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Dante was born in
Florence in 1265 and belonged to a noble and impoverished family. He followed a normal course of studies and when he was about twenty he married Gemma Donati, by whom he had four children. He first met Bice Portinari, whom he
called Beatrice in 1274, and when she died in 1290 he sought distraction by studying philosophy and theology
and by writing La Vita Nouva. At this time he became involved in a political strife and when
the opposing party took power in 1302, he was condemned to exile. Dante wandered from
place to place and finally settled in Ravenna. While there, he completed the Divine Comedy,
which he had begun about 1308. Dante died in Ravenna in 1321. |