On the night between September 13 and 14 in the year 1321, Dante Alighieri died in Ravenna, where he spent the last years of his exile.
The remains of the “Sommo Poeta” rest in the splendid capital of the ancient Byzantine Exarchate. In Ravenna, Dante found refuge and peace, which allowed him to finish his most famous work: the Divine Comedy.
The Comedy, as many of his other works, contains numerous references to the territory and the people of Romagna, shedding light on the important historical and political events that took place here.
Dante in Ravenna
“Non è questa la via per ritornare in patria; ma se un’altra sarà trovata, che non deroghi alla fama e all’onore di Dante, prontamente accetterò» (“This is not a way that leads home; but should another be found, one that does not diminish my fame and honor, I will promptly accept it”). This is what the poet wrote to a friend from Florence, expressing his unwillingness to be humiliated by the fine and help offered by his home city. At the time, Florence – under the threat of Uguccione della Faggiuola, an ally of Cangrande in Tuscany – was offering amnesty to all exiles, upon payment of a fine and observance of a ritual offered on the day consecrated to St. John.
Dante has been in exile since March 10, 1302 when his sentence was issued:
«Alighieri Dante è condannato per baratteria, frode, falsità, dolo, malizia, inique pratiche estortive, proventi illeciti, pederastia, e lo si condanna a 5000 fiorini di multa, interdizione perpetua dai pubblici uffici, esilio perpetuo (in contumacia), e se lo si prende, al rogo, così che muoia»
(Alighieri Dante is convicted of barratry, fraud, falsehood, willful misconduct, malice, extortion, illicit profit and pederasty, and is sentenced to the payment of a fine of 5,000 florins, perpetual disqualification from public office and permanent exile (in absentia); should he be apprehended, he shall be burned to death at the stake)
(Libro del chiodo – Archivio di Stato di Firenze – 10 March 1302)
The sentence permanently marred Dante’s life and crashed all of his hopes. It also outlined the historical image of an exiled man, which the poet included in his Divine Comedy.
After staying with Lords from various cities in Italy, Dante arrived in Ravenna in 1318 and was welcomed by Guido II da Polenta, who treated him honorably.
Here, he surrounded himself with a small group of intellectuals and was joined by his sons Pietro and Jacopo and his daughter Antonia, who became a nun named Sister Beatrice.
Thanks to the podestà of Ravenna, Dante spent the last three years of his life in peace: he created a literary circle that attracted some young local writers and was able to finish the last part of his masterpiece.