Dante Alighieri | ar

Durante degli Alighieri (May/June c.1265 – September 14, 1321), commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia (originally called Commedia and later called Divina ("divine") by Boccaccio), known in English as The Divine Comedy, is often considered one of the greatest literary works composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.

The most famous of the three parts to The Divine Comedy is arguably The Inferno, often referred to simply as Dante's Inferno. As with the rest of The Divine Comedy, it describes a journey through the perceived Christian afterlife of that medieval era, this work taking the reader through Hades.

In Italy he is known as "the Supreme Poet" (il Sommo Poeta) or just il Poeta. Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio are also known as "the three fountains" or "the three crowns". Dante is also called the "Father of the Italian language". The first biography written on him was by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), who wrote the Trattatello in laude di Dante. .