但丁(1265～1321年)

Dante Alighieri

义大利诗人。出身佛罗伦斯贵族世家，他的一生都在教宗和皇帝两派党羽（即归尔甫派与吉伯林派〔Guelphs and Ghibellines〕）之间的冲突中度过。1302年当敌对的政治派系获得优势时，他被逐出佛罗伦斯，流亡在外，此後不再回来。他对比阿特丽斯（Beatrice Portinari，卒於1290年）精神上的爱情使生活有了方向，并为她题献了大部分的诗歌。与卡瓦尔坎蒂（Guido Cavalcanti）的伟大友谊有助於他往後的事业发展。他在《新生》（La Vita Nuova, 1293?）的诗中歌颂了比阿特丽斯。在流亡的艰难岁月里，写出了：《飨宴》（The Banquet，约1304～1307年）；《论俗语》（De vulgari eloquentia, 1304～1307），第一部关於义大利文学语言的理论性着作；《帝制论》（On Monarchy, 1313?），论述中世纪政治哲学的重要拉丁论文。他最闻名的作品是画时代的史诗《神曲》（The Divine Comedy，约写於1310～1314年，原标题仅为Commedia），从深刻的基督教观点来看待人类暂时和永远的归宿。这是一部关於普世人类宿命的寓言，形式上，朝圣者由罗马诗人维吉尔（Virgil）带领，行经地狱和炼狱，再由比阿特丽斯带领到天堂。但丁以义大利文而非拉丁文写作，几乎只手使义大利文成为一种文学语言，而他也成为欧洲文学史上的顶尖人物之一。

English version：

1265～1321年

Dante Alighieri

Italian poet. A native of Florence of noble ancestry, his life was shaped by the conflict between papal and imperial partisans (the Guelphs and Ghibellines). When the opposing political faction gained ascendancy, he was exiled (1302) from Florence, to which he never returned. His life was given direction by his spiritual love for Beatrice Portinari (died 1290), to whom he dedicated most of his poetry. His great friendship with Guido Cavalcanti shaped his later career as well. La Vita Nuova (1293?) celebrates Beatrice in verse. In his difficult years of exile, he wrote the verse collection The Banquet (c. 1304-7), De vulgari eloquentia (1304-7; “Concerning Vernacular Eloquence”), the first theoretical discussion of the Italian literary language; and On Monarchy (1313?), a major Latin treatise on medieval political philosophy. He is best known for the monumental epic poem The Divine Comedy (written c. 1310-14; originally titled simply Commedia), a profoundly Christian vision of human temporal and eternal destiny. It is an allegory of universal human destiny in the form of a pilgrim's journey through hell and purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, then to Paradise, guided by Beatrice. By writing it in Italian rather than Latin, Dante almost singlehandedly made Italian a literary language, and he stands as one of the towering figures of European literature.