In on the Joke: How Dante and The Divine Comedy Brought Knowledge & Information to the Masses

Look at these words … these simple, easy-to-follow, unapologetically run-of-the-mill words. Odds are, they’re in your mother tongue — the language you first learned as an infant and continue to use when speaking to your family, neighbors and colleagues.

That is, they’re in “the vernacular”.

Now imagine every piece of published work available to you — be it on your favorite website, downloaded to your Kindle, or waiting for you at your local newsstand — is in Latin.

To make matters worse, this eerily silent world of yours has no broadcast news or entertainment — no television, no radio, and no streaming Internet videos — so if you’re not one of the select few who can read Latin, your only source of information is through word-of-mouth communication.

Such was the dilemma of Europeans during the Middle Ages. Despite a large and growing number of local tongues, Europe had only one universally published language: Latin.

Meant exclusively for the upper echelon of society — the clergy, historians, scholars and poets — published works were the domain of the learned few, leaving those that only knew the local language unenlightened, unlettered and woefully dependent on the academic elite.

Until, that is, Dante Alighieri, a Florentine politician-turned-poet, wrote “The Divine Comedy” … in the vernacular.

Throughout Dante’s lifetime, which spanned from approximately 1265 to 1321, the Italian landscape was rife with political and papal intrigue. After participating in a few successful military campaigns against his foes, Dante’s fortunes turned and he soon found himself exiled from Florence.

Cast out of his beloved birthplace and forced to live the life of a nomad, Dante took pen in hand and began to work on what would become one of the greatest literary works of all time.

An epic, sweeping poem that vividly depicts Dante’s metaphorical journey through the afterlife, The Divine Comedy is broken up into three sections: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

Beautifully written and at times strikingly graphic, Dante offers his readers an intimate, imaginative glimpse into the horrors of hell, the maddening angst of purgatory and the joyful bliss of heaven.

But just beyond the skillfully-written passages that will forever echo in your mind lays the far more tangible salvation of this masterpiece: Dante’s decision to write it in the vernacular. Because with that one singular, courageous, and downright brazen decision, Dante brought about a sea change for society — in both Italy and the whole of Europe.

In one fell swoop, Dante brought communication, education, and enlightenment to the masses. He tore down the archaic, cloak-and-dagger approach to knowledge and replaced it with a hands-on, user-friendly approach easily accessible to everyone.

In short, he gave us paradiso.