Durante degli Alighieri called "Dante" (1265-1321), Italian philosopher, was one of the most important poets of the European Middle Ages. With the Divine Comedy, written in Old Italian (or Tuscan), he overcame the Latin that had dominated until then and made Italian a literary language. The work is considered an Italian national epic. Dante was born in Florence. His family belonged to the Guelfish-minded city nobility. Ghibellines and Guelfs fought fierce feuds that revolved around the relationship between imperial and papal power and authority (described as the two swords theory). Depending on the current government in the municipalities, supporters of one or the other party were expelled from the city and sent into exile. In 1296 and 1301, Dante was a member of the city council "Council of the Hundred". He opposed the attempt to annex Florence and Tuscany to the Papal States and was consequently fined and excluded from all public office on 27 January 1302. As he stayed away from Florence and did not pay the fine, his property remaining in the city was subject to confiscation. In March 1302, he was sentenced to death by burning if he returned to the city. His wife Gemma di Manetto Donati did not follow him into exile, while his three sons - unlike a daughter - had to leave Florence when they were 13. In 1315, he refused an offer from his hometown, which he considered shameful, to be allowed to return to Florence if he paid a fine and made a public apology. After years in Upper and Central Italy, he died in Ravenna in 1321. The commemorative coin, designed by Patrizio Daniele to mark the 700th anniversary of his death, shows a laurel-wreathed portrait of Dante on the left, inspired by the statue of Dante in front of Florence's Basilica of Santa Croce, sculpted by Enrico Pazzi in 1895, and the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of the Signoria, the government of the Republic of Florence, in the background. This was built in 1299-1314 and thus only completed after Dante's exile. Since 1872, the Palazzo Vecchio has served as Florence's city hall and today also as a museum. Dante's death mask is exhibited there. |
