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| Durante degli Alighieri aka Dante |
Durante degli Alighieri, simply called Dante (May, 29 1265-September 14 1321), was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. It has been referred to as the greatest poem of the Middle Ages.
In the late Middle Ages, the overwhelming majority of poetry was written in Latin, and therefore accessible only to affluent and educated audiences. In De vulgari eloquentia, however, Dante defended use of the vernacular in literature. He himself would even write in the Tuscan dialect for works such as The New Life (1295) and the aforementioned Divine Comedy; this choice, although highly unorthodox, set a hugely important precedent that later Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would follow.
More information: Biography.com
As a result, Dante played an instrumental role in establishing the national language of Italy. Dante has been called the Father of the Italian language and one of the greatest poets of world literature. In Italy, Dante is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta and il Poeta; he, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also called the three fountains or the three crowns.
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| De Vulgari Eloquentia by Dante |
De vulgari eloquentia is the title of a Latin essay by Dante Alighieri. Although meant to consist of four books, its writing was abandoned in the middle of the second book. It was probably composed shortly after Dante went into exile; internal evidence points to a date between 1302 and 1305.
In the first book, Dante discusses the relationship between Latin and vernacular, and the search for an illustrious vernacular in the Italian area; the second book is an analysis of the structure of the canto or song, also spelled canzuni in Sicilian, which is a literary genre developed in the Sicilian School of poetry.
Latin essays were very popular in the Middle Ages, but Dante made some innovations in his work: firstly, the subject, writing in vernacular, was an uncommon topic in literary discussion at that time. Also significant was how Dante approached this theme; that is, he presented an argument for giving vernacular the same dignity and legitimacy Latin was typically given.
Finally, Dante wrote this essay in order to analyse the origin and the philosophy of the vernacular, because, in his opinion, this language was not something static, but something that evolves and needed a historical contextualisation.
In the beginning, Dante tackles the historical evolution of language, which he thinks was born unitary and, at a later stage, was separated into different idioms because of the presumptuousness demonstrated by humankind at the time of the building of the Tower of Babel.
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| Dante Alighieri, the Hell and Florence |
He compiles a map of the geographical position of the languages he knows, dividing the European territory into three parts: one to the east, with the Greek languages; one to the north, with the Germanic languages, which he believed included Magyar and Slavic languages; one to the south, separated into three Romance languages identified by their word for 'yes': oc language, oïl language and sì language. He then discusses gramatica, grammar, which is a static language consisting of unchanging rules, needed to make up for the natural languages.
In chapters ten to fifteen of the first book, Dante writes about his search for the illustrious vernacular, among the fourteen varieties he claims to have found in the Italian region. In the second book, Dante deals with literary genres, specifying which are the ones that suit the vernacular.
The major Occitan work that influenced Dante was probably Razos de trobar by the Catalan troubadour Raimon Vidal de Bezaudun and the Vers e regles de trobar, an amplification of Vidal's manual, by Jofre de Foixà. Both of these works were Occitan manuals of grammar for troubadour poetry.
They implicitly and explicitly defended Occitan as the best vernacular for song and verse, prompting Dante to come to the defence of his beloved Tuscan tongue.
A perpetuale infamia e depressione delli malvagi uomini d'Italia, che commendano lo volgare altrui, e lo loro proprio dispregiano, dico...
To the perpetual shame and lowness of the wicked men of Italy, that praise somebody else's vernacular and despise their own, I say...
Dante Alighieri
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