[dan-tee, dahn-tey; It. dahn-te] 
(Dante Alighieri ), 1265–1321, Italian poet: author of the Divine Comedy. |
| Dan·te A·li·ghie·ri (dän'tā ä'lē-gyě'rē) Italian poet whose masterpiece, The Divine Comedy (completed 1321), details his visionary progress through Hell and Purgatory, escorted by Virgil, and through Heaven, guided by his lifelong idealized love, Beatrice. Dan'te·an adj. & n., Dan·tesque' (dän-těsk') adj. |
An Italian poet of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; his full name was Dante Alighieri. Dante is remembered for his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, an epic about hell, purgatory, and heaven. The Divine Comedy was written as a memorial to Beatrice, a woman whom Dante loved and who died at an early age.