592 DAN 
as his name fignifies in the Britifli language a chieftain, 
or the head of a family. 
DANN, a town of France, in the department of the 
Meurte, celebrated for its medicinal fprings : one league 
north of Thalfburg. 
DAN'NAH, a town of Palertine, in the tribe of Judah, 
fituated in the mountains of that province. Jo/h. xv. 49. 
DAN'NEMARIE, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Upper Rhine, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diftriit of Befort : three leagues eaft of Befort. 
DAN'NEMOTNE, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Yonne : one league north of Tonnerre. 
DAN'NENBERG, or Danneeerg, a town of Ger¬ 
many, in the circle of Lower Saxony, and capital of a 
county of the fame name, in the principality of Lune- 
burg, on the Jerze. Beer is the principal article of com¬ 
merce : thirty-fix miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Luneburg, and 
fifty-four north-eaft of Zell. 
DANNGE, a river of PrulTia, which runs into the fea 
at Memel. 
DAN'TE (Alighieri), the firft great poet of Italy af¬ 
ter the revival of letters, born at Florence in 1265. His 
father’s name was Alighiero degli Alighieri, defcended 
from a family of that-name in Ferrara. His mother was 
named Bella. Their fon was originally called Durante, 
but this, according to the Florentine cnftorn of tiling 
diminutives through familiarity or endearment, was con¬ 
tracted to Dante. The account of his horofcope by the 
alirologers, and of a vilion of his mother’s when preg¬ 
nant of him, given by his early biographers, is only to 
be regarded as a proof of his after celebrity ; and pro¬ 
bably much of what has been related of his youthful 
love of Bice, or Beatrice, is a fiftion of fimilar origin. 
At a tender age he was introduced to the ftudy as well 
of the graver fciences, as of polite literature, under the 
celebrated Brunetto Latini; and he poifelTed the further 
advantage of an intimacy with the accomplilhed Guido 
Cavalcanti. He alfo attached himfelf to the profelfors 
of the ornamental arts, who flourifhed at that period ; 
as the painter Giotto, and feveral of the mod eminent 
muficians. With refpeft to Italian poetry, he is faid to 
have been his own mafter, yet he doubtlefs received 
aftfiiance in forming his tafte from the poets, fuc.h as 
they were, with whom he was acquainted. His natural 
difpofiiion was thoughtful and melancholic, but joined 
with that fervour and earneftnefs which is ufually the 
concomitant of genius. He took up arms in the fervice 
of his country, and was prelent at two battles, one 
againft the Aretines in 1289, the other againft the Pi- 
fans in 1290. In 1291 he married Gemma, the daugh¬ 
ter of Manetto de’ Donati. This union appears not to 
have been a happy one; for, on account of a difagree- 
ment in temper, he entirely feparated himfelf from his 
wife after fhe had borne him feveral children. He en¬ 
tered into public life, and was Cor.fiderably employed in 
the affairs of the Florentine republic. Mention is made 
of fourteen embaflies which he fuftained, but it is diffi¬ 
cult to find room for all thefe in the years of his refidence 
in his native city. He was alfo one of the priors or chief 
magiflrates of Florence in 1300, an honour which proved 
the fource of all his misfortunes. At that period all the 
towns of Italy were diffracted by the oppofite parties of 
the Guelfs and Ghibellines; and in Florence a further 
divifion took place into the factions of the Neri and 
Bianchi, or Blacks and Whites. Dante, who belonged 
to the latter, oppofed a project of fending for Charles of 
Valois, brother to Philip the Fair, king of France, in 
order to quiet the difturbances of the city. He was, how¬ 
ever, over-ruled, and the party of the Whites was in 
confequence banifhed from Florence. In January, 1302, 
Dan e, then ambaffador to pope Boniface VIII. was con¬ 
demned to a fine of 8000 lircs, and two years exile; and 
in default of payment, his goods were to be fequeftered, 
as in effedt they were. Dante, however, did not imme¬ 
diately quit Tufcany, but remained to aflilt in various 
1 
DAN 
attempts made by the Whites for their reftoration, though 
unfuccefsfully. His firfh refuge appears to have been at 
the court of the Scaligers of Verona.' Of the princes of 
this family, he who is called Can Grande della Scala, 
was the particular patron of Dante, as he was likewife 
of many other perfons eminent for their talents. When 
Henry of Luxemburg was elected emperor, Dante fedu- 
loufly paid court to him, hoping a reftoration to his coun¬ 
try through his means. He wrote a letter in his favour 
to the Italian princes and Roman fenators; and he urged 
by another letter the emperor himfelf to take arms againft 
the Florentines. Henry, in 1311, made an attempt upon 
Florence, but without fuccefs; and his death in 1313, 
cut off all the hopes of Dante, whofe hoftile endeavours 
againft his country were repaid by a fentence of perpe¬ 
tual banifhment. From this time he feems to have roved 
fome years about Italy in an indigent and diftreffed con¬ 
dition, till he was kindly received in the city of Ravenna 
by its lord, Guido Novella da Polenta, a liberal patron 
of letters, and himfelf a proficient in them. He was 
employed by Guido in fome political negociations, and 
was fent to Venice in order to compromife a quarrel which 
had arifen between him and the republic. The Venetians, 
however, were fo exafperated againft Guidp, that they 
refufed to admit Dante to an audience ; by which flight 
he was fo much affeCted, that foon after his return to 
Ravenna, he died on the 14th of September, 1321. His 
patron gave him an honourable funeral, pronounced an 
oration over his remains, and raifed a monument to his 
memory, which was afterwards decorated with a ftatue 
and other ornaments by Bernardo Bembo, praetor of Ra¬ 
venna. The tomb was repaired 1692 by cardinal Dome¬ 
nico Maria Corfi, legate of Romagna; and a new and 
more fumptuous one was erefted in 17S0, by the legate 
cardinal Gonzaga, bearing this infeription : 
Danti Aligherio, Poeta fui temporis primo, 
Rejiitutori politioris kumanitatis. 
His countrymen, the Florentines, compenfated their en¬ 
mity to this great man during life, by their zealous at¬ 
tempts to obtain his remains, and afford them an honour¬ 
able repofe in his native city ; and his congenial and warm 
admirer, the fublime Michael-Angelo, offered gratui- 
toufly to execute a monument which would have been 
worthy of the poet; but Ravenna would not refign her 
depofit. 
Dante was a writer both in Latin and Italian. Fie was 
one of the firft who attempted to revive Latin poetry in 
a claffical tafte; and two eclogues which he has left, 
though far from the purity of the beft models, difplay a 
laudable emulation of antiquity. He wrote in Latin alfo 
three epiftles ; one to the government of Florence, com¬ 
plaining of his exile ; one to the emperor Henry ; and 
one to the Italian cardinals, exhorting them to choofe a 
pope of their own nation. Another Latin work was his 
book De Monarckia, in which he undertook, as a Ghibel- 
line, to defend the rights of the empire. In that lan¬ 
guage he alfo compofed his books De Vulgari Eloqucntia , 
a curious record of the early ftate of the Italian idiom, 
and the writers in it. This was only known in its Italian 
verfion till 1577, when the original Latin was publiflied 
at Paris. In his native tongue he compofed a work in- 
titled Vita Nuova , which relates the ftory of his juvenile 
amours with Beatrice, mixed with various other pieces. 
During his banifhment he compofed twenty Canzoili, mo¬ 
ral and amatory, on fome of which he afterwards wrote 
commentaries. He likewife rendered into Italian verfe 
the penitential pfalms, the apoffles creed, the Lord’s 
prayer, and other pious compofitions. But the fame of 
all the writings above-mentioned has beenobfeured by 
the celebrated work which has immortalifed the name 
of Dante, that to which he gave the title of Commedia. 
Why he thus intitled it, has been a matter of great con- 
troverfy ; but the 1110ft probable reafon feems to be, 
that it was on account of its being written neither in 
