Dante shown holding a copy of theDivine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city ofFlorence, with the spheres of Heaven above, inDomenico di Michelino's 1465 fresco
The poem explores the condition of the soul following death and portrays a vision of divine justice, in which individuals receive appropriate punishment or reward based on their actions.[3] It describes Dante's travels throughHell,Purgatory, andHeaven.Allegorically, the poem represents the soul's journey towardsGod, beginning with the recognition and rejection of sin (Inferno), followed by the penitent Christian life (Purgatorio), which is then followed by the soul's ascent to God (Paradiso). Dante draws on medieval Catholic theology and philosophy, especiallyThomistic philosophy derived from theSumma Theologica ofThomas Aquinas.
The work was originally simply titledComedìa (pronounced[komeˈdiːa],Tuscan for "Comedy") – so also in the first printed edition, published in 1472 – later adjusted to the modern ItalianCommedia. The earliest known use of the adjectiveDivina appears inGiovanni Boccaccio's[5] biographical workTrattatello in laude di Dante ("Treatise in Praise of Dante"),[6] which was written between 1351 and 1355[7] – the adjective likely referring to the poem's profound subject matter and elevated style. The first edition to name the poemDivina Comedia in the title was that of the VenetianhumanistLodovico Dolce,[8] published in 1555 byGabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.
Dante gazes at Mount Purgatory in an allegorical portrait byAgnolo Bronzino, paintedc. 1530
TheDivine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into threecantiche (singularcantica) –Inferno (Hell),Purgatorio (Purgatory), andParadiso (Paradise) – each consisting of 33cantos (Italian pluralcanti). An initial canto, serving as an introduction to the poem and generally considered to be part of the firstcantica, brings the total number of cantos to 100. It is generally accepted, however, that the first two cantos serve as a unitary prologue to the entire epic, and that the opening two cantos of eachcantica serve as prologues to each of the threecantiche.[9][10][11]
The number three is prominent in the work, represented in part by the number ofcantiche and their lengths. Additionally, the verse scheme used,terza rima, ishendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables), with the lines composingtercets according to therhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC DED...[12] The total number of syllables in each tercet is thus 33, the same as the number of cantos in eachcantica.
Written in the first person, the poem tells of Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting fromthe night beforeGood Friday to the Wednesday afterEaster in the spring of 1300. The Roman poetVirgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory;Beatrice, Dante's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven.[13] Beatrice was a Florentine woman he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionablecourtly love tradition, which is highlighted in Dante's earlier workLa Vita Nuova.[14] The Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux guides Dante through the last three cantos.[15]
The structure of the three realms follows a commonnumerical pattern of 9 plus 1, for a total of 10. There are nine circles of the Inferno, followed by Lucifer contained at its bottom; nine rings of Mount Purgatory, followed by theGarden of Eden crowning its summit; and the nine celestial bodies of Paradiso, followed by theEmpyrean containing the very essence of God. Within each group of nine, seven elements correspond to a specific moral scheme, subdivided into three subcategories, while two others of greater particularity are added to total nine. For example, theseven deadly sins that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the late repentant and theexcommunicated. The core seven sins within Purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love (Lust,Gluttony,Greed), deficient love (Sloth), and malicious love (Wrath,Envy,Pride).[16]
In central Italy's political struggle betweenGuelphs and Ghibellines, Dante was part of the Guelphs, who in general favoured thepapacy over theHoly Roman Emperor. Florence's Guelphs split into factions around 1300 – the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. Dante was among the White Guelphs who were exiled in 1302 by the Lord-MayorCante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio, after troops underCharles of Valois entered the city, at the request ofPope Boniface VIII, who supported the Black Guelphs. This exile, which lasted the rest of Dante's life, shows its influence in many parts of theComedy, from prophecies of Dante's exile to Dante's views of politics, to the eternal damnation of some of his opponents.[17]
The last word in each of the threecantiche isstelle ("stars").
The poem begins on thenight before Good Friday in the year 1300, "halfway along our life's path" (Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita). Dante is thirty-five years old, half of the biblical lifespan of seventy (Psalms 89:10, Vulgate), lost in a darkwood (understood as sin),[18][19][20] assailed by beasts (alion, aleopard, and ashe-wolf) he cannot evade and unable to find the "straight way" (diritta via) to salvation (symbolised by the sun behind the mountain). Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a "low place" (basso loco) where the sun is silent ('l sol tace), Dante is at last rescued by Virgil, and the two of them begin their journey to the underworld. Each sin's punishment inInferno is acontrapasso, a symbolic instance ofpoetic justice; for example, in Canto XX,fortune-tellers andsoothsayers must walk with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because that was what they had tried to do in life:
they had their faces twisted toward their haunches and found it necessary to walk backward, because they could not see ahead of them. ... and since he wanted so to see ahead, he looks behind and walks a backward path.[21]
Allegorically, theInferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is, and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious.[22] These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell, outside the city of Dis, for the four sins of indulgence (lust,gluttony,avarice,anger); Circle 7 for the sins of violence against one's neighbor, against oneself, and against God, art, and nature; and Circles 8 and 9 for the sins of fraud and treachery. Added to these are two dissimilar, spiritual categories: Limbo, in Circle 1, contains thevirtuous pagans who were not sinful but were ignorant of Christ, and Circle 6 contains the heretics who contradicted the doctrine and confused the spirit of Christ.[23]
Dante, accompanied by Virgil, consoles the souls of the envious, from the Canto III ofPurgatorio
Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain ofPurgatory on the far side of the world. The Mountain is on an island, the only land in theSouthern Hemisphere, created by the displacement of rock which resulted whenSatan's fall created Hell[24] (which Dante portrays as existing underneathJerusalem[25]). The mountain has seven terraces, corresponding to theseven deadly sins or "seven roots of sinfulness".[26] The classification of sin here is more psychological than that of theInferno, being based on motives, rather than actions. It is also drawn primarily from Christian theology, rather than from classical sources.[27] However, Dante's illustrative examples of sin and virtue draw on classical sources as well as on the Bible and on contemporary events.
Love, a theme throughout theDivine Comedy, is particularly important for the framing of sin on the Mountain of Purgatory. While the love that flows from God is pure, it can become sinful as it flows through humanity. Humans can sin by using love towards improper or malicious ends (Wrath,Envy,Pride), or using it to proper ends but with love that is either not strong enough (Sloth) or love that is too strong (Lust,Gluttony,Greed). Below the seven purges of the soul is the Ante-Purgatory, containing the Excommunicated from the church and the Late repentant who died, often violently, before receiving rites. Thus the total comes to nine, with the addition of the Garden of Eden at the summit, equaling ten.[28]
Allegorically, thePurgatorio represents the Christian life. Christian souls arrive escorted by an angel, singingIn exitu Israel de Aegypto. In hisletter to Cangrande (the authenticity of which is disputed[29]), Dante explains that this reference to Israel leaving Egypt refers both to theredemption ofChrist and to "the conversion of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace."[30] Appropriately, therefore, it isEaster Sunday when Dante and Virgil arrive.
ThePurgatorio demonstrates the medieval knowledge of aspherical Earth. During the poem, Dante discusses the different stars visible in theSouthern Hemisphere, the altered position of the Sun, and the varioustime zones of the Earth. At this stage it is, Dante says, sunset at Jerusalem, midnight on the RiverGanges, and sunrise in Purgatory.
After an initial ascension, Beatrice guides Dante through the ninecelestial spheres ofHeaven. These are concentric and spherical, as inAristotelian andPtolemaic cosmology. While the structures of theInferno andPurgatorio were based on different classifications of sin, the structure of theParadiso is based on thefour cardinal virtues and thethree theological virtues.
The seven lowest spheres of Heaven deal solely with the cardinal virtues ofPrudence,Fortitude,Justice andTemperance. The first three spheres involve a deficiency of one of the cardinal virtues – theMoon, containing the inconstant, whose vows to God waned as the moon and thus lack fortitude;Mercury, containing the ambitious, who were virtuous for glory and thus lacked justice; andVenus, containing the lovers, whose love was directed towards another than God and thus lacked temperance. The final four incidentally are positive examples of the cardinal virtues, all led on by theSun, containing the prudent, whose wisdom lighted the way for the other virtues, to which the others are bound (constituting a category on its own).Mars contains the men of fortitude who died in the cause of Christianity;Jupiter contains the kings of justice; andSaturn contains the temperate, the monks. The seven subdivided into three are raised further by two more categories: the eighth sphere of the fixed stars that contain those who achieved the theological virtues offaith,hope, andlove, and represent theChurch Triumphant – the total perfection of humanity, cleansed of all the sins and carrying all the virtues of heaven; and the ninth circle, orPrimum Mobile (corresponding to the geocentricism of medieval astronomy), which contains the angels, creatures never poisoned by original sin. Topping them all is theEmpyrean, which contains the essence of God, completing the nine-fold division to ten.
Dante meets and converses with several great saints of the Church, includingThomas Aquinas,Bonaventure,Saint Peter, andSt. John. Near the end, Beatrice departs and Bernard of Clairvaux takes over as the guide.[31] TheParadiso is more theological in nature than theInferno and thePurgatorio. However, Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is merely the one his human eyes permit him to see, and thus Dante's personal vision.
TheDivine Comedy finishes with Dante seeing theTriune God. In a flash of understanding that he cannot express, Dante finally understands the mystery ofChrist's divinity and humanity, and his soul becomes aligned with God's love:[32]
But already my desire and my will were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed, by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars.[33]
According to the Italian Dante Society, nooriginal manuscript written by Dante has survived, although there are many manuscript copies from the 14th and 15th centuries – some 800 are listed on their site.[34]
The first translation of theComedy into another vernacular was the prose translation intoCastilian completed byEnrique de Villena in 1428. The first vernacular verse translation was that ofAndreu Febrer intoCatalan in 1429.[3]
Title page of the first printed edition (Foligno, 11 April 1472)First edition to name the poemDivina Comedia, 1555Illustration ofLucifer in the first fully illustrated print edition. Woodcut forInferno, canto 34. Pietro di Piasi, Venice, 1491.
The first printed edition was published inFoligno, Italy, by Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini daTrevi on11 April 1472.[36] Of the 300 copies printed, fourteen still survive. The original printing press is on display in theOratorio della Nunziatella in Foligno.
Early printed editions
Date
Title
Place
Publisher
Notes
1472
La Comedia di Dante Alleghieri
Foligno
Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi
TheDivine Comedy can be described simply as anallegory: each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternative meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see theLetter toCangrande)[37] he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory: the historical, the moral, the literal, and theanagogical (compare to thefour senses of Scripture).
The structure of the poem is also quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns distributed throughout the work, particularly threes and nines. The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations ofFlorentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante's use of real characters, according toDorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of theInferno, allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety."[38]
Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" was added later, in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy").[39] Low poems had happy endings and were written in everyday language, whereas High poems treated more serious matters and were written in an elevated style. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of humanity, in the low and "vulgar" Italian language and not the Latin one might expect for such a serious topic.Boccaccio's account that an early version of the poem was begun by Dante inLatin is still controversial.[40][41]
Although theDivine Comedy is primarily a religious poem, discussing sin, virtue, and theology, Dante also discusses several elements of thescience of his day (this mixture of science with poetry has received both praise and criticism over the centuries).[42] ThePurgatorio repeatedly refers to the implications of aspherical Earth, such as the different stars visible in theSouthern Hemisphere, the altered position of thesun, and the varioustime zones of the Earth. For example, at sunset in Purgatory it is midnight at theEbro, dawn in Jerusalem, and noon on theRiver Ganges:[43]
Just as, there where its Maker shed His blood, the sun shed its first rays, and Ebro lay beneath high Libra, and the ninth hour's rays
were scorching Ganges' waves; so here, the sun stood at the point of day's departure when God's angel – happy – showed himself to us.[44]
Dante travels through the centre of the Earth in theInferno, and comments on the resulting change in the direction ofgravity in Canto XXXIV (lines 76–120). A little earlier (XXXIII, 102–105), he queries the existence of wind in the frozen inner circle of hell, since it has no temperature differentials.[45]
Inevitably, given its setting, theParadiso discussesastronomy extensively, but in thePtolemaic sense. TheParadiso also discusses the importance of theexperimental method in science, with a detailed example in lines 94–105 of Canto II:
Yet an experiment, were you to try it,
could free you from your cavil and the source
of your arts' course springs from experiment.
Taking three mirrors, place a pair of them
at equal distance from you; set the third
midway between those two, but farther back.
Then, turning toward them, at your back have placed
A briefer example occurs in Canto XV of thePurgatorio (lines 16–21), where Dante points out that both theory and experiment confirm that theangle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Other references to science in theParadiso include descriptions ofclockwork in Canto XXIV (lines 13–18), andThales' theorem about triangles in Canto XIII (lines 101–102).
Galileo Galilei is known to have lectured on theInferno, and it has been suggested that the poem may have influenced some of Galileo's own ideas regarding mechanics.[47]
Without access to the works ofHomer, Dante used Virgil,Lucan,Ovid, andStatius as the models for the style, history, and mythology of theComedy.[48] This is most obvious in the case of Virgil, who appears as a mentor character throughout the first two canticles and who has his epic, theAeneid, praised with language Dante reserves elsewhere for Scripture.[49] Ovid is given less explicit praise in the poem, but besides Virgil, Dante uses Ovid as a source more than any other poet, mostly through metaphors and fantastical episodes based on those in theMetamorphoses.[50] Less influential than either of the two are Statius and Lucan, the latter of whom has only been given proper recognition as a source in theDivine Comedy in the twentieth century.[51]
Besides Dante's fellow poets, the classical figure that most influenced theComedy isAristotle. Dante built up the philosophy of theComedy with the works of Aristotle as a foundation, just as the scholastics used Aristotle as the basis for their thinking. Dante knew Aristotle directly from Latin translations of his works and indirectly from quotations in the works ofAlbertus Magnus.[52] Dante even acknowledges Aristotle's influence explicitly in the poem, specifically when Virgil justifies the Inferno's structure by citing theNicomachean Ethics.[53] In the same canto, Virgil draws onCicero'sDe Officiis to explain why sins of the intellect are worse than sins of violence, a key point that would be explored from canto XVIII to the end of theInferno.[54]
TheDivine Comedy's language is often derived from the phraseology of theVulgate. This was the only translation of the Bible Dante had access to, as it was one the vast majority ofscribes were willing to copy during the Middle Ages. This includes five hundred or so direct quotes and references Dante derives from the Bible (or his memory of it). Dante also treats the Bible as a final authority on any matter, including on subjects scripture only approaches allegorically.[55]
TheDivine Comedy is also a product ofScholasticism, especially as expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas.[56][57] This influence is most pronounced in theParadiso, where the text's portrayals of God, the beatific vision, andsubstantial forms all align with scholastic doctrine.[58] It is also in theParadiso that Aquinas and fellow scholastic St. Bonaventure appear as characters, introducing Dante to all of Heaven's wisest souls. Consequently, theDivine Comedy has been called "theSumma in verse".[59] Despite all this, there are issues on which Dante diverges from the scholastic doctrine, such as in his unbridled praise for poetry.[60]
TheApocalypse of Peter is one of the earliest examples of a Christian-Jewishkatabasis, a genre of explicit depictions of heaven and hell. Later works inspired by it include theApocalypse of Thomas in the 2nd–4th century, and more importantly, theApocalypse of Paul in the 4th century. Despite a lack of "official" approval, the Apocalypse of Paul would go on to be popular for centuries, possibly due to its popularity among the medieval monks that copied and preserved manuscripts in the turbulent centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. TheDivine Comedy belongs to the same genre[61] and was influenced by the Apocalypse of Paul.[62][63]
Dante lived in a Europe of substantial literary and philosophical contact with the Muslim world, encouraged by such factors asAverroism ("Averrois, che'l gran comento feo" Commedia, Inferno, IV, 144, meaning "Averrois, who wrote the great comment") and the patronage ofAlfonso X of Castile. Of the twelve wise men Dante meets in Canto X of theParadiso,Thomas Aquinas and, even more so,Siger of Brabant were strongly influenced by Arabic commentators onAristotle.[64] MedievalChristian mysticism also shared theNeoplatonic influence ofSufis such asIbn Arabi. PhilosopherFrederick Copleston argued in 1950 that Dante's respectful treatment ofAverroes,Avicenna, and Siger of Brabant indicates his acknowledgement of a "considerable debt" to Islamic philosophy.[64]
In 1919,Miguel Asín Palacios, a Spanish scholar and a Catholic priest, publishedLa Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia (IslamicEschatology in the Divine Comedy), an account of parallels betweenearly Islamic philosophy and theDivine Comedy. Palacios argued that Dante derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter from the spiritual writings ofIbn Arabi and from theIsra and Mi'raj, or night journey ofMuhammad to heaven. The latter is described in theahadith and theKitab al Miraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before[65] asLiber scalae Machometi, "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder"), and has significant similarities to theParadiso, such as asevenfold division of Paradise, although this is not unique to theKitab al Miraj or Islamic cosmology.[66]
Many scholars have not been satisfied that Dante was influenced by theKitab al Miraj. The 20th-century OrientalistFrancesco Gabrieli expressed skepticism regarding the claimed similarities, and the lack of evidence of a vehicle through which it could have been transmitted to Dante.[67] The Italian philologistMaria Corti pointed out that, during his stay at the court of Alfonso X, Dante's mentorBrunetto Latini met Bonaventura de Siena, a Tuscan who had translated theKitab al Miraj from Arabic into Latin. Corti speculates that Brunetto may have provided a copy of that work to Dante.[68]René Guénon, a Sufi convert and scholar of Ibn Arabi, confirms inThe Esoterism of Dante the theory of the Islamic influence (direct or indirect) on Dante.[69] Palacios' theory that Dante was influenced by Ibn Arabi was satirised by the Turkish academicOrhan Pamuk in his novelThe Black Book.[70]
A detail from one ofSandro Botticelli's illustrations forInferno, Canto XVIII, 1480s. Silverpoint on parchment, completed in pen and ink.
Critical reception of theDivine Comedy has varied considerably prior to its universal renown today. Although recognised as amasterpiece in the centuries immediately following its publication,[73] the work largely fell into obscurity during theEnlightenment, with some notable exceptions:Vittorio Alfieri;Antoine de Rivarol, who translated theInferno into French; andGiambattista Vico, who in theScienza nuova and in theGiudizio su Dante inaugurated what would later become the romantic reappraisal of Dante, juxtaposing him to Homer.[74]
TheComedy was "rediscovered" in the English-speaking world byWilliam Blake – who illustrated several passages of the epic – and theRomantic writers of the 19th century. Later authors such asT. S. Eliot,Ezra Pound,Samuel Beckett,C. S. Lewis andJames Joyce have drawn on it for inspiration. The poetHenry Wadsworth Longfellow was its first American translator,[75] and modern poets, includingSeamus Heaney,[76]Robert Pinsky,John Ciardi,W. S. Merwin, andStanley Lombardo, have also produced translations of all or parts of the book. In Russia, beyondAlexander Pushkin's translation of a few tercets,[77]Osip Mandelstam's late poetry has been said to bear the mark of a "tormented meditation" on theComedy.[78] In 1934, Mandelstam gave a modern reading of the poem in his labyrinthine "Conversation on Dante".[79]Erich Auerbach said Dante was the first writer to depict human beings as the products of a specific time, place and circumstance, as opposed to mythic archetypes or a collection of vices and virtues, concluding that this, along with the fully imagined world of theDivine Comedy, suggests that theDivine Comedy inauguratedliterary realism and self-portraiture in modern fiction.[80] In T. S. Eliot's estimation, "Dante andShakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third."[81] ForJorge Luis Borges theDivine Comedy was "the best book literature has achieved".[82]
TheComedy is considered one originator of theencyclopedic novel across multiple formulations of the concept.[83] Mendelson's coinage of the term contrasted Dante's initial ostracism with his later importance to Italian national identity, comparing this to the culture-building function of later encyclopedic authors like Shakespeare,Cervantes, orMelville.[84]
TheDivine Comedy has been translated into English more times than any other language, and new English translations of theDivine Comedy continue to be published regularly. Notable English translations of the complete poem include the following.[85]
TheDivine Comedy has been a source of inspiration for countless artists for almost seven centuries. There are many references to Dante's work inliterature. Inmusic,Franz Liszt was one of many composers to writeworks based on theDivine Comedy. In contemporary music,Hozier's 2023 albumUnreal Unearth also draws inspiration from Dante's epic.[88] Insculpture, the work ofAuguste Rodin includes themes from Dante. SculptorTimothy Schmalz created a series of 100 sculptures, one for each canto, on the 700th anniversary of the date of Dante's death,[89] and manyvisual artists have illustrated Dante's work, as shown by the examples above. There have also been many references to theDivine Comedy incinema,television,comics and video games.
^For example,Encyclopedia Americana, 2006, Vol. 30. p. 605: "the greatest single work of Italian literature"; John Julius Norwich,The Italians: History, Art, and the Genius of a People, Abrams, 1983, p. 27: "his tremendous poem, still after six and a half centuries the supreme work of Italian literature, remains – after the legacy of ancient Rome – the grandest single element in the Italian heritage"; and Robert Reinhold Ergang,The Renaissance, Van Nostrand, 1967, p. 103: "Many literary historians regard the Divine Comedy as the greatest work of Italian literature. In world literature it is ranked as an epic poem of the highest order."
^SeeLepschy, Laura; Lepschy, Giulio (1977).The Italian Language Today. Or any other history ofItalian language.
^abVallone, Aldo. "Commedia" (trans. Robin Treasure). In: Lansing (ed.),The Dante Encyclopedia, pp. 181–184.
^Emmerson, Richard K., and Ronald B. Herzman. "Revelation". In: Lansing (ed.),The Dante Encyclopedia, pp. 742–744.
^"The Letter to Can Grande," inLiterary Criticism of Dante Alighieri, translated and edited by Robert S. Haller (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973), p. 99.
^Botterill, Steven (1990). "Life after Beatrice: Bernard of Clairvaux in Paradiso XXXI".Texas Studies in Literature and Language.32 (1): 123.
^Boccaccio also quotes the initial triplet:"Ultima regna canam fluvido contermina mundo, / spiritibus quae lata patent, quae premia solvunt / pro meritis cuicumque suis". For translation and more, see Guyda Armstrong,Review of Giovanni Boccaccio. Life of Dante. J. G. Nichols, trans. London: Hesperus Press, 2002.
^Peri, Hiram (1955). "The Original Plan of the Divine Comedy".Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.18 (3/4):189–210.doi:10.2307/750179.JSTOR750179.S2CID244492114.
^Michael Caesar,Dante: The Critical Heritage, Routledge, 1995, pp. 288, 383, 412, 631.
^Commentary to Paradiso, IV.90 by Robert and Jean Hollander,The Inferno: A Verse Translation (New York: Anchor Books, 2002), as found on Dante Lab,http://dantelab.dartmouth.eduArchived 14 June 2021 at theWayback Machine
^Alighieri, Dante (1904). Philip Henry Wicksteed, Herman Oelsner (ed.).The Paradiso of Dante Alighieri (fifth ed.). J.M. Dent and Company. p. 126.
^Commentary to Paradiso, I.1–12 and I.96–112 by John S. Carroll,Paradiso: A Verse Translation (New York: Anchor Books, 2007), as found on Dante Lab,http://dantelab.dartmouth.eduArchived 14 June 2021 at theWayback Machine.
^Fordham College Monthly. Vol. XL. Fordham University. December 1921. p. 76.Archived from the original on 4 August 2023. Retrieved12 December 2015.
^Commentary to Paradiso, XXXII.31–32 by Robert and Jean Hollander,Paradiso: A Verse Translation (New York: Anchor Books, 2007), as found on Dante Lab,http://dantelab.dartmouth.eduArchived 14 June 2021 at theWayback Machine.
^Maurer, Christian (1965) [1964].Schneemelcher, Wilhelm (ed.).New Testament Apocrypha, Volume Two: Writings Relating to the Apostles; Apocalypses and Related Subjects. Translated byWilson, Robert McLachlan. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. pp. 663–668.
^Silverstein, Theodore (1935).Visio Sancti Pauli: The History of the Apocalypse in Latin, Together with Nine Texts. London: Christophers. pp. 3–5, 91.
^Maier, Harry O. (2007). "Review of Die Visio Pauli: Wege und Wandlungen einer orientalischen Apokryphe im lateinischen Mittelalter, unter Einschluß der alttschechischen und deutschsprachigen Textzeugen".Speculum (in German).82 (4):1000–1002.doi:10.1017/S0038713400011647.JSTOR20466112.
^abCopleston, Frederick (1950).A History of Philosophy. Vol. 2. London: Continuum. p. 200.
^I. Heullant-Donat and M.-A. Polo de Beaulieu, "Histoire d'une traduction," inLe Livre de l'échelle de Mahomet, Latin edition and French translation by Gisèle Besson and Michèle Brossard-Dandré, CollectionLettres Gothiques, Le Livre de Poche, 1991, p. 22 with note 37.
^Uždavinys, Algis (2011).Ascent to Heaven in Islamic and Jewish Mysticism. Matheson Trust. pp. 23,92–93, 117.ISBN978-1-908092-02-1.
^Almond, Ian (2002). "The Honesty of the Perplexed: Derrida and Ibn 'Arabi on "Bewilderment"".Journal of the American Academy of Religion.70 (3):515–537.doi:10.1093/jaar/70.3.515.JSTOR1466522.
^Chaucer wrote in theMonk's Tale, "Redeth the grete poete of Ytaille /That highte Dant, for he kan al devyse /Fro point to point; nat o word wol he faille".
^Irmscher, Christoph.Longfellow Redux. University of Illinois, 2008: 11.ISBN978-0-252-03063-5.
^Seamus Heaney, "Envies and Identifications: Dante and the Modern Poet." The Poet's Dante: Twentieth-Century Responses. Ed. Peter S. Hawkins andRachel Jacoff. New York: Farrar, 2001. pp. 239–258.
^Isenberg, Charles. "Dante in Russia." In: Lansing (ed.),The Dante Encyclopedia, pp. 276–278.
^T. S. Eliot (1950) "Dante."Selected Essays, pp. 199–237. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
^Jorge Luis Borges, "Selected Non-Fictions". Ed. Eliot Weinberger. Trans.Esther Allen et al. New York: Viking, 1999. p. 303.
^Clark, Hillary A. "Encyclopedic Discourse".Sub-stance 21.1 (1992): 95–110.
^Mendelson, Edward (December 1976). "Encyclopedic Narrative: From Dante to Pynchon".MLN.91 (6):1267–1275.doi:10.2307/2907136.JSTOR2907136.
^A comprehensive listing and criticism, covering the period 1782–1966, of English translations of at least one of the threecantiche is given by Gilbert F. Cunningham,The Divine Comedy in English: A Critical Bibliography, 2 vols. (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1965–1967), esp. vol. 2, pp. 5–9.
^Dante Alighieri. Bergin, Thomas G. trans.Divine Comedy. Grossman Publishers; 1st edition (1969) .
Princeton Dante Project: website that offers the complete text of theDivine Comedy (and Dante's other works) in Italian and English along with audio accompaniment in both languages. Includes historical and interpretive annotation.
Dante Dartmouth Project: full text of more than 70 Italian, Latin, and English commentaries on theCommedia, ranging in date from 1322 (Iacopo Alighieri) to the 2000s (Robert Hollander)
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