Italian writers are headed by the three major writers of the Renaissance (Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio). It is difficult to rank other writers, so we can only divide the writers of each period in chronological order as follows :
Medieval religious literature. The main representatives include Santo Fanlo Valley (1182~1226) and Jacobone da Todi (about 1230~1306).
Folk literature. The most famous is "The Fragrant Fresh Rose" by the Sicilian poet Chulo de Alcamo in the second half of the 13th century.
Literati poetry. There is the Tuscan Poetry School, whose main representative is Guitone Daretto, about 1235-1294). The main representative of the gentle new style poetry school is Guido Cavalcanti (about 1255~1300).
Urban literature. The main ones include "The Treasure House" by Brunetto Latini (about 1220 ~ 1294) and the travel notes of Marco Polo.
Renaissance Literature. The representative figure is the great poet Dante (1265-1321, represented by the "Divine Comedy", one of the world's top ten masterpieces). There are also Petrarch (1304-1374) and Boccaccio (1313-1375), whose representative works are "Songbook" and "Decameron" respectively.
Post-Renaissance antiquity. The most important poet is Poliziano (1454～1494). Other poets include Pulci (1432-1484, representative work "Morganti"), Boyardo (1441-1494, representative work "Roland in Love"), Ariosto (1474-1533, representative work "Crazy") Roland"), Machiavelli (1469～1527), Tasso (1544～1595, "Jerusalem Liberated"), Aretino (1492～1556), Marino (1569～1625, poet), Acre Dia et al.
Enlightenment literature. Goldoni (1707~1793, "Comedy of Manners").
During the National Renaissance Movement. Representative writers include Berchet, Porta, Manzoni, Leopardi, etc.
Realism literature. Representative writers Capuana and Verga.
Children’s literature. Representative writers Collodi (1826-1890, "Pinocchio") and De Amicis ("Education of Love").
Modern and contemporary literature. D'Annunzio (1863-1938, aestheticism), hermetic poets (represented by Montale, Ongaretti (1888-1970), Quasimodo), dramatic novel masters Pirandello and Svevo (1861～1928), postwar writers Levi (1902～1975), Pratolini (1913～1991), Vittorini (1908～1966), Calvino, Moravia, Xia Xia et al.