Author: Dante Alighieri
Biography:
DANTE, Alighieri (1265-1321: EB)
A philosopher and poet, Dante was born in Florence, Italy, in May or June of 1265. He was active in the city’s civic and cultural affairs until he was exiled in 1302 as a result of political conflict. He died in Ravenna in 1321. The best-known of the Italian poets, his presence in this bibliography is owing to the popularity of his works—particularly The Divine Comedy—for translation during the period 1770-1835. The translators who were poets in their own right are given biographical headnotes in this database. These are: Henry Boyd, Henry Francis Cary, Charles Strong, and Nathaniel Howard (qq.v.). Other translators are listed here. Charles Rogers who was born in London on 2 Aug. 1711. He was a customs house clerk but, thanks to an inheritance of real property and art, he became a prominent collector. He died on 2 Jan. 1784 after an accident. Henry Constantine Jennings was baptised on 15 Aug. 1731 in Shiplake, Oxfordshire. Educated at Westminster School, he briefly served in the army before travelling to Italy where he was an enthusiastic but eccentric collector of antiquities. He died in London on 17 Feb. 1819. No birth record has been found but Joseph Hume (1767-1844)—author of what Toynbee decried as the worst translation of Dante (qu. Friedrich)—was born, lived, married, and died in London. He was a clerk at the victualling office of the Admiralty, Somerset House, and a friend of Charles Lamb (q.v.). Jonathan Trevanion Hatfield’s birth on 26 June 1793 in Manchester was registered in the non-conformist records but he later studied at Trinity College, Cambridge. An inheritance from his father allowed him to indulge his taste for travel and collecting; he died at Naples on 25 Feb. 1840. Ichabod Charles Wright was born on 11 Apr. 1795 and educated at Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1817, MA 1820). The translation listed here was followed by two more from Dante (1836,1840) and a translation of Homer’s Iliad (1864). Charles Lyell (1769-1849), botanist and father of Sir Charles Lyell the geologist, published the first translation in English of selections from Dante’s Il Convito, written in about 1307; the volume includes translations of selections from Dante’s La Vita Nuova (1294). (EB; ODNB 19 July 2024, 30 Apr. 2025; ACAD 30 Apr. 2025; Westminster School Archives; W. P. Friedrich, Dante’s Fame Abroad, 1350-1850 [1950], 281; contributions from HJ) SR
Other Names:
- Dante