Dante

<p><b>An authoritative and comprehensive intellectual biography of the author of the <i>Divine Comedy</i></b> <p/>For all that has been written about the author of the <i>Divine Comedy</i> Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) remains the best guide to his own life and work. Dante's writings are therefore never far away in this authoritative and comprehensive intellectual biography which offers a fresh account of the medieval Florentine poet's life and thought before and after his exile in 1302. <p/>Beginning with the often violent circumstances of Dante's life the book examines his successive works as testimony to the course of his passionate humanity: his lyric poetry through to the <i>Vita nova</i> as the great work of his first period; the <i>Convivio</i> <i>De vulgari eloquentia</i> and the poems of his early years in exile; and the <i>Monarchia</i> and the <i>Commedia</i> as the product of his maturity. Describing as it does a journey of the mind the book confirms the nature of Dante's undertaking as an exploration of what he himself speaks of as maturity in the flame of love. <p/>The result is an original synthesis of Dante's life and work.</p>