“Dante: The First Renaissance Man” chronicles the life and work of the great late medieval, early Renaissance-era poet, philosopher, scholar, soldier, knight, and politician, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), who wrote the famous epic poem, “La Divina Commedia” (The Divine Comedy), An account of a fictitious journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, along with many other works. We learn about the centuries that preceded Dante, as well as Dante’s early life. Next, the film discusses Dante’s other work, “La Vita Nuova,” or “The New Life,” Dante’s account of his relationship with the love of his life, Beatrice Portinari (1265-1290), as well as the friendship he had with another famous poet, Guido Cavalcanti (, as well as discussing the various artists who had been inspired by Dante’s poetry. I found it interesting that this documentary gives viewers a general overview of world history and the various epochs in late ancient and early medieval history. We then learn about daily life in Forence during the time of Dante, as well as the late medieval and early Renaissance-era revival of intellectual interest in Greco-Roman philosophy, literature, and science. The narrator draws various interesting historical parallels between Dante’s time and not only our own time, but other periods in history as well. We then learn about the two main political factions in the Italy of Dante’s time---the “Guelfi” (Guelphs) (who traditionally supported the papacy) and the “Ghibellini” (Ghibellines), who generally supported the Holy Roman Empire. We also learn about the two main divisions within the Guelphs---the “Blacks” (“Neri”) (who supported the Ghibelline cause) and the “Whites” (“Bianchi”), who, unlike either the Black Guelphs or the traditional pro-Papal Guelphs, actually did not want the various kingdoms of Italy to be ruled by either power. I was surprised to learn that Dante’s best friend and fellow poet, Guido Cavalcanti (1259-1300) was an atheist. At the same time, I am not too surprised because we know that his father, Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti (1220-1280), was an atheist because when I had initially read the Divine Comedy on my own, I remember Dante usually explaining why individual sinners were condemned to this or that circle of Hell; yet I guess he must have figured that the people of his time knew who Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti was and so could imagine why he had been put in Hell.Just as a side note, in the summer of 2001, because of my interest in the life and work of Dante, my Mom, our friend Jim and I went to Italy, and when we visited Florence, we visited many sites related to Dante; Indeed, the original house in which Dante lived is now a museum, and you can even visit his grave. If you ever go to Italy, I would highly recommend that you visit Dante's house and his grave because they are very interesting. Ridiculously, the narrator of this documentary asserts that the peoples of the world “did not interact with each other” and seems to imply that no one knew anything about each other’s culture or religion. This is a ridiculous assertion which demonstrates a profound either ignorance, or unwillingness to acknowledge, the open mindedness of many different civilizations. It is the same fiction that led the political scientist Samuel Huntington (1927-2008) and the historian Bernard Lewis (1916-2018) to manufacture the myth of the so-called “clash of civilizations,’ which asserts that all cultures are separate from one another, that they are monolithic and that they are in perpetual conflict. This is a falsehood which can be readily debunked if one were to look not just at European history but, for all intents and purposes, at all of world history more generally. Furthermore, while I am not a Fundamentalist---and indeed don’t even identify with the Christian faith at all---I am, however, bothered by the narrator’s having described the Bible as the “so-called word of God.” While it is certainly well known that the Bible has indeed been written, rewritten, debated, analyzed, studied and fought over for centuries by various people, I still find it immensely disrespectful to outright deny the divine origin of ANY sacred text of ANY religion, regardless of what one’s own opinions may be. While I am neither Jewish nor Christian, I am still a person of faith, and so consider the Bible to be one of many divinely inspired holy books which the various gods of the various religions have given to humanity. What human interpreters of those sacred texts do with them is up to the individual. Therefore, when we discuss any sacred text, we should not impose our views on others. Indeed, there are some religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism (among others), who do acknowledge the human authorship of their sacred texts; while there are others such as Christianity, which see the Bible as divinely inspired, but authored by human beings (except for Fundamentalists, who see it as purely divine in origin), and other religions, such as Judaism or Islam, who see their holy books as purely divine in origin. Therefore, regardless of what one may believe about the Bible, it is intolerant to describe it as the “so-called Word of God,” even if you don’t necessarily believe that it is of divine origin, because there are many others in the world who do. While the narrator is accurate when he asserts that the Guelphs supported the Pope and the Ghibellines supported the Holy Roman Empire, he does make the mistake of claiming that it had nothing to do with social class---when, in fact, it did. While there were some economically wealthy Guelph families---such as the Donati or the Cerchi, for example---they were technically not aristocrats in the political sense. Most of the Italian aristocracy belonged to the Ghibelline faction. The Guelphs and Ghibellines were descended of two German noble families, the Welf and Wieblingen. “Guelfo” (Guelph) and Ghibellino (Ghibelline) are the Italian renderings of those surnames.Overall, however, I would HIGHLY recommend this documentary to anyone interested in learning about the life and work of Dante.\