At the age of 12 Dante was betrothed to Gemma Donati whom he later married.

It is said that Dante’s early poems were set to music.

Dante’s first book was La Vita Nuova (‘The New Life’, written between 1292 and 1294) and tells the story of his love for Beatrice. It was the direct outcome of his friendship with Guido Cavalcanti his great friend and fellow poet.   

Dante played an important role in the public life of his native city of Florence attaining the prestigious office of Prior in 1300.

Dante’s Divine Comedy was the first masterpiece of world literature written in a modern European vernacular.

In Dante’s day, Comedy was a story with a happy ending and did not imply humorous content

Giovanni Boccaccio (1312-1375) was the first biographer of Dante and it was he who added the word ‘divina’ to Dante’s most famous work the Commedia.

Leonardo Bruni the fifteenth-century biographer of Dante says that the poet drew excellently and there is an allusion to this skill in La Vita Nuova.

Beatrice is mentioned by name 63 times in the Divine Comedy.

Dante in his Commedia appears to be the first to offer a summary account of the river Arno’s shifting course.