Never having read Dante, I wanted to see if AN Wilson’s homage would persuade me to do so. His intention is to provide the uninitiated with the historical and cultural context to Dante’s work. It is a formidable task; as he admits, to study Dante you need a thorough knowledge of “medieval theology, astronomy, linguistics, poetics, mathematics and history”. Wilson believes that reading Dante is “one of the superb aesthetic, imaginative, emotional and intellectual experiences on offer”. As well as providing an excellent summary of the courtly love tradition and how it influenced his early work, he illustrates how Beatrice, his muse, was “the Unobtainable Beauty of Courtly Love… a figure of Grace, of Divine Love”. Marriage, in Florence in Dante’s day, was a more prosaic affair. When he was 11, he became engaged to Gemma di Manetto Donati. Dante’s father thought it a shrewd move but the poet’s involvement in politics led to his banishment – although, had he not been exiled, the Divine Comedy may not have materialised.
In 1300, the year in which the Comedy is set, the Guelf party split in two. By backing the wrong side – the losing faction – Dante sealed his own fate, but the abrupt end of his political career allowed him to concentrate on his poetry. Wilson argues that Dante’s greatness lies in his ability to summarise in one narrative poem his personal story, and also the theological and political story of the time, and the tremendous cultural changes taking place in Europe. Dante departed from the common practice of writing in Latin, to become “the father of Italian”, made possible by his enforced wandering through Italy, giving him an invaluable insight into its rich vernacular. Throughout, Wilson fixes on Dante’s lyrics and shows the skill with which the poet dramatised his own emotional and spiritual crisis about religion and expressed his disapproval of the corruption and greed of the church.
Dante in Love will delight fans of classics and theology. Wilsond demonstrates how an understanding of the political infighting, rivalries and jostling for power between the city’s major families is crucial to understanding Dante’s work. In providing this cultural and historical context to 13th century Florence, Wilson ensures there is plenty to sustain the interest of godless mortals. He inspired me to take the plunge into Dante’s greatest work.
