Before the 14th century, serious literature in Europe was almost exclusively written in Latin. Dante Alighieri changed this forever with 'The Divine Comedy.' By choosing to write his epic poem in the Tuscan dialect (the common language of the people) rather than Latin, Dante established the Italian language as a literary powerhouse. The poem, divided into three parts—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—follows Dante’s journey through the afterlife, guided by the Roman poet Virgil and his idealized love, Beatrice. Dante used the work to comment on the political turmoil of Florence and the religious corruption of his time. His choice of the 'vernacular' allowed his work to reach a much broader audience and influenced other major writers like Chaucer and Boccaccio to write in their native tongues, essentially birthing the modern literary traditions of Europe.