The political context of Dante’s Inferno Dante's "Inferno" was a great epic poem of the early Renaissance. It was known for its astute commentary on political and religious levels, both deeply woven into the work through allegory. Dante wrote his Divine Comedy in a specific historical and political context. As a young man, Dante largely taught himself how to write verse, but he also studied with the great troubadours of Florence, writing to them and circulating his own love lyrics. In 1295 he began an active public life, and within a few years he became an important figure in Florentine politics. He joined the Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries in order to participate in government. Dante's time was one of great instability. There were two political parties in Italy during Dante’s time. The Guelphs, with whom Dante sided, and the Ghibellines of Floerence. Guelph is the Italian form of the German family name Welf. It was the Welf family that held the duchies of Bavaria and Saxony in the 1100’s. Ghibelline is said to have come from Waiblingen, the name of an estate of the Hohenstaufen family. The contest of these two families for the throne of Germany began the war between the two Italian parties. The Ghibellines favored the Holy Roman Empire, and the Guelphs supported the pope, who opposed the authority of the Holy Roman emperor in Italy. The Hohenstaufens were wiped out in the mid-1200’s and the names lost their original meaning. By tradition, certain towns were Guelph and others Ghibelline. If the ruling authorities in any town took one name, the opposition usually took the other. The Guelphs were the ones who finally prevailed in the end. Around 1300, however, the Guelph party split into two hostile factions: the Blacks and the Whites. The Blacks, the faithful Guelphs, remained in control. The Whites eventually associated themselves with the Ghibellines. Dante, meanwh...
