Medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote his most enduring work, The Divine Comedy, between 1314 and 1321. It is subdivided into three epic poems, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, and follows Dante's imagined journey through hell, purgatory and heaven. The Divine Comedy was the first book to be written in vernacular Italian (the every day language used by the local Italians) instead of the scholastically accepted language of Latin. Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in exile after being banished from his birthplace of Florence for his political affiliations.

Dante lost his mother at the age of ten, right around the time he fell in love at first sight with the eight year old Beatrice Portinari, who would become his muse and his guide through heaven in The Divine Comedy. She remained a significant presence in his writings long after her death in 1290. Despite his infatuation with Beatrice, Dante wed Gemma di Manetto Donati in 1283, a marriage arranged by his family. The couple had four children.

• "If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought."—Dante Alighieri
• "Beauty awakens the soul to act."—Dante Alighieri
• "In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost."—The Inferno
• "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."—The Inferno

• 1265: Born in Florence, Italy

• 1274: Falls in love with Beatrice Portinari; later makes her a character in The Divine Comedy

• 1283: Marries Gemma di Manetto Donati, an arrangement made for him by his family

• 1289: Fights in the Battle of Campaldino

• 1290: Beatrice dies

• 1300: Becomes a Florence magistrate

• 1301: Travels to Florence as envoy to Pope Boniface VIII

• 1302: Banished from Florence

• 1315: Moves to Verona, Italy

• 1319: Moves to Ravenna, Italy

• 1329: Dies on September 14 of fever