Dante Alighieri

c. 1265 – 14 September 1321

Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet, writer, and political thinker from Florence, best known for the Divine Comedy, widely considered the greatest work of Italian literature. His use of the Tuscan vernacular helped establish it as the basis of the modern Italian language. Exiled from Florence in 1302, he spent the rest of his life in various Italian courts and died in Ravenna.

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Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Dante Alighieri.

Life events

Born in Florence
c. 1265

Dante was born in Florence around mid-1265; his exact birth date is not recorded.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
First meeting with Beatrice Portinari
c. 1274

According to his own account in the Vita Nuova, Dante first met Beatrice, his lifelong poetic muse, when both were children around 1274.

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Married Gemma Donati
c. 1285

Dante married Gemma di Manetto Donati, to whom he had been betrothed as a child, around 1285.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relationship ✓
Fought at the Battle of Campaldino
11 June 1289

Dante fought as a cavalryman for the Florentine Guelphs in their victory over the Ghibellines of Arezzo at Campaldino on 11 June 1289.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Personal ✓
Served as one of the priors of Florence
June 1300 – August 1300

Dante was elected to a two-month term as one of the six priors, the highest office of the Florentine government, in the summer of 1300.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Condemned and exiled from Florence
27 January 1302

After the Black Guelphs seized power, Dante was condemned on charges of corruption on 27 January 1302 and later sentenced to death should he return, beginning a permanent exile.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Began composing the Divine Comedy
c. 1308

Dante is generally believed to have begun writing the Divine Comedy around 1308, during his exile.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Settled in Ravenna under Guido Novello da Polenta
c. 1318

In his final years, around 1318, Dante settled in Ravenna as a guest of its lord, Guido Novello da Polenta, where he completed the Paradiso.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Completed the Divine Comedy
1321

Dante finished the Paradiso, the final part of the Divine Comedy, shortly before his death in 1321.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Died in Ravenna
14 September 1321

Dante died in Ravenna, probably of malaria contracted on a diplomatic mission to Venice, on the night of 13-14 September 1321.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓