Dante Alighieri

Florentine poet and theorist whose Divine Comedy established Tuscan as the literary standard of Italian and shaped Western visions of the afterlife.

Specifications & Metrics

era: c. 1265 – 1321 (Late Middle Ages)
language: Tuscan Italian and Latin
region: Florence and Ravenna, Italy
notable works: Divine Comedy, La Vita Nuova, Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia

Born in Florence around May 1265, he fought with the Guelph cavalry at Campaldino (1289), entered the Physicians' and Apothecaries' Guild to hold civic office, and was exiled for life in 1302 with the White Guelphs.
Championed the Tuscan vernacular over Latin in La Vita Nuova (1295) and the linguistic treatise De vulgari eloquentia, helping establish modern standard Italian.
Composed the 100-canto Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321) in exile—introducing the interlocking terza rima rhyme scheme—before dying in Ravenna on 14 September 1321.