le Dante : Dante Alighieri, the illustrious author of

the VUa Nuova and the Divina Corn média, is considered the father of Italian iwetry. He was born at Florence in 1265, and died in 1321.

Pétrarque : Francesco Petrarca, an Italian poet, historian. and scholar, born at Arezzo in 1304, died in 1374. His sonnets in praise of Laura de Noves, which he composed near tne fountain of Vaucluse, are especially famous.

30. Boccace(Boccaccio): thefaraous author of the Z)e<:aw6r<m,

a collection of 100 taies ranging from the deepest pathos to the grcatest licentiousness (1313-1375).

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18. 7. Virgile (70-19 b.c.): the greatest epic, pastoral, and

didactic poet of ancient Rome.

Homère : supposed to hâve lived between 950 and 850 B.c., and to be tlie author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.