DA'NTE or DURANTE, ALIGIIIE'RI, was born at Florence on the 8th of May 1265. By a familiar contraction of his Christian name, Durantc, he was called Dante, by which name he has become generally known. His family was noble ; he was a great grandson of Cacciaguida Elisci, who married a lady of the family of Alighieri of Ferrara, and whose children assumed the arms and the name of their mother. Cacciaguida accompanied the Emperor Conrad III. in his crusade, was made a knight, and died in battle in Syria in 1147; (' Paradise,' cantos 15, 16, and 17, in which Cacciaguida is made to relate to Dante his adventures, with an interesting account of the state of Florence and the primitive manners of its citizens in his time, before the breaking out of the great fend between the Guelphs and the Ghibelines). Dante's father, Aldighicro Alighieri, died while Dante was yet a child. As Dante grew up he showed great capabilities for learning, in which he was assisted by Brunetto Latini, a celebrated scholar of the time. He became also intimate with Guido Cavalcanti, a young man of an inquisitive and philosophical turn of mind. It is asserted by some that Dante studied at Bologna, though this is not clearly ascertained ; it la however evident from his works that he had deeply read and was imbued with all the learning of that age. By his own account he seems to have led rather a licentious life until he fell in love with Beatrice Portinari, of an illnatrious family of Florence. His attachmeut however appears to have been purely platonic, but it served to purify his sentiments; the lady herself died about 1290, when Dante was 25 years of age, but he continued to cherish her memory, if we are to judge from his poems, to the latest period of his life. It must have been about or a little before the time of Beatrice's death that he wrote his Vita Nueva,' which is a series of canzoni intermixed with prose, in which he speaker of his love in a spirituid and platonic strain, and of the change it produced in him, which was the beginning of his "new life."
The party of the Guelphe was at that time predominant at Florence, having some years before driven away the Ghibelines with the assistance of the pope and of Charles of Anjou, king of Naples. But in the neighbouring city of Arezzo the contrary had occurred; the Ghibelines, with the bishop at their head, being the stronger party, had turned the Guelphs out of the town. The Guelphs of Arezzo Applied to those of Florence for assistance. This led to a war between Florence and Arezzo, in which the Ghibelines of the latter place were defeated at Campoldino in June 1259, when their bishop was killed. Dante was present at this engagement, aud soon after his return to Florence ho married Gernma Deuati, of a powerful Guelph family. He now becamo a candidate for civic honours and offices. The citizens of Florence were classed Into thr. o ranks :—I et, graudi, or old families, formerly feudal nobles, many of whom had still feudal estates in various parts of the country, though in the town they enjoyed by law no exclusive privilege ; 2nd, popolani grassi, or substantial citizens, men who had risen by trade, and many of whom were wealthier than the nobles; 3rd, piccioli, or inferior tradespeople, artisans, &c. The two last classes, weary of disturbances created by faction, and being directed by some well-meaning meu, among whom was Dino Conipagni the chronicler, who is the safest guide through this part of Florentine history, had made a law in 1232 by which the citizens being classed according to their trades, the higher trades, " arti maggiori," chose six priori, or aldermen, one for each district of the city, who were called also " i signori" and constituted the executive. They were renewed every two months. No one could aspire to office who had not his name inscribed on the register of one of the trades. Dante enrolled his name on the register of physicians and apothecaries, though he never exercised that profession.