1265–1321
Florentine exile who built a three-part cosmos in vernacular terza rima. The Comedy is theology, revenge, love lyric, and encyclopedia in one pilgrimage.
Gave European literature its most complete spiritual architecture and proved a vernacular could carry the highest style.
Epic poem · c. 1320
Dante Alighieri
Lost in a dark wood, Dante is led through Hell and Purgatory by Virgil and through Paradise by Beatrice. The cosmos becomes a moral map and a love story.
Sacred vision
Prosimetrum · c. 1294
Dante Alighieri
A youthful book of poems and commentary in which Beatrice’s presence and death remake the poet’s life into a new style of loving.
Love vision