Who they were
Dante was a Florentine poet, the author of the Divine Comedy, and is often called the father of the Italian language.
What they did
Active in the turbulent politics of Florence, Dante was exiled in 1302 and never returned to the city. In exile he wrote the Divine Comedy, an epic journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise guided by Virgil and Beatrice, composed in the Tuscan vernacular rather than in Latin.
Legacy
The poem helped make Tuscan the basis of standard Italian and stands as a cornerstone of world literature. Dante is a founding figure of the Italian literary tradition and a bridge from the medieval to the Renaissance world.