Dante’s intellectual development (1285-1294)

The circumstances and chronology of Dante’s studies are not sufficiently documented. On the basis of a passage in the Convivio, Giorgio Petrocchi has distinguished three phases in his intellectual development. The first is a rhetorical-grammar phase, in the late 1270s and early 1280s, during which the teachings of Brunetto Latini had a strong influence. A second, philosophical and literary phase is identified in the second half of the 1280s, during which Dante associated with and befriended other vernacular poets of his time, such as Dante da Maiano and other exponents of the stilnovo, especially Guido Cavalcanti. In these years, probably between the end of 1286 and early 1287, Dante travelled to Bologna, which provided the opportunity to read Guido Guinizzelli's lyric poetry, and take part in the stimulating cultural scene centring around the city’s prestigious university, although he did not attend in any regular fashion. The third phase, philosophical and theological, and marking a profound change in Dante’s intellectual make-up, belongs to the years following 1290, during the troubled period, known as the traviamento, following the death of Beatrice. Dante explicitly states that he devoted himself to reading Cicero and Boethius and that he attended, in Florence, the Franciscan studium of Santa Croce and the Dominican studium of Santa Maria Novella, where the focus was on the study of Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great.

From 1285 to 1294, during which time, according to Boccaccio, Dante also travelled to Paris, his role in Florentine public life was decidedly marginal, if one excludes his participation in 1289 in the battles of Campaldino and Caprona. During these years, also the period in which his children, were born, Dante composed numerous Rime, the Fiore the Detto d’Amore, and the Vita Nuova.