Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), Italian poet, regarded as among the greatest Italian writers in history. A descendant of an old Florentine family, he mastered the art of lyric poetry at an early age. His first major work, The New Life (c.1292), describes his love for his lifelong inspiration, Beatrice Portinari, who died in 1290. His masterpiece, The Divine Comedy (probably written between 1308 and 1320), consists of more than 14,000 lines, divided into three books: The Inferno (Hell), Purgatory, and Paradise. It criticizes the corruption Dante saw in the world around him and codifies the Catholic view of the world. It was also responsible for standardizing what became the modern Italian language.