Dante Alighieri
Also called: Dante · Topic: Renaissance, Reformation and the Scientific Revolution · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Changing Cultural Traditions"
Meaning
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) was a poet from Florence. He was a layman, meaning an ordinary believer and not a priest, yet he wrote on religious themes. This mattered because religious writing had mostly been left to churchmen. Dante, together with the painter Giotto, made Florence famous before it became Italy's leading city of art and learning.
Example
Dante's most famous work is the Divine Comedy, a long poem about a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. He wrote it in Italian, the language of ordinary people, and not in Latin.
Don't confuse with
- Petrarch (1304–78): a later Italian scholar-poet. He is remembered mainly for urging close reading of the actual words of ancient Greek and Roman authors.