Historical Background

In April 1300, to all outward appearances, Dante Alighieri was at the peak of his life. He was already celebrated as a poet in his native Florence, having written (among other things) the Vita Nuova (New Life), a little book of lyrical poetry set in a scaffolding of autobiographical commentary. He had married into an influential noble family, and his wife was already bearing him children. And his relatively new career as a politician was taking off: in the following months, he would be elected Prior of Florence, one of the highest offices in the city.

None of this was destined to last. Within two years, Dante’s very success as a politician would prove to be his downfall. In November 1301, his political opponents (led by his wife’s relative, no less) forcibly seized power in Florence while he was away as an ambassador in Rome. In his absence, they accused him of political corruption, exiled him from the city, and sentenced him to death should he return. He never saw his beloved homeland again, and he never reunited with his wife. He was condemned to wander Italy alone without any of his former resources, dependent upon the welfare of gracious friends and hosts. To all outward appearances, this was the lowest point in his life.

At the start of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the poet finds himself “in a dark forest,” a literal and psychological darkness from which he cannot escape alone, beset by wilderness and wild beasts. Yet it is not in the humble years of his exile that the poet finds himself in this dark place, but in April 1300, at the seeming peak of his career. Dante’s journey out of the dark forest, guided by the poet Virgil, takes him into the realms of the afterlife to witness the souls of the damned and the saved. But to understand the journey we must understand its starting point, and this takes us back to the early thirteenth century, before the poet’s life had begun.