Like all Dante's major works – the Vita nova, the Convivio, the De vulgari eloquentia and the Commedia – the Monarchia, ideally contemporary with the Paradiso and thus belonging to the middle part of the second decade of the fourteenth century, has a public and a private face, a controversial and a confessional dimension. Publically, it stands to be interpreted in the context of events going back to the time of Boniface VIII's struggle with the French monarchy at the beginning of the century and surfacing again, albeit with a fresh cast of players, in the subsequent tension between Henry VII and Clement V and, later still, between Frederick of Austria and Lewis of …
2313 words
Citation: Took, John. "De monarchia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 February 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16061, accessed 21 November 2024.]