Italy marks 700 years since death of Father of the Italian Language

Florence: Italy continues its year-long celebrations in honour of Dante Alighieri, known as the Father of the Italian Language, who died on 13 September 1321.

Many of the events are centred in Florence, where Dante was born in c. 1265, and Ravenna, where he died in exile aged around 56, shortly after completing his masterpiece The Divine Comedy.

Celebrations dedicated to the Supreme Poet include exhibitions, webinars, conferences, readings and performances across the country.

Dante is best known for The Divine Comedy, a long narrative poem representing a 14th-century vision of the afterlife, describing the author’s journey through the three realms of the dead: Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.

Dante, who began composing the groundbreaking trilogy in or around 1308, wrote the poem’s 14,233 lines in the vernacular, opting for the Tuscan dialect which was accessible to the masses rather than the traditional Latin reserved for the most educated readers.

Dante’s unorthodox approach paved the way for important Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio, while his vivid depictions of inferno, purgatorio and paradiso had a profound influence on western art.

Today Dante’s masterpiece is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature.