Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri was a Florentine poet of the late medieval period, author of the *Divine Comedy*, widely considered the greatest work of Italian literature.

The epic poem follows Dante himself through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, guided first by Virgil, then by his idealized beloved Beatrice.

Dante established Tuscan as the literary language of Italy.

References to Dante usually invoke either the *Inferno*'s vivid depictions of damnation or the notion of an epic spiritual journey: a Dantean vision of suffering, my Dante through this bureaucratic hell.