Dante Alighieri, De monarchia [Monarchy]

John Took (University College London)

Ed. by Jo Ann Cavallo, Columbia University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Domains

Political Philosophy

Dates

First circulation or publication 1310 - c. 1321

Places

Italy (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-fictional prose
Treatise

Resources

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Like all Dante's major works – the

Vita nova

, the

Convivio

, the

De vulgari eloquentia

and the

Commedia

– the

Monarchia

, ideally contemporary with the

Paradiso

and thus belonging to the middle part of the second decade of the fourteenth century, has a public and a private face, a controversial and a confessional dimension. Publically, it stands to be interpreted in the context of events going back to the time of Boniface VIII's struggle with the French monarchy at the beginning of the century and surfacing again, albeit with a fresh cast of players, in the subsequent tension between Henry VII and Clement V and, later still, between Frederick of Austria and Lewis of Bavaria as rival claimants to the empire and John XXII. Privately, by contrast, the

Monarchia

gives expression to certain…

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2313 words

Citation: Took, John. "De monarchia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 February 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16061, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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