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Dante and the Laws of Infamy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Justin Steinberg
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Extract

Dante refers persistently in his writing to the great injustice of his exile. Up until his last years, he continues to lament his inability to return home. Originally banished for two years after being indicted by his political enemies for corruption and graft in 1302, he was subsequently sentenced, along with his sons, to death by fire if he ever dared to reenter Florence. The animosity toward his fellow citizens he expresses in his writing, alongside his frustrated sense of betrayal, is thus easy to understand. In works such as De vulgari eloquentia and the Convivio, he bitterly evokes the conditions of his banishment, while in the Latin epistles he succinctly and tellingly identifies himself as an exul immeritus (“undeserving exile”).

Type
Theories and Methodologies
Information
PMLA , Volume 126 , Issue 4: Special Topic: Celebrity, Fame, Notoriety , October 2011 , pp. 1118 - 1126
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2011

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References

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