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The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri, c. 1320

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Dante tells of a journey through the three realms of the dead in the spring of 1300. Lost in a dark wood, he is led by the Roman poet Virgil down through Hell, a pit of ordered punishments, and up the mountain of Purgatory. Beatrice then guides him through the spheres of Paradise, and Saint Bernard takes him to the last vision. Each cantica has 33 cantos, and the whole is 14,233 lines of terza rima. The poem reads as the soul's road from sin to repentance to God.

Where it happens

  1. Florence Dante's Florentine dialect formed the base of the poem's Tuscan and later of standard Italian.2
  2. Foligno The first printed edition appeared here on 11 April 1472.1
  3. Konstanz Serravalle made the first complete translation here during the Council of Constance.1
  4. Jerusalem In Purgatorio it is dawn here when it is sunset on the mountain, a use of a spherical Earth.1

Through time

  1. 1265Dante is born, in about May.2
  2. 1300The year of the pilgrim's journey, from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter.1
  3. 1308Dante begins the poem, around this date.1
  4. 1321The poem is finished, around the year of Dante's death.12
  5. 1416Giovanni da Serravalle completes the first full translation, into Latin prose.1
  6. 1472The first printed edition appears at Foligno.1

Who is in it, and behind it

Dante Alighieri author

Italian poet (c. 1265 to 1321) who wrote in the Tuscan vernacular.2

Virgil character

The Roman poet who stands for human reason and guides Dante through Hell and most of Purgatory.1

Beatrice character

Represents divine revelation and guides Dante from the end of Purgatory onward.1

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux character

Represents contemplative mysticism and guides Dante in the last cantos of Paradiso.1

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translator

Made the English translation in the Standard Ebooks edition.3

Giovanni Boccaccio subject

The earliest known user of the adjective Divina for the poem.12

Giovanni da Serravalle translator

Made the first complete translation, into Latin prose, in 1416.1

What it is about

Soul's road to God

Read allegorically, the three parts show the soul rejecting sin, living in penance, and rising to God.1

Punishment fits the deed

Each soul gets a reward or punishment that matches what it did in life.1

Reason, then revelation

Virgil stands for human reason and Beatrice for divine revelation, so Dante's guides change with his stage.1

Vernacular as a literary language

Writing in Tuscan, not Latin, helped establish standard Italian.12

Threes in the form

Three cantiche, 33 cantos each and interlocking three-line rhymes shape the poem.1

In its own words

Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost
Canto I. The poem's famous opening lines. Read on
“Through me the way is to the city dolent; Through me the way is to eternal dole; Through me the way among the people lost
Canto III. The inscription on the gate of Hell. Read on
“There is no greater sorrow Than to be mindful of the happy time In misery, and that thy Teacher knows
Canto V. Francesca on remembering happiness. Read on
Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.
Canto XXXIV. The last line of Inferno. Read on
To run o’er better waters hoists its sail The little vessel of my genius now, That leaves behind itself a sea so cruel; And of that second kingdom will I sing Wherein the human spirit doth purge itself, And to ascend to heaven becometh worthy
Canto I. Purgatorio opens on a lighter sea. Read on
It was the hour when the diurnal heat No more can warm the coldness of the moon, Vanquished by earth, or peradventure Saturn, When geomancers their Fortuna Major See in the orient before the dawn Rise by a path that long remains not dim, There came to me in dreams a stammering woman, Squint in her eyes, and in her feet distorted, With hands dissevered and of sallow hue
Canto XIX. A dream of the Siren in Purgatorio. Read on
As came to Clymene, to be made certain Of that which he had heard against himself, He who makes fathers chary still to children, Even such was I, and such was I perceived By Beatrice and by the holy light That first on my account had changed its place
Canto XVII. Dante learns of his coming exile. Read on
But now was turning my desire and will, Even as a wheel that equally is moved, The Love which moves the sun and the other stars
Canto XXXIII. The final lines of the poem. Read on

The shape of the book

104 chapters, 112,678 words. Point at a bar.

How it came to be here

Dante began the poem around 1308 and finished it about 1321, shortly before his death. He wrote it in Tuscan rather than Latin, which helped fix standard Italian. The first complete translation, into Latin prose, was made by Giovanni da Serravalle in 1416, and the first printed edition appeared at Foligno in 1472. No manuscript in Dante's hand survives, only copies. Boccaccio later added Divina to the title. The site carries Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's English version from the Standard Ebooks edition.

Free to read elsewhere

Sources

  1. Divine Comedy (Wikipedia)
  2. Dante Alighieri (Wikipedia)
  3. The Divine Comedy, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Standard Ebooks

Text: PG 1004, 8800 | translator: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. CC0 (Standard Ebooks).

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