Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) was an Italian poet, born in Florence, whose Divine Comedy is the central work of medieval literature. He fought for his city at Campaldino, held office in its government and in 1302, while away on an embassy, was condemned by the opposing faction to exile and death if he returned. He never saw Florence again. In the years of wandering that followed he wrote the Convivio, the political treatise On Monarchy, and the Comedy itself, the journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise in which he settled accounts with his age and made the Tuscan vernacular a literary language. He died at Ravenna, where he is buried.