Dante in Love
The World's Greatest Poem and How It Made History
CHAPTER 1: A Time Run by Dreamers and Their Dreams
On January 27, 1302, a courier on a deadly mission arrives in bone-chilling Rome off the wintry paths from Florence. He bears a message for Dante Alighieri. Alighieri, who is thirty-six, is not yet the great Dante, author of the poem that will become like a religion to artists and statesmen and other seekers of perfection. Alighieri is in Rome on a doomed diplomatic mission -- a lethal pattern which seems to characterize the majority of his efforts. About most things Alighieri is cautious and indirect. Though he holds strong views, he seldom acts on them. He never told the woman he most loved of his feelings for her; and now that she is dead, words are meaningless. He expresses himself in precious verses that circulate among a small circle of his friends. He has tried everything, from law to war, and from politics to teaching, with mixed results. So why is this unthreatening father of three the object of a decree that is equivalent to a hanging -- exile -- and not even singling him out for ... read full excerpt from: Dante in Love: The World's Greatest Poem and How It Made History ebook
