Ravenna

Abandoning Verona for reasons unknown to us, Dante spent his last years in Ravenna, probably from the second half of 1318. Together with his children Pietro, Jacopo and Antonia, he was a guest of Guido da Polenta. According to reliable information provided by Boccaccio, while in Ravenna Dante also enjoyed the generous use of a house, and could devote his time peacefully to completing his work on Paradiso. Although he also undertook ambassadorial missions and chancery duties for Guido, his host did not expect him to work continuously and officially in his service. The exchange of eclogues with Giovanni del Virgilio also took place during the years spent in Ravenna, and, according to Cecco d’Ascoli, a dispute on the theme of nobility was also discussed in writing between himself and Dante during this time. Reports of public lectures delivered by Dante in Ravenna are unfounded and unsupported by actual documentation, although, as can be gathered also from the Eclogues, it seems likely that Ravenna had a small group of Dante followers. Besides Guido Novello himself, this group included Florentine Dino Perini, the doctor and philosopher of Certaldo Fiduccio de’ Milotti, the notary Piero Giardino, the doctor Guido Vacchetta, Dante’s sons Jacopo and Pietro, and the notary and lyrical poet from Ravenna Menghino Mezzani, who wrote an epitaph for Dante’s tomb, and perhaps also a commentary in Latin on the Commedia. During his Ravenna years, Dante went to Verona in 1320 to discuss the Questio and was in Venice at the end of August or early September 1321, as orator in an ambassadorial mission on behalf of Guido Novello da Polenta in relation to a dispute with the Venetians over the salt trade. On his return from this mission, during the night between 13 and 14 September, Dante died as a result of a malaria fever contracted while crossing the Comacchio marshes (check).