Verona

Dionisotti says of this city situated on the banks the Adige that it is “a Dantean city in literary history not only because it was the place where the exiled poet first took refuge and therefore an important part of his work, but also because it became the home of his descendants, starting with his eldest son Pietro and ending only when the family line died out in the sixteenth century”[1]. Immediately after his exile, even before his break with the other banished Whites, Dante was in Verona, a city known for its steadfast pro-Ghibelline stance, as a guest of Bartolomeo della Scala between 1303 and 1304, perhaps seeking support for the planned military attack against the Blacks. His second visit to Verona was far more important, and lasted from 1312-1313 to around 1318. He devoted these years to revising his first two cantiche and writing Paradiso, thanks to the hospitality of Cangrande della Scala, who had become ruler of Verona in 1311 and later became Imperial Vicar. Dante shows his gratitude to Cangrande not only by praising his in canto XVII of Paradiso (lines 76-93), but also by dedicating the last cantica of the Commedia to him, possibly sending it to him together with a letter, Epistle XIII, which still today provides an extraordinary and precious introduction to the whole poem. For reasons unknown to us, Dante decided to transfer from Verona to Ravenna, where he lived from 1318-1320 as the guest of Guido Novello da Polenta. Nonetheless, his bond with Cangrande continued, and after settling in Ravenna, he returned to Verona in January 1320, to deliver a lecture before the Veronese clergy in the Church of Sant’Elena on De forma et situ aque et terre, better known as Questio de aqua et terra.

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[1] C. Dionisotti, Dante e Petrarca nella cultura veronese, in Petrarca, Verona e l’Europa. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, a cura di G. Billanovich e G. Frasso, Padova, Antenore, 1997, p. 1.