Dante Alighieri was born in Florence around 1265 into a minor noble family entangled in the city's Guelph-Ghibelline strife. He fought at Campaldino, served in civic office, and married Gemma Donati while nurturing an intense literary and political life. His early verse, including the Vita Nuova, elevated Beatrice Portinari from personal muse to symbol of divine love, blending courtly tradition with theological ambition.

Political exile changed everything. After the Black Guelphs took power in 1302, Dante spent his remaining years wandering Italian courts, never returning to Florence. From Ravenna he composed The Divine Comedy in vernacular Tuscan rather than Latin, assigning popes, emperors, and contemporaries to meticulously ordered realms of the afterlife. Virgil guides him through Inferno and Purgatorio; Beatrice leads Paradiso. The poem fused Aristotelian philosophy, Augustinian theology, and biting political commentary into a single imaginative architecture.

Dante died in Ravenna in 1321, honored by the city that sheltered him. Florence eventually reclaimed his memory, but the Comedy had already begun its ascent as Italy's national epic and a cornerstone of European literature. By choosing the volgare, Dante helped establish Tuscan as the literary language that would become modern Italian.

1. c. 1265

   Born in Florence

   Raised amid Guelph faction politics in a city of bankers, guilds, and church rivalry.

2. 1289

   Battle of Campaldino

   Fought as a cavalryman in the Guelph victory over Ghibelline forces.

3. 1302

   Sentenced to Exile

   Condemned in absentia by Florence; spent the rest of his life outside his native city.

4. 1308–1320

   Divine Comedy Composed

   Wrote the epic in exile, likely finishing Paradiso shortly before his death.

5. 1321

   Death in Ravenna

   Died of malaria on return from a diplomatic mission to Venice.