Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri is the author of, among other works, the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso, together known as the Divine Comedy. In the 19th century, Italian professor Lorenzo Da Ponte became the first on America to lecture on the works; today, all Columbia College students read at least the Inferno in Lit Hum.
Dante had some mild problems with the Church, but abandon hope, all ye who enter into a teleological argument that this represented some kind of early Protestantism (ye can only get away with this while discussing Augustine). Oh, and he championed the Italian vulgate over Latin, which was far more helpful to 13th century courtesans than to students reading everything in English translation anyway.
700 years after his death, Dante's books continue to have a major influence on modern culture, with the Inferno video game slated for release in 2009.
