fem. proper name, from French Béatrice, from Latin beatrix, fem. of beatricem "who makes happy," from beatus "happy" (see beatitude).
the woman to whom the great Italian poet Dante dedicated most of his poetry and almost all of his life, from his first sight of her at the age of nine ("from that time forward, Love quite governed my soul") through his glorification of her in La divina commedia, completed 40 years later, to his death in 1321.