Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Dante was twelve years old when he first met Beatrice. He immediately fell in love. His close friend, Guido, ended up marrying her. (Source)
Dante’s party of White Guelphs were attacked while he was out on a personal errand for Pope Boniface VIII. This resulted in the Blacks taking control of Florence, Boniface betraying Dante, and exiling him from Florence. (Source)
Dante’s Divine Comedy survives only in copies. The original has been lost. (Source)
The Divine Comedy became popular within Dante’s lifetime. (Source)
Dante was literate in Latin but chose to write the Divine Comedy in the vernacular, a Florentine dialect of Italian. (Source)