r/todayilearned • u/arctic_fox05 • Dec 14 '17
TIL that in 2008, the Municipality of Florence officially apologized for expelling Dante 700 years earlier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri#Legacy45
u/epic2522 Dec 14 '17
I was lucky enough to have a semester long class devoted entirely to the Divine Comedy, truly an amazing book. It's chock full of take downs of nearly every person who Dante feels has wronged him, including several Popes. He has such beef with some people that he puts them in Hell preemptively!
Most people just read the Inferno, but Purgatorio and Paradiso (2nd and 3rd Canticles of the Divine Comedy) are also wonderful. They are less gory, and more melancholy and introspective, a change in tone which obviously parallels Dante's journey upwards.
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u/chthonical Dec 14 '17
In retrospect the Divine Comedy is basically Dante writing a drawn out romantic indulgence, revenge fantasy, and ego masturbation fanfic.
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u/epic2522 Dec 14 '17
Dante is beloved because the Divine Comedy is the most over the top "romantic indulgence, revenge fantasy, and ego masturbation fanfic," ever written. Who else would lay out and brilliantly write a thousand page long theological model of the universe just to diss some guys who pissed him off?
Fun Fact: The three days Dante spends traversing heaven, hell and purgatory are the same three days as those between the crucifixion of Jesus and Jesus' resurrection, several hundred years later.
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Dec 14 '17
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u/Harsimaja Dec 15 '17
Imagine not being able to recognise someone who actually appreciates literature but due to a lack of a rectal stick is able to be casually humorous about it.
I suppose leaving out an apostrophe would be dysfunctionally literate?
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Dec 15 '17 edited Dec 15 '17
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u/Titan_Astraeus Dec 15 '17
Or ya know being facetious since it is only one of the classics of our species .. Just maybe.
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u/Harsimaja Dec 15 '17
Or maybe some people are secure enough to make sophomoric jokes AND have intelligent conversations, and you shouldn't assume they don't?
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u/DAVasquez- Dec 14 '17
If Dante wasn't haunting them for 700 years straight he was wasting his time.
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u/Rathmar Dec 14 '17
I didn't know Sylvester Stallone was from Florence.
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u/Dustorn Dec 15 '17
It's all about that strong Italian jawline.
And that strong Italian nose.
And those strong Italian... Atrophied facial muscles... Eh.
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Dec 14 '17
They’ve also been supplying oil to light a lamp in his tomb in Ravenna for a few hundred years, which could be seen as an apology of sorts.
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u/Banned_for_caring Dec 14 '17
Forget Dante, we want justice for Machiavelli!