Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy , originally called Commedia and later called Divina by Boccaccio , is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.
In Italy he is known as il Sommo Poeta (“the Supreme Poet”) or just il Poeta. He, Petrarch and Boccaccio are also known as “the three fountains” or “the three crowns”. Dante is also called the “Father of the Italian language”.