Chronology of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

1265 - Dante is born, probably May 29, under the sign of Gemini.
1266 - Representative democracy rstored in Florence with the establishments of the Second Republic
(Secondo Popolo)
1274 - First meets, and falls in love with Beatrice Portinari, according to the Vita nuova.
1283 - Dante's father dies. He is married shortly thereafter to Gemma Donati, with whom he has four
children (Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia).
1289 - Participates as a cavalryman in the battle of Campaldino. The Guelf League (Florence and
Lucca) defeats the Ghibellines ofArezzo. Dante recalls this battle in Purgatorio.
1290 - Death of Beatrice. Dante enters a period of philosophic study; he writes his "stony rhymes"
(Rime petrose) during the next decade.
1292 - Compiles the Vita nuova.
1294 - Boniface VIII crowned Pope. Dante meets Charles Martel, King of Hungary and heir to the
kingdom of Naples and the country of Provence. Dante recounts their meeting in Paradiso VIII.
1295 - Joins the guild of the apothecaries for the purpose of entering public life.
1300 - Dante is prior for two months (15 June-15 August), one of the six highest magistrates in
Florence. Boniface VIII proclaims the Jubilee Year. Fictional date (Eastertime) of the journey of the
Divine Comedy.
1301 - Dante is sent to Rome as an envoy to Pope Boniface VIII, as Charles of Valois approaches
Florence.
1302 - The Black Guelfs seize power in Florence. Dante is banished from the city for two years and
forever excluded from public office. Later in the same year his banishment is made perpetual, and he
is condemned to be burned alive if taken in the territory of the Florentine Republic.
1304 - Birth of Petrarch.
1304 - Dante writes De vulgari eloquentia, his path-breaking history and rhetoric of vernacular
literature. Of four books planned, only the first and part of the second were written. During the same
period he writes the Convivio. Only four of a projected fifteen books of the Convivio were
completed.
1306 - Probably the year in which Dante interrupts the Convivio and begins the Comedy.
1309 - Pope Clement V establishes the papacy in Avignon.
1310 - Henry of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor, descends into Italy and Dante addresses an
Epistle to him. Possible date of Dante Monarchia (between 1310-1313).
1313 - Death of Henry. Birth of Giovanni Boccaccio.
1314 - Publication of Inferno.
1315 - Dante moves to Verona as a guest of Cangrande della Scala. Works on Purgatorio and
Paradiso, and composes the Questio de acque et terra.

1319 - Dante moves to Ravenna, where he is the guest of Guido Novello da Polenta, lord of that city.
Latin correspondence with the humanist Giovanni del Virgilio.
1321 - Dante dies in Ravenna after a diplomatic kourney to Venice. The Paradiso, dedicated to
Cangrande, made public posthumosly.