1265-1321 · Florentine poet and political exile, author of The Divine Comedy
About Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri was a Florentine poet, political exile, and lay theologian whose Comedy became one of the central works of world literature. His poem unites classical epic, Christian doctrine, vernacular ambition, political judgment, and personal pilgrimage.
The Divine Comedy begins with Dante lost in a dark wood midway through life, unable to climb the sunlit hill because beasts block his way. Virgil comes as guide and leads him through Inferno, where punishments reveal the inner logic of disordered love, violence, fraud, and treachery.