SOCIETA` DANTE ALIGHIERI 
The Dante Alighieri Society was founded in Italy in 1889 "to safeguard the Italian spirit beyond national frontiers." In 1926 headquarters were officially set up in Rome.
From its very beginning, the Society has fostered an enthusiastic membership, particularly by the many Italian communities that had established themselves in foreign countries throughout the known world. Article One of the Society's constitution states that the aim of the "Dante Alighieri" is to safeguard Italian language and culture, to promote Italian identity in the world, to revive the spiritual ties between expatriates and their mother country, and to cultivate among non Italians a knowledge and appreciation of the Italian civilization.
The choice of Dante Alighieri as the inspirer and the symbol of the society is easily understood. On the one side, Dante Alighieri is the father of modern Italian language, and he is to Italian what Shakespeare is to English. In a time when Latin was considered the only literary language, Dante wrote and published his masterpiece (and some other works) in Vulgar, the language of the people (vulgus), thus establishing Italian as a language per se, separate from its Latin roots.
On the other side, Dante was an exile and lived most of his life outside Firenze, the city of his birth, and this strikes a special chord for all Italians living abroad, especially for the economic migrants of the beginning of the 20th century, when migration was a bit like exile, since many people left their villages and towns not out of choice, but because of need.
There are currently 450 "Dante Societies" around the world with the numbers growing continuously. Each charter promotes the mission as prescribed by the Society, yet is operated autonomously, electing its own officers, managing its own budget, and organizing its own programs.
Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321, Italian poet, author of The Divine Comedy. A Florentine patrician, he fought on the side of the Guelphs but later supported the imperial party. In 1290, after the death of his exalted Beatrice (Beatrice Portinari, 1266-90), he plunged into the study of philosophy and Provençal poetry. Politically active in Florence from 1295, he was banished in 1302 and became a citizen of all Italy, dying in Ravenna.
The Divine Comedy, a vernacular poem in 100 cantos (more than 14,000 lines), was composed in exile. It is the tale of the poet's journey through Hell and Purgatory (guided by Vergil) and through Heaven (guided by Beatrice, to whom the poem is a memorial.) Written in a complex pentameter form, terza rima, it is a magnificent synthesis of the medieval outlook, picturing a changeless universe ordered by God. Through it Dante established Tuscan as the literary language of Italy and gave rise to a vast literature. His works also include La vita nuova (c.1292), a collection of prose and lyrics celebrating Beatrice and ideal love; treatises on language and politics; eclogues; and epistles.
From The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia. Copyright © 1991 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
1265
Dante is born under the sign of Gemini (probably May 29) in Florence, son of Alighiero II, son of Bellincione.
1274
At the age of nine, Dante sees Beatrice, daughter of Folco Portinari, for the first time.
(According to the Vita Nuova, Dante falls in love with Beatrice at this first meeting.)
1275
Dante begins his studies at the convents of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella.
1282
Dante completes his studies.
1283
Dante's father dies.
He is married shortly thereafter to Gemma Donati, with whom he has four children (Jacopo, Pietro, Giovanni and Antonia).
Dante writes his first sonnets.
1285
November 30: Dante becomes a soldier and takes part in the battle of the Sienese against the Aretines at Poggio Santa Cecilia.
1287
Dante probably goes to Bologna.
1288
Dante writes the song "Ladies who have intelligence of love" and the two sonnets "Love is one with the gentle heart" and "My lady bears love in her eyes."
1289
June 1: Dante takes part in the Battle of Campaldino, between the Guelph forces and the Ghibellines under the command of Vieri de' Cerchi. The Guelph League (Florence and Lucca) defeats the Ghibellines of Arezzo.
(Dante recalls this battle in Purgatorio.)
August 16: Dante participates in the siege of the fortress of Caprona conducted by the Lucchesi against the Pisans.
1290
June 8: Beatrice dies.
1292-1293
Dante's years of waywardness.
1292
Dante writes the Vita Nuova.
1294
Dante meets Charles Martel, king of Hungary and heir to the kingdom of Naples and the country of Provence, and establishes a friendship with him.
(Dante recounts their meeting in Paradiso VIII.)
1295
July 6: Dante enrolls in the Guild of Doctors and Druggists (apothecaries) and enters Florentine political life.
December: Dante is elected to the council of the Heads of the Arts in order to cooperate with the Captain of the People in the selection of new Priors.
1296
June 15: Dante takes part in the Council of the Hundred.
1300
Boniface VIII proclaims the Jubilee Year.
May Day: beginning of the factional struggles between the Cerchi and the Donati.
May 7: Dante is sent as ambassador to San Gimignano to persuade the commune to join the Guelph party.
June 15-August 14: Dante is named a Prior, one of the six highest magistrates in Florence.
Easter time: Fictional date of the journey of the Divine Comedy.
1301
June 29: Dante takes the floor in the Council of the Hundred to oppose helping Boniface VIII fight the Santafiora of Maremma.
October: Dante is sent to Rome as an ambassador to Boniface VIII to convince him to recall Charles de Valois, whom the Pope has sent to Florence as a mediator.
November: Corso Donati re-enters Florence and wreaks vengeance on the Whites.
1302
January 27: Dante is accused of barratry; in Siena, he receives news of his sentence: a fine of 5,000 small florins and banishment for two years with permanent exclusion from public office.
March 10: for failure to appear in court, he is condemned to death in absentia.
1303
Dante is at Forlí as assistant and secretary to Scarpetta Ordelaffi.
October 12: Boniface VIII dies.
1304
July 20: new defeat of the Whites near the fortress of Lastra a Signa. Dante arrives in Verona, welcomed by Alboino della Scala.
Dante writes De vulgari eloquentia, his path-breaking history and rhetoric of vernacular literature. Of four books planned, only the first and part of the second were written.
During the same period he writes the Convivio. Only four of a projected fifteen books of the Convivio were completed.
Birth of Petrarch.
1306
October 6: Dante moves to Lunigiana, and is appointed procurator to the Marques Malaspina. The beginnings of the "Comedy" probably date from this period.
1310
At the news of the arrival in Italy of Henry VII of Luxembourg, Dante goes to meet his fellow exiles at Forlí.
October: with other exiles, Dante goes to Asti to pay homage to Henry VII.
1311
January 6: Henry VII is crowned King of Italy in Milan.
April 16: Dante writes a letter to Henry VII inviting him to come into Tuscany and restore peace to Florence.
1312
March-April: Dante joins Henry VII in Pisa.
June 29: Henry VII is crowned in Rome at St. John Lateran. Rome is occupied by the militia of Robert d'Anjou, king of Naples; Pope Clement V, from Avignon, orders Henry to leave the city, but the he refuses.
September 19: Henry VII camps under the walls of Florence.
1313
August 24: Henry VII moves from Pisa toward the Kingdom of Naples. He dies of fever during the journey.
Birth of Giovanni Boccaccio.
1314
April 20: Clement V dies.
September 7: Dante is the guest of Cangrande della Scala in Verona.
Publication of Inferno.
1315
The signory grants an amnesty to the exiles, but Dante refuses to return to Florence under the conditions imposed.
October: Dante leaves Verona for Lucca.
November 6: a new Florentine sentence confirms the sentence against the exiles and extends it to their families.
Dante moves to Verona as a guest of Cangrande de la Scala. Works on Purgatorio and Paradiso, and composes the Questio de acque et terra.
1316-1319
Dante travels between Verona, the Marca Trevigiana, Romagna, and Tuscany.
(In 1318 he is in Ravenna as the guest of Guido Novello da Polenta.)
1319
Dante moves to Ravenna, where he is the guest of Guido Novello da Polenta, lord of that city. Latin correspondence with the humanist Giovanni del Virgilio.
1321
August: Dante is ambassador to Venice, on a mission for Guido Novello, he is stricken with fever and returns to Ravenna.
September: dies on the night of the 13th. Guido buries him in the Church of St. Francis with full honours.
