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[[File:Dante Bust.jpg|thumb|Photograph of a bust of Dante Alighieri, scanned from an old edition of the [[Divine Comedy]] (with pictures by [[w:Gustave Doré|Gustave Doré]], translated by Philalethes, explained by Edmund Th. Kauer, Berlin, Verlag von Th. Knaur Nachf.), no year given, [[w:Public Domain|Public Domain]].]]
[[File:Dante Bust.jpg|thumb|Photograph of a bust of Dante Alighieri, scanned from an old edition of the [[Divine Comedy]] (with pictures by [[w:Gustave Doré|Gustave Doré]], translated by Philalethes, explained by Edmund Th. Kauer, Berlin, Verlag von Th. Knaur Nachf.), no year given, [[w:Public Domain|Public Domain]].]]


The '''Commedia''' by [[Dante Alighieri]], later called '''Divina Commedia''' - the '''Divine Comedy''' - by [[w:Giovanni Boccaccio|Giovanni Boccaccio]], has had a lasting influence on [[w:Europe|Europe]]an literature like hardly any other work. After his banishment from [[w:Florence|Florence]] in 1302, Dante had settled in [[w:Ravenna|Ravenna]], where he probably began work on the Divina Commedia, written in the Italian popular language, in 1307<ref>Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante's first biographer, claimed that Dante had already begun the first 7 cantos of the Inferno before his banishment, but then had to leave them behind. Later, around 1307, they were found and sent to him. Marchese Moruello, with whom Dante was living at the time, was so enthusiastic about them that he asked Dante to continue his work. Boccaccio cites as the only evidence that the eighth canto begins with the words: "I say, going on, that much earlier...". </ref> and only completed it shortly before his death in 1321. According to Boccaccio, the last 13 cantos of the Paradiso were only found 8 months after Dante's death by his son Jacopo[2].  
The '''Commedia''' by [[Dante Alighieri]], later called '''Divina Commedia''' - the '''Divine Comedy''' - by [[w:Giovanni Boccaccio|Giovanni Boccaccio]], has had a lasting influence on [[w:Europe|Europe]]an literature like hardly any other work. After his banishment from [[w:Florence|Florence]] in 1302, Dante had settled in [[w:Ravenna|Ravenna]], where he probably began work on the Divina Commedia, written in the Italian popular language, in 1307<ref>Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante's first biographer, claimed that Dante had already begun the first 7 cantos of the Inferno before his banishment, but then had to leave them behind. Later, around 1307, they were found and sent to him. Marchese Moruello, with whom Dante was living at the time, was so enthusiastic about them that he asked Dante to continue his work. Boccaccio cites as the only evidence that the eighth canto begins with the words: "I say, going on, that much earlier...". </ref> and only completed it shortly before his death in 1321. According to Boccaccio, the last 13 cantos of the Paradiso were only found 8 months after Dante's death by his son Jacopo<ref>„An able Ravignan called Piero Giardino, who had been Dante's pupil for a long time, told that after the eighth month since the master's death, one night at the hour we call the early prayer, Jacopo came to his house and told him that he had seen Dante, his father, coming towards him in a dream shortly before that hour, dressed in dazzling white clothes and his face shining with an unusual light. Then he thought he would ask him whether he was alive and hear him answer that he was, but that it was true life, not ours. Therefore, as it seemed to him, he also asked him whether he had completed his work before he went to the true life and, if he had completed it, where was that which was missing and could never have been found by them. Then it seemed to him that he would hear the answer for the second time: "Yes, I have finished it." And thereupon it was as if he took him by the hand and led him into the chamber where he used to sleep when he was still living in this life; and there he touched a spot and said, "There is that which you have sought so much." And no sooner were these words spoken than he felt, at the same hour, so Dante vanished as sleep. Therefore, he assured him, he had had no rest and had to come and tell him what he had seen, so that they might go and search together in the place which he had shown (and which he had especially remembered), that they might see whether a true spirit or false deceit had shown him such a thing. And so they both set out, while the night was yet a good while to come, and came to the place appointed, and found there a straw mat fastened against the wall; and as they easily uncovered it, they perceived in the wall a little opening, which none of them had ever noticed, neither knew it existed there; In it they found some writings, all musty from the dampness of the wall, and almost rotten if they had been left there longer; and, having carefully cleaned them from the mustiness, and read them, they found that they contained the thirteen cantos they sought, whereat they were delighted to write them down anew, and, according to the poet's custom, first sent them to Mr. Cane, and then added them to the imperfect work, as befitted. Thus the work, which had been compiled over many years, came to completion.” {{LZ||Boccaccio, p. 60f}}</ref>.  


==Literature ==
==Literature ==

Revision as of 06:54, 12 August 2021

Photograph of a bust of Dante Alighieri, scanned from an old edition of the Divine Comedy (with pictures by Gustave Doré, translated by Philalethes, explained by Edmund Th. Kauer, Berlin, Verlag von Th. Knaur Nachf.), no year given, Public Domain.

The Commedia by Dante Alighieri, later called Divina Commedia - the Divine Comedy - by Giovanni Boccaccio, has had a lasting influence on European literature like hardly any other work. After his banishment from Florence in 1302, Dante had settled in Ravenna, where he probably began work on the Divina Commedia, written in the Italian popular language, in 1307[1] and only completed it shortly before his death in 1321. According to Boccaccio, the last 13 cantos of the Paradiso were only found 8 months after Dante's death by his son Jacopo[2].

Literature

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

  1. Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante's first biographer, claimed that Dante had already begun the first 7 cantos of the Inferno before his banishment, but then had to leave them behind. Later, around 1307, they were found and sent to him. Marchese Moruello, with whom Dante was living at the time, was so enthusiastic about them that he asked Dante to continue his work. Boccaccio cites as the only evidence that the eighth canto begins with the words: "I say, going on, that much earlier...".
  2. „An able Ravignan called Piero Giardino, who had been Dante's pupil for a long time, told that after the eighth month since the master's death, one night at the hour we call the early prayer, Jacopo came to his house and told him that he had seen Dante, his father, coming towards him in a dream shortly before that hour, dressed in dazzling white clothes and his face shining with an unusual light. Then he thought he would ask him whether he was alive and hear him answer that he was, but that it was true life, not ours. Therefore, as it seemed to him, he also asked him whether he had completed his work before he went to the true life and, if he had completed it, where was that which was missing and could never have been found by them. Then it seemed to him that he would hear the answer for the second time: "Yes, I have finished it." And thereupon it was as if he took him by the hand and led him into the chamber where he used to sleep when he was still living in this life; and there he touched a spot and said, "There is that which you have sought so much." And no sooner were these words spoken than he felt, at the same hour, so Dante vanished as sleep. Therefore, he assured him, he had had no rest and had to come and tell him what he had seen, so that they might go and search together in the place which he had shown (and which he had especially remembered), that they might see whether a true spirit or false deceit had shown him such a thing. And so they both set out, while the night was yet a good while to come, and came to the place appointed, and found there a straw mat fastened against the wall; and as they easily uncovered it, they perceived in the wall a little opening, which none of them had ever noticed, neither knew it existed there; In it they found some writings, all musty from the dampness of the wall, and almost rotten if they had been left there longer; and, having carefully cleaned them from the mustiness, and read them, they found that they contained the thirteen cantos they sought, whereat they were delighted to write them down anew, and, according to the poet's custom, first sent them to Mr. Cane, and then added them to the imperfect work, as befitted. Thus the work, which had been compiled over many years, came to completion.” (Lit.: Boccaccio, p. 60f)