Which writer first used the adjective "Divina" for Dante's poem?

Giovanni Boccaccio was the first known writer to use “Divina” for Dante's poem.

Boccaccio used the adjective in his biographical work Trattatello in laude di Dante, written between 1351 and 1355. He likely intended “divine” to praise the poem's lofty style, profound subject matter, and vision of the Christian afterlife. Dante himself generally called the work Comedia or Comedìa, not Divina Commedia.

This history creates a frequent quiz trap. Lodovico Dolce was not the first writer to apply the adjective. He was the editor responsible for the first edition whose title explicitly presented the work as La Divina Comedia, published in Venice in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari. That title helped make the modern name standard.

Petrarch and Geoffrey Chaucer were important near-contemporary or later literary figures, but neither is credited with originating the adjective. Boccaccio, a major admirer and early commentator on Dante, played a central role in shaping the poet's posthumous reputation.