Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

Today marks the death in 1321 of Dante Alighieri. His central work, the Divina Commedia (originally called Commedia and later called Divina (“divine”) by Boccaccio), is often considered one of the greatest literary works composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. 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.
(From Wikipedia)