Dante Alighieri

Born around May 1265, Dante Alighieri came of age in Florence when Latin still ruled the page and Italian poets borrowed from France. He broke both habits: he wrote in Tuscan, the vernacular of his city, and defended it in De vulgari eloquentia as fit for serious work. The New Life appeared in 1295; the Divine Comedy followed, a journey through the three realms that Boccaccio would later call "divine." The poem's terza rima - interlocking three-line rhyme - was his invention. His choice of dialect became the foundation of modern Italian, and his influence bled across borders: Chaucer, Milton, Tennyson all drew from him. He died in exile on September 14, 1321, but Italy calls him il Sommo Poeta, the Supreme Poet, and he remains one of the crowns of its literature.