Gabriele Rossetti was one of the earliest modern commentators on Dante Alighieri. In 1826, he published his Analytical Commentary on the Divine Comedy in London. While his studies are now considered outdated, they were deeply connected to a symbolic and political interpretation of Dante’s work.
Upon rereading certain passages, it’s clear how much Rossetti was influenced by an anticlerical spirit and how crucial it was for him to identify with Dante, the “exiled Ghibelline,” whose personal journey he saw as strikingly similar to his own fate as an exile.
At the same time, it’s important to remember that Rossetti was one of the first to bring Dante’s works to England, alongside Ugo Foscolo. Dante became a cultural reference point during Italy’s Risorgimento, largely thanks to Rossetti’s persistence and his ability to pass on his passion for Dante to his children.
The significance of Gabriele Rossetti’s studies on Dante Alighieri is particularly tied to one of his works: La Beatrice di Dante, published in 1842.
But why is this work so important? To understand, one only needs to read the first few pages:
“Beatrice in the Vita Nuova is an allegorical figure, as confessed and demonstrated by Dante himself. The Convito is a long and detailed commentary made by the poet on some of his songs […] where he intends to explain fourteen such songs, composed for his mystical woman, that is, for philosophy.”
Before Rossetti, this concept had never been so thoroughly analyzed, and, crucially, it had never been linked to Dante’s membership in the secret society of the Fedeli d’Amore, whose aim was a radical reform of the Church, seeking the end of its temporal power and its return to the realm of spirituality.
The Fedeli d’Amore were a medieval, initiatory group active in the 13th century, primarily in Italy, France (especially in Provence), and Belgium, and were likely connected to the Troubadour movement from the previous century. They were devoted to the worship of the “Donna Unica” (the “Unique Lady”) and used a secret language (parlar cruz) to keep their doctrine hidden from non-initiates, whom they referred to as the “gente grosa.”
This Lady symbolized transcendent intellect—the Intelligence accessible only to spiritual discernment, or more precisely, “Madonna Intelligenza” (Madonna Intelligence), the “widow who was not a widow” because her husband, the Pope, was spiritually dead, having dedicated himself entirely to worldly matters.
The Fedeli d’Amore deliberately blended the concepts of death and love, which in Provençal wordplay became “a-mor“—“without death,” hence eternal. The adept sought to “die of love,” for in doing so, the human and divine were united in one sublime and eternal love.
Rossetti’s insight into the figure of Beatrice initially had a significant impact in Italy, where it was taken up by scholars, including Giovanni Pascoli, and later celebrated by Luigi Valli in his 1928 work Il Linguaggio Segreto di Dante e dei «Fedeli d’Amore».
