Beowulf is a heroic poem - it tells the deeds of a hero - written in Old English that could date from the 8th century. Originally it did not have a title, but later on it was named after Beowulf, a Scandinavian legendary hero. It is considered the oldest European vernacular epic (vernacular means colloquial and epic is poetry that is about heroes) and one of the most important works in Old English literature.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340/44-1400) is known as the Father of English Literature. He wrote in the English vernacular (colloquial), even though his contemporaries were still writing in Latin, and is one of the most important English poets from the Middle Ages. One of his most well-known works is The Canterbury Tales.
Dante Alighieri (circa 1265-1321) is the author of a true masterwork of the literature of all times: the epic poem The Divine Comedy, an autobiographical work, to a certain extent, written in the vernacular Italian, instead of in Latin or Greek, which were more common at that time. By choosing the vernacular Italian, he was able to share his work with a wider audience.
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) is, together with Dante and Petrarch, one of the fathers of Italian literature. One of his most famous famous works is the Decameron, a book that includes short stories and novels, with actions that took place in the course of ten days - Decameron means "ten days" in Greek. The book was very influential (it influenced The Canterbury Tales, for instance).
Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) was Boccaccio's fellow poet and humanist. He was a priest, but after seeing a woman seemingly named Laura for the first time he abandoned that vocation and devoted most of his career to write poems for her. Petrarch coined the famous (although not true) term or expression "Dark Ages" in reference to the period that preceded the Renaissance (that is, the Middle Ages).
