A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Beatrice Portinari
BEATRICE PORTINARI,
Is celebrated as the beloved of Dante, the Italian poet She was born at Florence, and was very beautiful. The death of her noble father, Folca Portinari, in 1289, is said to have hastened her own. The history of Beatrice may be considered as an affection of Dante—in that lies its sole interest. All that can be authenticated of her is that she was a beautiful and virtuous woman. She died in 1290, aged twenty-four; and yet she still lives in Dante's immortal poem, of which her memory was the inspiration.
It was in his transport of enthusiastic love that Dante conceived the idea of the Divina Commedia," his great poem, of which Beatrice was destined to be the heroine. Thus to the inspiration of a young, lovely, and noble-minded woman, we owe one of the grandest efforts of human genius.