “our
Boccaccio that most sweet and pleasant man,” for having lingered so
long over Dante’s love affairs, still the story of the poet’s first love
remains the one salient fact of his youth and early manhood. We
may surmise from the Vita Nuova that at the end of his eighteenth
year, presumably in May 1283, Dante became enamoured of the
glorious lady of his mind, Beatrice, who had first appeared to him as
a child in her ninth year, nine years before. It is not quite certain
whether Beatrice was her real name or one beneath which Dante
conceals her identity; assuredly she was “Beatrice,” the giver of
blessing, to him and through him to all lovers of the noblest and
fairest things in literature. Tradition, following Boccaccio, has
identified her with Bice, the daughter of Folco Portinari, a wealthy
Florentine who founded the hospital of S. Maria Nuova, and died in
1289 (cf. V. N. xxii.). Folco’s daughter is shown by her father’s will to
have been the wife of Simone dei Bardi, a rich and noble banker.
This has been confirmed by the discovery that, while the printed
commentary of Dante’s son Pietro upon the Commedia hardly
suggests that Beatrice was a real woman at all, there exists a fuller
and later recension by Pietro of his own work which contains a
distinct statement that the lady raised to fame in his father’s poem
was in very fact Bice Portinari. Nevertheless, there are still found
critics who see in Beatrice not a real woman, but a mystically exalted
ideal of womanhood or a merely allegorical figure; while Scartazzini
at one time maintained that the woman Dante loved was an
unknown Florentine maiden, who would have been his wife but for
her untimely death. This can hardly be deduced from the Vita Nuova;
in its noblest passages the woman of Dante’s worship is scarcely
regarded as an object that can be possessed; death has not robbed
him of an expected beatitude, but all the world of an earthly miracle.
But, although it was in the fullest correspondence with mediaeval
ideals and fashions that chivalrous love and devotion should be
directed by preference to a married woman, the love of Dante for
Beatrice was something at once more real and more exalted than
the artificial passion of the troubadours; a true romantic love that
linked heaven to earth, and was a revelation for the whole course of
life.
Poetry, Friendship, Study.—Already, at the age of eighteen,
Dante was a poet: “I had already seen for myself the art of saying
words in rhyme” (V. N. iii.). It was on the occasion of what we take as
the real beginning of his love that he wrote the opening sonnet of the
Vita Nuova, in which he demands an explanation of a dream from
“all the faithful of Love.” The new poet was at once recognised.
Among the many answers came a sonnet from the most famous
Italian lyrist then living, Guido Cavalcanti, henceforth to be the first of
Dante’s friends: “And this was, as it were, the beginning of the
friendship between him and me, when he knew that I was he who
had sent that sonnet to him” (cf. Inf. x. 60). In the same year, 1283,
Dante’s name first occurs in a document concerning some business
transactions as his late father’s heir.
There are no external events recorded in Dante’s life between
1283 and 1289. Boccaccio represents him as devoted to study. He
certainly owed much to the paternal advice of the old rhetorician and
statesman, Brunetto Latini, who had been secretary of the commune
and, until his death in 1294, was one of the most influential citizens
in the state: “For in my memory is fixed, and now goes to my heart,
the dear, kind, paternal image of you, when in the world, from time to
time, you taught me how man makes himself eternal” (Inf. xv. 82). Of
his growing maturity in art, the lyrics of the Vita Nuova bear witness;
the prose narrative shows that he had studied the Latin poets as well
as the new singers of Provence and Italy, had already dipped into
scholastic philosophy, and was not unacquainted with Aristotle. At
the same time, Leonardo Bruni was obviously right in describing
Dante as not severing himself from the world, but excelling in every
youthful exercise; and it would seem from the Vita Nuova that, in
spite of his supreme devotion for Beatrice, there were other
Florentine damsels who moved his heart for a time. Dante speaks of
“one who, according to the degrees of friendship, is my friend
immediately after the first,” and than whom there was no one nearer
in kinship to Beatrice (V. N. xxxiii.). Those who identify Dante’s
Beatrice with the daughter of Messer Folco suppose that this second