Like all Dante's major works – the

, the

, the

and the

– the

, ideally contemporary with the

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 Bavaria as rival claimants to the empire and John XXII. Privately, by contrast, the

gives expression to certain…

2313 words

Citation: Took, John. "De monarchia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 February 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16061, accessed 26 November 2024.]