Forese Donati

Forese Donati is a historical member of the Donati family of Florence who, in Dante's Divine Comedy, appears as a communicative and individuated soul undergoing purification on the sixth terrace of Purgatory. Historically remembered in Florentine literary circles as a youthful friend and poetic correspondent of Dante (they exchanged sonnets and terzanelle, including a tenzone of mutual insults), Forese is transposed into Dante's theological cosmos: he died in 1296 and, in the narrative timeframe of Dante's 1300 pilgrimage, has advanced swiftly through Purgatory. Dante's portrayal blends biographical memory and moral allegory, using Forese's personal history (family ties to Piccarda and Corso Donati, marriage to Nella) to illustrate medieval doctrines concerning sin, penance, and the efficacy of the living's prayers for the dead.

In Purgatorio 23 Forese appears emaciated from the penances of the terrace of gluttony; Dante 'barely recognizes' his face because of this physical deprivation. Commentaries and summaries note that he is diminished by fasting and that his emotional intensity affects his speech: he is recognizable by voice and personal manner, and his altered physicality—thinness and the signs of enforced hunger—marks him as a penitent rather than a mythic creature. He stands among other penitents on the mountain of Purgatory under the guidance of Virgil and in the experiential context of Dante's pilgrimage.

Forese possesses conversational agency within Dante's narrative: he speaks with the living pilgrim, asks after Dante's life, identifies and reports the spiritual states of others (for example reporting that his sister Piccarda resides in Paradise), praises his wife Nella and credits her prayers for hastening his purification, and delivers moral commentary and prophecies (criticizing Florentine women's dress and predicting stricter dress codes; forecasting the death and damnation of his brother Corso). He exercises no supernatural powers in the sources; his capacities are those of an individuated, saved human soul able to perceive, remember, and communicate within the poet-theologized afterlife.