History Creator / DanteAlighieri

->''"I am not [[Literature/TheAeneid Aeneas]], I am not [[Literature/TheBible St Paul]]:\\
No one, not even me, thinks me worthy of this journey."''
-->-- '''Dante''', ''Inferno II:ll.32-3''

Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri (c.1265-1321), known as Dante, was an Italian poet, principally known for writing ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''. Born in UsefulNotes/{{Florence}} to a family of minor nobility, Dante spent the first half of his life involved in the politics of Florence, rising to one of the Priors of the city in 1300. After his exile from the city in 1302, however, Dante turned to writing in response to the political strife which plagued Italy.

The ''Commedia'' (1308-21) occupied most of his later life, and it is on this that Dante has gained his reputation as the greatest poet in the Italian language, though he was also famous for his earlier poems, some of which have survived in various collections, and others of which are known only by references to them, by Dante and others. Much of Dante's poetry was focused on [[TheMuse Beatrice]], whom he claims to have only met twice, at the ages of nine and eighteen. Like {{Creator/Petrarch}}'s Laura, however, this was as much of a conceit of CourtlyLove as a real love, though what actually happened can never be known. Despite his life-long idolisation of Beatrice, Dante was married, to Gemma Donati, and had children. None are mentioned in any of Dante's writings.

* ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' takes place some 170 years after Dante's death, but he appears, essentially as a vision, while the college student main characters are discussing his work in class. Cesare Borgia is inspired by a passage in "Paradise" where Dante describes Heinrich VII, and how the ideal king should be, and Cesare dreams that he can someday become like that king. This is shown in the musical through songs where Dante and Heinrich appear and sing with Cesare. In contrast to the rest of the CastFullOfPrettyBoys in GorgeousPeriodDress, Dante's [[IconicOutfit iconic red robes]] are singed and tattered, as if he'd been walking through hell. In the original cast, Dante was played by Masaaki Fujioka, who had previously played Tommy in ''Theatre/JerseyBoys'' opposite Akinori Nakagawa (Cesare) as Frankie. In ''Cesare'', their experience harmonizing together shows in their [[ElevenOClockNumber powerful final duet]], "Quo Vadis".

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. Captain Janeway is a fan of Dante, and is shown reading both ''Literature/VitaNuova'' and ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' during the course of the series.

* Creator/RobertoBenigni has written and performed the [[RecordedAndStandUpComedy stand-up comedy]] show ''Tutto Dante'', inspired by ''The Divine Comedy'' and the Tuscany tradition of {{improv}}isatory poetry.
* ''Literature/{{Inferno|2013}}''. Both the book and the 2016 film reference him all over the place, of course. His death mask even ends up a MacGuffin.
* In ''Film/Sin2019'', Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti is a [[FanBoy big admirer]] of Dante and is obsessed with the ''Inferno'', which he knows by heart. At one point, Michelangelo is thrilled to be housed in the same room Dante occupied centuries ago and even has an {{hallucination|s}} of Dante himself in his [[IconicOutfit red robes]].
* Referenced indirectly in ''[[ComicBook/DylanDog Dylan Dog: The Dead of Night]]'', when Dylan gives one of his vampire friends a copy of ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Purgatorio]]'', and upon seeing Dante's name on the cover, muses about his long lived immortality and mentions "I tell you, that guy could drink!"

* In ''VideoGame/GrimmsNotes'', he is a boss character who goes by the name "Chaos Dante".
* ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' takes place some 170 years after Dante's death, but he appears, essentially as a vision, while the college student main characters are discussing his work in class. Cesare Borgia is inspired by a passage in "Paradise" where Dante describes Heinrich VII, and how the ideal king should be, and Cesare dreams that he can someday become like that king. This is shown in the musical through songs where Dante and Heinrich appear and sing with Cesare.

* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise, Dante was a member of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins who served as a mentor to [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII Ezio Auditore]]'s ancestor Domenico.

->''"I am not Aeneas, I am not St Paul:\\

* In ''Film/Sin2019'', Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti is a [[FanBoy big admirer]] of Dante and is obsessed with the ''Inferno'', which he knows by heart. At one point, Michelangelo is thrilled to be housed in the same room Dante occupied centuries ago [[spoiler:and even has an {{hallucination|s}} of Dante himself in his [[IconicOutfit red robes]].]]

* ''Literature/DanBrownsInferno''. Both the book and the 2016 film reference him all over the place, of course. His death mask even ends up a MacGuffin.

[[caption-width-right:300:He may have the name, and he may be dressed all in red, but he is definitely not ''[[VideoGame/DevilMayCry that]]'' Dante.]]

->''"Ne’er walked the earth a greater man than he."''
-->-- '''Creator/{{Michelangelo}}''', "[[https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dante-3/ Dante]]"

* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise, Dante was a member of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins who served as a mentor to Ezio Auditore's ancestor Domenico.

* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise, Dante was a member of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins who served as a mentor to [[Characters/AssassinsCreedEzioAuditore Ezio Auditore]]'s ancestor Domenico.

* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise, Dante was a member of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins who served as a mentor to [[haracters/AssassinsCreedEzioAuditore Ezio Auditore]]'s ancestor Domenico.

* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise, Dante was a member of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins who served as a mentor to Ezio's ancestor Domenico Auditore.

Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri (c.1265-1321), known as Dante, was an Italian poet, principally known for writing ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''. Born in Florence to a family of minor nobility, Dante spent the first half of his life involved in the politics of Florence, rising to one of the Priors of the city in 1300. After his exile from the city in 1302, however, Dante turned to writing in response to the political strife which plagued Italy.

* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise, Dante was a member of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins and the mentor to Ezio's ancestor Domenico Auditore.

* In ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'', Dante is a member of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins and the mentor to Ezio's ancestor Domenico Auditore.

!! Dante himself shows examples of:

* RedBaron: Believe it or not he has one, "The Father of Modern Italian" as when the People of Italy were deciding on a general language for Italy, they settled on the region where he lived and died
* WordOfDante: there's a reason the trope is named after him

* In ''Film/Sin2019'', Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti is a big admirer of Dante and is obsessed with the ''Inferno'', which he knows by heart. At one point, Michelangelo is thrilled to be housed in the same room Dante occupied centuries ago [[spoiler:and even has an {{hallucination|s}} of Dante himself in his [[IconicOutfit red robes]].]]

!! Dante's work provides examples of...

* ClassicalTongue: Dante's philosophical tracts and letters are generally in Latin, the dominant language used among men of learning and culture. Ironically, this includes ''De vulgaria eloquentia'', which is about how the Tuscan vernacular language is worthy to be used for poetry.

** ''Epistolae'' – 10 letters of Dante have survived, most of them public letters about political issues. The most well-known is that to Can Grande, sometime patron of Dante, which dedicates the ''Paradiso'' to him, and explains how the ''Commedia'' is to be read. [[note]] Given the very convenient nature of the poet explaining how to understand his greatest work, this letter is seen either as inestimably valuable, or a fake.[[/note]]

** ''Monarchia'' - A treatise on the independence of the Holy Roman Emperor from the Pope, seeking to refute papal claims to the contrary. Dante argues for an all-powerful emperor who would act as arbiter between lesser rulers. Ironically, this position is consonant with that of the Ghibbelines, even though Dante himself was a Guelph (the nominally pro-Papacy party in medieval Italy's incessant conflicts between Pope and Emperor). The book was banned by the Church in the 16th century for suggesting that the Pope had no authority over secular rulers regarding secular affairs.