Dante Alighieri was an Italian writer, poet, and philosopher. His work Divine Comedy is widely regarded as the greatest literary work ever produced in the Italian language and the most prominent poem of the Middle Ages. Often referred to as the father of the Italian language, Dante Alighieri played a crucial role in establishing the Italian literature.
Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso, better known as Ovid, lived during the rule of Augustus. He is held at par with Latin legends Virgil and Horace. Remembered for his mythological masterpiece the Metamorphoses, a 15-book Latin poem, he spent his final years exiled in a city on the Black Sea.
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian poet, writer, and correspondent of Petrarch. An important Renaissance humanist, Boccaccio was also one of the most prominent personalities of 14th-century European literature. A versatile writer, Giovanni Boccaccio is often viewed as the most important European prose writer of his generation. His works influenced popular personalities like Geoffrey Chaucer and Miguel de Cervantes.
![Catullus Catullus](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/catullus-1.jpg)
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian novelist, short story writer, poet, and dramatist. Best remembered for his plays, Pirandello was honored with the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934. An Italian nationalist, Pirandello supported Fascism; he asked the Fascist government to melt down his Nobel Prize medal for the Abyssinia Campaign.
![Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Marinetti](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/filippo-tommaso-marinetti-8131-1.jpg)
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was an Italian poet, art theorist, and editor. He is credited with founding the Futurist movement and is remembered for his work Manifesto of Futurism. In 1918, he founded a political party called Futurist Political Party as an extension of the social and futurist artistic movement. The party merged with the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919.
A significant Venetian figure, Veronica Franco wasn’t an ordinary courtesan but was educated and a talented poet, too. She defended herself successfully against charges of witchcraft. Born to a courtesan, she was married to a doctor briefly and later became a sex worker to sustain herself and her children.
First-century Roman poet Juvenal is remembered for his iconic work Satires. From the sparse information available about him from the accounts of Martial, it is believed Juvenal was banished from emperor Domitian’s court for writing a satire on his administration. He later returned to Rome from his exile in Egypt.
![Gaius Maecenas Gaius Maecenas](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/gaius-maecenas.jpg)
![Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/torquato-tasso-1.jpg)
Torquato Tasso was a 16th-century Italian poet. He is best remembered for his poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered). The son of a prominent poet, Tasso grew up to be a brilliant young man. Even though his father wanted him to become a lawyer, he decided to become a poet and achieved considerable fame. His poems were widely translated.
![Giambattista Basile Giambattista Basile](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/giambattista-basile-1.jpg)
![Kuki Gallmann Kuki Gallmann](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/kuki-gallmann-1.jpg)
Born to Italian writer Cino Boccazzi, Kuki Gallmann later moved to Kenya with her husband and son, both of whom she lost in separate accidents. Taking up Kenyan citizenship, she focused on ecological conservation. He bestselling book I Dreamed Of Africa was later made into a movie.
Ludovico Ariosto was an Italian poet best remembered for authoring the epic poem Orlando Furioso, which describes the adventures of Orlando, Charlemagne, and the Franks. Ariosto is also credited with coining the term humanism, which is among the most commonly used words by modern philosophers.
![Lorenzo Da Ponte Lorenzo Da Ponte](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/lorenzo-da-ponte-40596-1.jpg)
Baroque painter and poet Salvator Rosa was born near Naples, to a land surveyor father, who wanted him to become a priest or a lawyer. However, Rosa deviated to art. Initially devoted to landscapes, he later focused on religious art. He is remembered as a pioneer of the Neapolitan school.
![Marsilio Ficino Marsilio Ficino](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/marsilio-ficino-1.jpg)
![Alessandro Manzoni Alessandro Manzoni](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/alessandro-manzoni-1.jpg)
Alessandro Manzoni was a 19th-century Italian poet, novelist, and philosopher. His novel The Betrothed is generally counted among the masterpieces of world literature. He is credited to have contributed to the stabilization of the modern Italian language. He was politically active and was a member of the Italian Senate. He was a proponent of Liberal Catholicism.
![Vittoria Colonna Vittoria Colonna](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/vittoria-colonna.jpg)
![Maria Valtorta Maria Valtorta](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/maria-valtorta-1.jpg)
Italian author Cesare Pavese is remembered for his themes of gloom and loneliness and for his protagonists who were often loners. His prolonged fight with fascists and the failure of his affair with actor Constance Dowling led him to commit suicide by consuming sleeping pills in a Turin hotel.
![Propertius Propertius](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/propertius.jpg)
![Statius Statius](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/statius.jpg)
![Constanzo Beschi Constanzo Beschi](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/constanzo-beschi-1.jpg)
![Pietro Aretino Pietro Aretino](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/pietro-aretino.jpg)
Pietro Aretino was an Italian author, poet, satirist, and playwright. He wielded influence on contemporary politics and art. An outspoken critic, Aretino was one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. A self-proclaimed sodomite, Pietro Aretino was involved in romantic relationships with men, which was uncommon at that time.
![Giacomo Balla Giacomo Balla](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/giacomo-balla-1.jpg)
Giuseppe Ungaretti was an Italian poet, essayist, journalist, academic, and critic. One of the most important contributors to Italian literature during the 20th century, Ungaretti was honored with the first Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1970. He is credited with popularizing hermetic poetry, a form of difficult and obscure poetry.
![Ennius Ennius](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/ennius-1.jpg)
![Gemma Donati Gemma Donati](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/no-profile-img.jpg)
![Giosuè Carducci Giosuè Carducci](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/giosu-carducci-25715-1.jpg)
Giosuè Carducci was an Italian poet, literary critic, teacher, and writer. Widely regarded as the national poet of modern Italy, Carducci was a very influential figure. He became the first Italian to be honored with the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906. Carducci was also a translator and is responsible for translating some of Heine and Goethe into Italian.
![Pietro Bembo Pietro Bembo](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/pietro-bembo-1.jpg)
Pietro Bembo was an Italian scholar, poet, and literary theorist. He was also a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and a member of the Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military order. He played a key role in the development of the Tuscan dialect as a literary language. As a priest, he promoted the Christian perfection of Renaissance humanism.
![Dino Buzzati Dino Buzzati](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/dino-buzzati.jpg)
Dino Buzzati was an Italian novelist, writer, painter, and poet. He studied law at the University of Milan and embarked on a career as a journalist. He served in Africa, as a journalist, with the Regia Marina, during World War II. He began writing fiction in the 1930s and published several novels, plays, and short stories.
![Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/eugenio-montale-1.jpg)
![Poliziano Poliziano](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/poliziano-1.jpg)
![Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/paul-the-deacon-1.jpg)
![Elsa Morante Elsa Morante](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/elsa-morante-1.jpg)
![Arrigo Boito Arrigo Boito](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/arrigo-boito-1.jpg)
![Ugo Foscolo Ugo Foscolo](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/ugo-foscolo-1.jpg)
![Stesichorus Stesichorus](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/stesichorus-1.jpg)
![Giovanni Papini Giovanni Papini](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/giovanni-papini-1.jpg)
![Tibullus Tibullus](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/tibullus-1.jpg)
![Vittorio Alfieri Vittorio Alfieri](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/vittorio-alfieri-1.jpg)
![Francesco Landini Francesco Landini](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/francesco-landini.jpg)
![Giorgio Bassani Giorgio Bassani](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/giorgio-bassani-1.jpg)
![Edmondo De Amicis Edmondo De Amicis](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/edmondo-de-amicis-1.jpg)
![Guido Cavalcanti Guido Cavalcanti](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/guido-cavalcanti-1.jpg)
![Gabriele Rossetti Gabriele Rossetti](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/gabriele-rossetti-1.jpg)
![Tonino Guerra Tonino Guerra](http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/tonino-guerra-1.jpg)