Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Italy's greatest poet, was born in Florence and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. His life was divided between political duties and poetry, the most of famous of which was inspired by his meeting with Bice Portinari, whom he called Beatrice, including the Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy.

Virginia Jewiss (translator/introducer) is a Dante scholar and a translator with a Ph.D. in Italian literature from Yale, where she taught for many years before joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins. Her translations include works by Luigi Pirandello, Roberto Saviano, Melania Mazzucco, Paolo Sorrentino, and Matteo Garrone. She lives in Rome and Washington, DC.