Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy, Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis"

Durante degli Alighieri, but better known simply as Dante, was born in Florence in about 1265. He grew to be the major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages and wrote perhaps the greatest of literary works in Italian: The Divine Comedy. In Italy, Dante is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta - "the Supreme Poet". Significantly he writes in the vernacular, an amalgam of Tuscan dialect, Latin and other influence and for this he is often cited as the Father of the Italian Language. As well he wr...