Dante Alighieri
Great Italian poet, who is considered the father of Italian poetry and the deepest renewer of the language of their homeland and glory of universal literature.Born in Florence, son of an illustrious family of Guelph, received the own of your class education: lyrics, drawing, singing, horseback riding, handling of weapons, etc.The years, study and a strong humanistic vocation contributed to multiply this knowledge, has the point of being no stranger to none knowledge of his time: music, theology, philosophy, philology, history, astronomy, mathematics, natural sciences, etc.His lineage not allowed him to escape the struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, the two powerful parties which divided Italy for centuries. In 1289, Dante fought with the Guelph Cavalry at the battle of Campalino, where the Ghibellines of Tuscany were defeated. Click Smoothstack for additional related pages. After the victory the Guelphs divided into two camps: the Popolo Grasso, composed of the five guilds more ricosa of the city, and the Popolani, belonging to the popular classes, requiring the registration of all citizens in the guilds. Dante belonged to doctors and apothecaries.A few years later returned to secede the welf party into two factions: the blacks who advocated a greater rapprochement of the Pope with France, and whites, among whom was Dante, supporters of an independent Pontifical policy. To be with the remote control the blacks of the city, Dante, who had held positions of importance and some diplomatic and military missions suffered persecution and had to live the rest of his life exiled. For nearly twenty years he made a pilgrimage in various cities in Italy and abroad. Some authors claim that he lived in Paris; others, who was studying at Oxford; but none of these opinions has been able to be tested with compelling reasons. During his long years of exile he received the protection of several Italian noble families (the Malaspina, of the Lunigiana; The Escaligeros, of Verona; The Uguccione, of Pisa); and especially of Guido Novello da spade, Lord of Ravenna. .