Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Greatest of Medieval poets, and author of the Divine Comedy, required reading if one is to understand the Medieval mind, and the first notable work in Italian, as well as many other poems and works of and about language and literature. A Florentine, Dante was a scholar of considerable ability, as well as a poet and a dabbler in politics (a matter which earned him a racking and exile). He is the first "modern" person ever to be the subject of a university course, instituted at Bologna by Boccacio shortly after his death..