Dante and Beatrice

"I was looking for consolation in a state of impossible infatuation, in a sea of alone. I was seeking a friend who also lived between the lines, between the lines of a song that sings of love at first sight, of love unrequited, of an impossible union." ~ Unknown

The story of Dante and Beatrice goes something like this:

Dante Alighieri, first met Beatrice "Bice" di Folco Portinari  when his father took him to the Portinari house for a May Day party. At the time, Beatrice was eight years old, a year younger than Dante. Dante was instantly taken with her and remained so throughout her life.

According to the autobiographic La Vita Nuova, Beatrice and Dante met only twice during their lives. It is more likely that the encounters with Beatrice that Dante writes of are the two that fulfill his poetic vision, and Beatrice, seem to blur the line between an actual love interest and  his creation of her in his mind.

Following their first meeting, Dante was so enthralled by Beatrice that he later wrote in La Vita Nuova: Ecce Deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur mihi. As he did so, he made great efforts to ensure his thoughts of Beatrice remained private, even writing poetry for another lady, so as to use her as a "screen for the truth".

Dante's courtly love for Beatrice continued for nine years, before the pair finally met again. This meeting occurred in a street of Florence, which she walked along dressed in white and accompanied by two older women. She turned and greeted him, her salutation filling him with such joy that he retreated to his room to think about her. In doing so, he fell asleep, and had a dream which would become the subject of the first sonnet in La Vita Nuova.

The manner in which Dante chose to express his love for Beatrice often agreed with the Middle Ages concept of courtly love. Courtly love was a secret, unrequited and highly respectful form of admiration for another person. Yet it is still not entirely clear what caused Dante to fall in love with Beatrice. Since he knew very little of the real Beatrice, and that he had no great insight to her character, it is perhaps unusual that he did. But he did, and there are clues in his works as to why:

Beatrice's influence was far from simple inspiration. She appeared as a character in his two greatest works—La Vita Nuova and Divine Comedy.

Although they converse in personal terms, this is no more than the imagination of Dante. Since their relationship had no contact, the Beatrice of his works was shaped entirely by his own mind. He once called her "La gloriosa donna della mia mente", which means "the glorious lady of my mind".

adapted from Wikipedia.