Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy (1320) is a narrative poem by Dante Alighieri. Begun in 1308 while Dante was exiled from his native Florence, The Divine Comedy—a long poem divided into three books of 33 cantos each—presents the author’s spiritual journey from sinfulness and despair to salvation and self-understanding. Written in the Tuscan vernacular, the poem was influential in establishing a standardized Italian language. In the first book, Inferno, Dante is led by the Roman poet Virgil into Hell. There, he comes to terms with his own sinfulness while observing the horrors and tortures suffered by those condemned to eternity in its circles. Along the way, Dante encounters historical figures, acquaintances, and other individuals whose violence, fraud, treachery, and betrayal led their spirits to terrible suffering. This technique, which incorporates dialogue with detailed description, is used throughout The Divine Comedy to provide context on historical, theological, and political subjects while simultaneously situating the poet as narrator and interlocutor in his own work. In this way, the physical and spiritual journey portrayed in the poem becomes a journey for Dante himself, a way of transcending the despair he describes at its beginning. In Purgatorio, Dante follows Virgil on an ascent of the Mountain of Purgatory, where he encounters the souls of sinners who must atone for their actions in life before entering Heaven. Leaving Virgil behind, Dante, in Paradiso, follows a divine Beatrice through the celestial spheres of Heaven. As he approaches God and his own salvation, changed by a newfound sense of “the Love which moves the sun and the other stars,” Dante ascends to the heights of world literature, uniting the created soul and the artist’s creation as no other poet has done before or since. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy is a classic of Italian literature reimagined for modern readers.

A new translation of Dante's Purgatorio that celebrates the human elements of the second part of The Divine Comedy. This is a bilingual edition with an illuminating introduction from the translator. The Purgatorio, the middle section of Dante's great poem about losing, and subsequently finding, one's way in the middle of one's life is, unsurprisingly, the beating heart of the Divine Comedy, as this powerful and lucid new translation by the poet D. M. Black makes wonderfully clear. After days spent plumbing the depths of hell, the pilgrim staggers back to the clear light of day in a state of shock, the sense of pervasive dread and deep bewilderment with which he began his pilgrimage as intensified as alleviated by his terminal vision of evil. The slow and initially arduous climb up the mount of Purgatory that ensues, guided as always by Virgil, his poetic model and mentor, is simultaneously both a reckoning with human limits and a rediscovery of human potential in the light of divine promise. Dante's Purgatorio, which has been an inspiration to poets as different as Shelley and T. S. Eliot, is a book full of human stories, of philosophical inquiry, that is also a tale of individual reintegration and healing. Black, a distinguished psychoanalyst as well as a poet, provides notes to the poem and an introduction and commentary to this masterpiece by Dante from a contemporary point of view in this bilingual edition. 2021 is the 700th Anniversary of Dante's death.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.