We come here to the first really learned layman of the Middle Ages in Western Europe, and the first great vernacular poet of the later medieval centuries. The Troubadours, the Trouvères and the Minnesänger were now definitely on the downward slope. Moreover, Dante is the greatest poet of the whole Middle Ages, more unrivalled there in his superiority than Homer in antiquity, or Shakespeare in modern times. And finally, even though he had written nothing, his life itself is full of dramatic interest.

He was born in 1265, the year of the battle of Evesham, epoch-making for England. Then, in 1266, came the battle of Benevento, equally fateful for Italy. The mid-point of his life, reckoning by the Psalmist's computation of three score and ten years, was the equally epoch-making Jubilee year 1300. His home was in Florence, the most civilized town in the Western World, at a moment when Italian city life was perhaps at its highest ferment. Individual effort was still strong, and Florence was one of the city republics still unsubdued by the rising tide of despotism.

This later thirteenth century was the climax of several movements, especially in Italy. In religion, Europe had seen the fermentation of the year 1000. A century and a half later came St Bernard; and, a century and a half further on, in 1300, the Franciscans and Dominicans had come and had already passed their meridian. On the other hand, there was great activity of heresies and freethought.