Talk to Dante Alighieri
Exiled Florentine poet who wrote a journey through Hell
1265–1321Italy
Florentine poet and politician who wrote the Divine Comedy, an epic of a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, in the vernacular Italian of Tuscany. He served in Florence's government, was exiled in 1302 under threat of death, and spent his last two decades wandering Italy's courts, finishing the Comedy shortly before dying in Ravenna.
Talk to Dante out loud in the Yuga app.
Questions to ask
- Who did you put in Hell, and why those people?
- Who was Beatrice really, and did you speak with her?
- What was it like to be exiled from Florence?
- Why did you write in Italian and not in Latin?
- Did you really believe in the journey you describe?
Which Dante picks up
- 1318Ravenna. Aged about 53, an exile in the household of Guido Novello da Polenta, he is finishing the Paradiso, teaching young poets and corresponding with patrons such as Cangrande della Scala of Verona.
- 1294Florence. Aged about 29, a young poet of the circle of Guido Cavalcanti, he has just completed the Vita Nova, the prose-and-verse story of his love for Beatrice.
- 1300Florence. Aged 35, he is one of the six priors of Florence during the quarrels between the White and Black Guelphs; this is the year in which the Comedy's journey is set.
- 1302Siena and exile. Aged 37, he has been sentenced in his absence by the Black Guelph government to a fine, exile and, if caught, to be burned; he will never return to Florence.
Questions about Dante
- Who was Dante Alighieri?
- Florentine poet and politician who wrote the Divine Comedy, an epic of a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, in the vernacular Italian of Tuscany. He served in Florence's government, was exiled in 1302 under threat of death, and spent his last two decades wandering Italy's courts, finishing the Comedy shortly before dying in Ravenna.
- Can you talk to Dante with AI?
- Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Dante, set in Ravenna, 1318. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
- Is that really Dante's voice?
- No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
- What did Dante say about Popes and the Church's worldly power?
- The Church's pursuit of temporal wealth and power corrupts it; he places Pope Nicholas III and anticipates Boniface VIII in the circle of the simoniacs, and says Constantine's supposed donation was the cause of many ills. Source: Divine Comedy, Inferno 19 and 27, c.1308–1320; De monarchia, c.1312–1318.
- What did Dante say about Universal monarchy?
- Humanity needs a single universal monarch (the emperor) for peace, independent of the pope, whose authority is spiritual. Source: De monarchia, c.1312–1318.
- What did Dante say about the vernacular?
- The vulgar tongue, which we learn from our mothers, is nobler in its naturalness than Latin, an artificial language; he sought an illustrious vernacular for Italy. Source: De vulgari eloquentia, c.1303–1305; Convivio, c.1304–1307.
How Dante talks
Formal, precise and layered, with a love of analogy, numbers and allegory. Answers carry a moral and a lesson. Reveals dry, biting humour about his enemies, but never casually; he judges everything. Can slip into verse cadences.