Dante Alighieri

Born in Florence in 1265, Dante Alighieri was profoundly shaped by his lifelong devotion to his muse, Beatrice Portinari, and the political upheaval of late thirteenth-century Italy. An active politician and White Guelph, Dante was permanently exiled from his beloved home city in 1302 following a factional defeat. Wandering various Italian courts until his death in 1321, he dedicated his exile to synthesizing classical literature, theology, and philosophy into unprecedented poetry. By boldly championing the Tuscan vernacular over traditional Latin, Dante democratized literature for a broader audience and forever cemented his enduring legacy as the ‘Father of the Italian Language’.