Dante is exiled from Florence

On this day, poet and politician Dante Alighieri is exiled from Florence, where he served as one of six priors governing the city. Dante's political activities, including the banishing of several rivals, led to his own banishment, and he wrote his masterpiece, 'The Divine Comedy', as a virtual wanderer, seeking protection for his family in town after town. Although Dante called the work simply 'Comedy', the work became enormously popular, and a deluxe version published in 1555 in Venice bore the title 'The Divine Comedy'. Dante died of malaria in Ravenna in 1321.