Poet: Dante Alighieri - Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Dante Alighieri

Florence 

Tuscany, Italy

N 43° 46.133 E 011° 15.741

Short Description: 

A monument honoring the influential Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri, is located at the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, Italy.

Long Description:

A monument honoring perhaps Italy's most famous poet, Dante Alighieri, stands on the north west corner of the steps of the Basilica di Santa Croce. Dante, as is is commonly known as, is standing on a high marble pedestal looking towards his left shoulder. The life size marble figure is dressed in a robe which is wrapped around his body and held to to his right side by his left hand. He wears on is head is a cap with ear flaps topped with a laurel wreath. Behind his left side is perched an eagle which is looking up at him. The pedestal has four Marzocco lions each holding shields.

The pink marble dado front of the pedestal is inscribed in raised bronze letters:

A DANTE ALIGHIERE 

L'ITALIA 

M·DCCC·LXV 

The statue was erected in 1865 to celebrate the 600 anniversary of the birth of Dante. It  was sculpted by Enrico Pazzi of Ravenna and the pedestal was designed by Luigi del Sarto.

Dante Alighieri was born in the City of Florence in Republic of Florence about 1265. As a young man he he studied Tuscan poetry and the Provençal poetry of the troubadours, such as Arnaut Daniel, and the Latin writers of classical antiquity, including Cicero, Ovid and Virgil.

Dante is best known for writing the epic poem The Divine Comedy between 1308 and 1320. The poem is considered to be one of the greatest works in world literature. It is divided into three parts: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso. It's imaginative Medieval world view of the afterlife has had a profound influence to this day.

Other works by Dante include:

Convivio (1304 and 1307)
Eclogues (1319 -1320)
De Monarchia (1312 - 1313) - banned by the church in 1585.
Le Rime (1296)
La Vita Nuova (1295)
De vulgari eloquentia (1302 - 1305)