Scrovegni Chapel

If scholars were to attempt to pinpoint the exact moment when Dante’s stance on Italian politics shifted towards a more distressed and discouraged perspective, his exile from Florence would be that moment. In his own words through the mouth-piece of Dante the pilgrim to his former teacher Brunetto Latini in Canto XV, Dante laments: “In the bright life above…I came into a valley and lost my way, before my age had reached its ripening time. I turned my back on the place but yesterday…” Through…