Dante Alighieri represents one of the first attempts by the bourgeoisie to develop its own ideology. The famous opening lines of Dante’s Divine Comedy read: “In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself in a dark forest, for the straight path was lost”. To the thousand interpretations made by Dante scholars, we add one more: if the author is in a situation where he sees and understands nothing and cannot find a way out, it is because the newly formed social class to which he belongs, the bourgeoisie, is constrained by the ideology of the feudal world in which it is immersed. It is an ideology that is inadequate to the needs of this new class and its development, as it is an expression of feudal relations that did not contemplate its existence.

The bourgeoisie, despite being objectively revolutionary towards feudalism, like all classes that have found themselves in a similar situation throughout history, is initially unaware of this, and it will take several centuries for it to develop its own revolutionary ideology. At its inception, it did not want to destroy the old world, but to find its place in it, thus developing a worldview that included its own existence within feudal society.

During Alighieri, known as Dante, was born in Florence in 1265 into a family of merchants: there was talk of a minor nobility because his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida was a knight in the Second Crusade, but what is certain is that his paternal grandfather Bellincione was a commoner, and that Alighiero di Bellincione, his son and Dante’s father, was a money changer and also a usurer.

In January 1293, the Ordinamenti di Giustizia (Ordinances of Justice) were promulgated in Florence, which were then tightened in the following months, excluding the Magnati, i.e., the members of the small and ancient noble families, first from some public offices and then from all of them. Laws were enacted that favored the Popolo, the new bourgeoisie, and were unfavorable to the Magnati in all fields: taxes, tributes, penalties, etc. This lasted until February 1295, when Prior Giano della Bella, who had left due to the accusations against him, was sentenced to death and excommunicated.

The Ordinamenti di Giustizia were an inconsistent and even less conscious attempt at revolutionary dictatorship exercised over the magnates by the entire Florentine bourgeoisie. The alliance between the “popolo minuto” (the lower classes) and the “popolo grasso” (the upper classes) then broke down due to mutual distrust and when the latter, seeing their supremacy threatened, returned to seek allies among the Grandi and the Magnati.

In July 1295, after a failed attempt by the magnates to seize power, the “Temperamenti” (Tempering) to the Ordinamenti di Giustizia were promulgated, which consisted of a relaxation of the measures against the Magnati, but not their abolition. The Magnates, previously excluded from all offices because they did not practice any art and lived off their income, could now hold various positions on condition that they enrolled in one of the various arts, even without practicing them. On this occasion, Dante, enrolling in the Art of Doctors and Speakers, gave a speech in favor of the Temperamenti and joined the city magistrates, where he remained in various positions until 1301.

Historian Alessandro Barbero speaks of a Dante who was unoriginal in philosophy and reactionary in politics. This was also the opinion of Benedetto Croce and historian Jacques Le Goff. Scholars Eugenio Garin and Cesare Vasoli, on the other hand, rightly placed Dante on the cusp between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Dante’s thinking was indeed eclectic and unsystematic, but this was common in scholastic philosophy, where everyone made their own synthesis of various authors, who in turn had done the same. Dante was certainly an Aristotelian, and partly also an Averroist, in that he shared the separation of the spheres of faith and reason; a separation much clearer than that of Thomas Aquinas, and which was later reflected in his political views. On other points, he disagreed with Averroes but agreed with Thomas Aquinas.

His Aristotelianism was particularly influenced by that of Albertus Magnus, which was strongly imbued with Neoplatonism. He was also influenced by the Augustinian and Franciscan traditions, with Joachimite tendencies. Dante has been described as reactionary because his ideas were dominated by the Empire and the Church, the two medieval institutions par excellence, which embodied Divine Providence.

While the popes claimed the supremacy of spiritual power over temporal power, Dante argued that both powers were autonomous in their own sphere. Man has two ends and two possible forms of happiness: the earthly one, attainable through reason, and the supernatural one, attainable through faith. The emperor is the guide to the earthly end and the pope to the supernatural end. The emperor is necessary to bring peace and justice to a world where the lust for wealth generates hatred and continuous wars between cities, between kingdoms, and within them; the Empire was a manifestation of divine Providence in that Christ was born into it under Augustus. For Dante, human rational capacities can only be fully developed by the human race as a whole, and for this to be possible, peace, justice, and freedom are necessary, which only the undisputed authority of the Empire can guarantee. Undisputed but not “absolute”, that is, not exempt from respect for human and divine law.

The mercantile pre-capitalism of the cities and kingdoms of the 13th and 14th centuries involved a process of alienation and commodification for which there was no solution. Dante saw the society of his time as antagonistic to the sacred and rational order, illuminated by the Christian faith, which he pursued. The fact that the Empire and the Church are at the center of his reflections makes him seem reactionary, with his head turned to the past. However, he remains a man of participation in city life and politics, a supporter of municipal freedoms, which he does not actually renounce when he asserts the preeminence of the Empire. Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri represents one of the first attempts by the bourgeoisie to develop its own ideology. The famous opening lines of Dante’s Divine Comedy read: “In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself in a dark forest, for the straight path was lost”. To the thousand interpretations made by Dante scholars, we add one more: if the author is in a situation where he sees and understands nothing and cannot find a way out, it is because the newly formed social class to which he belongs, the bourgeoisie, is constrained by the ideology of the feudal world in which it is immersed. It is an ideology that is inadequate to the needs of this new class and its development, as it is an expression of feudal relations that did not contemplate its existence.

The bourgeoisie, despite being objectively revolutionary towards feudalism, like all classes that have found themselves in a similar situation throughout history, is initially unaware of this, and it will take several centuries for it to develop its own revolutionary ideology. At its inception, it did not want to destroy the old world, but to find its place in it, thus developing a worldview that included its own existence within feudal society.

During Alighieri, known as Dante, was born in Florence in 1265 into a family of merchants: there was talk of a minor nobility because his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida was a knight in the Second Crusade, but what is certain is that his paternal grandfather Bellincione was a commoner, and that Alighiero di Bellincione, his son and Dante’s father, was a money changer and also a usurer.

In January 1293, the Ordinamenti di Giustizia (Ordinances of Justice) were promulgated in Florence, which were then tightened in the following months, excluding the Magnati, i.e., the members of the small and ancient noble families, first from some public offices and then from all of them. Laws were enacted that favored the Popolo, the new bourgeoisie, and were unfavorable to the Magnati in all fields: taxes, tributes, penalties, etc. This lasted until February 1295, when Prior Giano della Bella, who had fled due to the accusations against him, was sentenced to death and excommunicated.

The Ordinamenti di Giustizia were an inconsistent and even less conscious attempt at revolutionary dictatorship exercised over the magnates by the entire Florentine bourgeoisie. The alliance between the “popolo minuto” (the lower classes) and the “popolo grasso” (the upper classes) then broke down due to mutual distrust and when the latter, seeing their supremacy threatened, returned to seek allies among the Grandi and the Magnati.

In July 1295, after a failed attempt by the magnates to seize power, the “Temperamenti” (Tempering) to the Ordinances of Justice were promulgated, which consisted of a relaxation of the measures against the Magnates, but not their abolition. The Magnates, previously excluded from all offices because they did not practice any art and lived off their income, could now hold various positions on condition that they enrolled in one of the various arts, even without practicing them. On this occasion, Dante, enrolling in the Art of Doctors and Speakers, gave a speech in favor of the Temperamenti and joined the city magistrates, where he remained in various positions until 1301.

Historian Alessandro Barbero speaks of a Dante who was unoriginal in philosophy and reactionary in politics. This was also the opinion of Benedetto Croce and historian Jacques Le Goff. Scholars Eugenio Garin and Cesare Vasoli, on the other hand, rightly placed Dante on the cusp between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Dante’s thinking was indeed eclectic and unsystematic, but this was common in scholastic philosophy, where everyone made their own synthesis of various authors, who in turn had done the same. Dante was certainly an Aristotelian, and partly also an Averroist, in that he shared the separation of the spheres of faith and reason; a separation much clearer than that of Thomas Aquinas, and which was later reflected in his political views. On other points, he disagreed with Averroes but agreed with Thomas Aquinas.

His Aristotelianism was particularly influenced by that of Albertus Magnus, which was strongly imbued with Neoplatonism. He was also influenced by the Augustinian and Franciscan traditions, with Joachimite tendencies. Dante has been described as reactionary because his ideas were dominated by the Empire and the Church, the two medieval institutions par excellence, which embodied Divine Providence.

While the popes claimed the supremacy of spiritual power over temporal power, Dante argued that both powers were autonomous in their own sphere. Man has two ends and two possible forms of happiness: the earthly one, attainable through reason, and the supernatural one, attainable through faith. The emperor is the guide to the earthly end and the pope to the supernatural end. The emperor is necessary to bring peace and justice to a world where the lust for wealth generates hatred and continuous wars between cities, between kingdoms, and within them; the Empire was a manifestation of divine Providence in that Christ was born into it under Augustus. For Dante, human rational capacities can only be fully developed by the human race as a whole, and for this to be possible, peace, justice, and freedom are necessary, which only the undisputed authority of the Empire can guarantee. Undisputed but not “absolute”, that is, not exempt from respect for human and divine law.

The mercantile pre-capitalism of the cities and kingdoms of the 13th and 14th centuries involved a process of alienation and commodification for which there was no solution. Dante saw the society of his time as antagonistic to the sacred and rational order, illuminated by the Christian faith, which he pursued. The fact that the Empire and the Church are at the center of his reflections makes him seem reactionary, with his head turned to the past. However, he remains a man of participation in city life and politics, a supporter of municipal freedoms, which he does not actually deny when he asserts the preeminence of the Empire.