Dante's Inferno

Dante?s Inferno is the most famous and attractive writing of Medieval Italian literature. Together with the complete opera: the Divina Commedia, the Inferno represents the very beginning of a unitary Italian language. Dante can be considered de facto the father of modern Italian. Until the 14th century Latin was the only language to whom a literary dignity was recognized; Dante made something culturally revolutionary: he decided to chose another language, the language used by the popular classes on the street and by the women at the market (muliercule). This language would have created a linguistic nation in a nation that didn?t exist yet. And he made it. To prove the validity of his project, Dante wrote a treaty, in Latin, to explain his choice and the necessity of an Italian language that could cover the local dialects and give the Italians a sense of identity. The main Italian writers, novelists and poets outside of Florence started acknowledging the Florentine used by Dante and later by Petrarch and Boccaccio as the best linguistic experiment ever done, using it as their own language and making it the language of Italy. So the modern Italian language was born in Florence and its father is Dante. Therefore, the Inferno represents not only a literary masterpiece, but also the beginning of a wonderful collective experience: the language of the Italians.