Rome

The widespread opinion that Dante went to Rome in the early months of 1300 to take part in the extraordinary Jubilee instituted by Pope Boniface VIII is based on the Commedia’s detailed description in Inf., XVIII 28-33 of the throng of pilgrims on each side of the Ponte Sant’Angelo. While this clearly cannot be taken as documentary evidence of a visit to Rome, it is known that in October 1301, he took part in an ambassadorial mission from Florence to verify the real intentions of Pope Boniface VIII and to avert the danger arising from an alliance between the Blacks and Charles de Valois. While Dante was still with the Pope, on 1 November of the same year, Charles entered Florence, thus helping the Blacks to take control of the city. In the early months of 1302, the sentences against the Whites were issued. The bad news about Florence and the risks to his own safety may have reached Dante in Rome. It appears that he was detained by the Pope, perhaps fearful of Dante’s prestige, longer than the other Florentine ambassadors. Beyond these biographical details, however, Rome stands out in Dante’s work on account of a symbolic value that transcends the city’s historical reality. At times Rome is transfigured into the legendary ancient Rome destined by God to become the seat of both Empire and Papacy, the centre of political power and Christianity, and compared even to the Heavenly Jerusalem, while at other times it is described polemically as a place of total degradation and a symbol of the corruption afflicting political and spiritual authority alike.