Dante and Beatrice Anniversary Pendant
For the romantics, Italophiles and literati out there, we introduce our special edition pendant celebrating Dante and Beatrice! On May 1, 1274, Dante Alighieri met Beatrice Portinari for the first time. It’s to that encounter that we owe some of the world's greatest literature.
Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet who was to become one of the most influential literary figures of western history. His Divine Comedy is widely regarded as one of the most significant poems of all time, in all languages. Dante revolutionized literature by pioneering the use of the vernacular at a time when most works were exclusively written in Latin and therefore only accessible to a select, educated audience. By choosing to write his great works in the Florentine dialect, Dante was not only instrumental in codifying the Italian language that we know today, but also in the establishing Italian as the language of literature in western Europe for centuries to come. "Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third." -T.S.Eliot
Beatrice Portinari was the daughter of a Florentine banker. Dante first met Beatrice when they were children (he was nine and she was eight), when he and his family went to the Portinari home for a May Day celebration. Dante was so struck by Beatrice's beauty that he instantly fell in love, and from that moment never ceased to carry her in his heart. Indeed, Beatrice became his one true love, and his muse. They both married others, but apparently did meet by chance in the streets, from time to time. After Beatrice died, Dante began to write poems dedicated to her. Those, together with others he had written that similarly praised Beatrice, became his famed work, La Vita Nuova. In a sense, Beatrice not only inspired but lived on with Dante, as she was immortalized as a character in his two greatest masterpieces: La Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy.
This year marks the 750th anniversary of their first meeting, a meeting that would stay with Dante his entire life, and that would lead to some of the world's greatest works of Italian literature. Our special pendant is perfect for anyone who loves Dante, Italian history, Italy, literature, and the most romantic stories of inspiring love! Ai miei.
Each pendant is inscribed on the back with the phrasing:
