When Does "Dante's Inferno" (1317) Take Place?
"Inferno" (released to English-speaking audiences as "The Inferno" or "Dante's Inferno") is a political horror historical fiction epic poem written by Dante Alighieri and released 1317 (according to most scholars).
It takes place in the year:
We know this because the real-world Dante Alighieri inserted himself into his story as the main character and, right in the first line of the first canto of the poem, he describes himself as "Midway in the journey of our life" and he was born in May of 1265 AD so it must be around 1310 AD for him to be middle-aged.
1299 AD
We know this because the real-world Dante Alighieri inserted himself into his story as the main character and, right in the first line of the first canto of the poem, he describes himself as "Midway in the journey of our life" and he was born in May of 1265 AD so it must be around 1310 AD for him to be middle-aged.
1265 + 35 = 1300
or
1265 + 45 = 1310
or
1265 + 55 = 1320.
More specifically, in the tenth canto about a third of the way through the story, Dante speaks with the ghost of the real-world Italian nobelman Farinata degli Uberti (1212-1264) and says his ancestors "returned / from every quarter" when they were "banished". Farinata's ghost soon tells Dante, "the face of the lady reigning here / will be rekindled not fifty times before you too / shall know how difficult a skill that is to learn". Dante was quasi-permanently kicked out of the city of Florence when the White Guelphs political party failed to retake it in July of 1304 AD (making de facto permanent a massive fine imposed on him in March 1302 AD), leaving it to Dante's political enemies: the Black Guelphs political party. So 50 months ("fifty times" the appearance of full light from "the face of the lady reigning here", i.e. the face of the full Moon in the darkness of night) earlier from the moment he was exiled (i.e. had to start to "learn" the "skill" of attempting to have eventually "returned / from" being "banished") in the real world would be May of 1300 AD.
50 months = 4 years, 2 months
and
7.1,304 - 2.4 = 5.1,300.
Furthermore (and more clearly), in the twenty-first canto, the demon Malacoda says, "Yesterday, at a time five hours from now, / it was a thousand two hundred sixty-six years / since the road down here was broken" strongly implying the arrival of Jesus Christ caused one bridge into the realm of Hell to become "broken boulders" when he arrived during the Harrowing of Hell in "The Gospel of Nicodemus" (350), which takes place just after his crucifixion, which scholars believe happened in the real world in either 30 AD or 33 AD (on what is now commemorated as Good Friday by Christians). Therefore, it is precisely 1,266 years and 1 day later- Holy Saturday. That was in April of either 1296 AD or 1299 AD in the real world.
30 + 1,266 = 1296
or
33 + 1,266 = 1299.
HOWEVER, presumably the date historians use for the death of Jesus has changed over time because most literary scholars place the events of the entire trilogy of poems in 1300 AD.
It is the first poem of "Commedia" (or The Divine Comedy) and can be read before "Purgatorio" or entirely separately.
It was adapted to music in 1849, to film in 1911, as a short film titled "The Dante Quartet" in 1987, partially to television as "A TV Dante" in 1990, to music again in 2002, as a video game in 2010, also to animation in 2007, in 2010 and again in 2013, and, finally, as a graphic novel in 2023.
