 神曲
全诗共分三部，每部33篇，最前面增加一篇序诗，一共100篇。诗句是三行一段，连锁押韵（aba,bcb,cdc,……），各篇长短大致相等，每部也基本相等。（地狱4720行；炼狱4755行；天堂4758行），每部都以“群星”（stelle）一词结束。
【圣经论虚假的意象】
《启示录》 22：18 我向一切听见这书上预言的作见证，若有人在这预言上加添什么，神必将在这书上的灾祸加在他身上。
《启示录》 22：19 这书上的预言，若有人删去什么，神必从这书上所写的生命树，和圣城，删去他的分。
全诗梗概
阿利盖利·但丁以第一人称记述自己35岁时（人生的中途）误入一座黑暗的森林（象征罪恶），在一座小山脚下，有三只猛兽拦住去路，一只母狼（象征贪欲），一只狮子（象征野心），一只豹（象征逸乐），又一种说法是说它们分别象征教皇、法国国王和佛罗伦萨人。他在呼救时出现了古罗马诗人维吉尔的灵魂，对他说：“你不能战胜这三只野兽，我指示你另一条路径”。带领他穿过地狱、炼狱，然后把他交给当年阿利盖利·但丁单相思暗恋的情人贝亚德的灵魂，带他游历天堂，一直到见到上帝。
在他描述的世界，地狱是一个大漏斗，中心在耶路撒冷，从上到下逐渐缩小，越向下所控制的灵魂罪恶越深重，直到地心，是魔王撒旦掌握漏斗顶端，他们从魔王的尾巴爬过地心，另一面是炼狱。炼狱如同一座高山，在耶路撒冷相对的地球另一面海中，灵魂在这里忏悔涤罪，山分七层象征着七大罪，每上升一层就会消除一种罪过，直到山顶就可以升入天堂。天堂分为九层，越往上的灵魂越高尚，直到越过九重天，才是真正的天堂，圣母和所有得救的灵魂所在，经圣母允许，就能一窥三位一体的上帝。
在经过地狱、炼狱、天堂的一路上，阿利盖利·但丁和所遇到的有名的灵魂交谈，包括历史上好的坏的许多著名人物，他将自己钦佩和厌恶的人物分别纳入各个部位，将教皇甚至他痛恨的一些佛罗伦萨人全打入地狱。有些详细情况圣经中并没有记载，是他自己发明的，但也符合逻辑。其中也包括许多他对神学问题的见解，系统地阐述了基督教对世界的看法。炼狱
经过长期酝酿和构思，但丁开始创作《神曲》。《神曲》写作的准确年月难以确定，根据文学史家们的考证，大约始于1307年前后，《地狱》、《炼狱》大约完成于1313年左右，《天堂》在但丁逝世前不久脱稿，历时10余年。
《神曲》采用中世纪文学特有的幻游形式，但丁以自己为主人公，假想他作为一名活人对冥府——死人的王国进行了一次游历。全诗分《地狱》、《炼狱》、《天堂》三部。
诗中叙述但丁在“人生旅程的中途”，即1300年，35岁时，迷失于一个黑暗的森林。他竭力寻找走出迷津的道路，黎明时分来到一座洒满阳光的小山脚下。这是普照旅途的明灯。他正一步步朝山顶攀登，忽然三只猛兽（分别象征淫欲、强暴、贪婪的豹、狮、狼）迎面扑来。
但丁高声呼救。这时，古罗马诗人维吉尔出现了，他受贝娅特丽丝的嘱托前来帮助但丁走出迷途，并引导他游历地狱和炼狱。
地狱形似一个上宽下窄的漏斗，共9层。第一层是候判所，生于基督之前，未能接受洗礼的古代异教徒，在这里等候上帝的审判。在其余8层，罪人的灵魂按生前所犯的罪孽（贪色、饕餮、贪婪、愤怒、信奉邪教、强暴、欺诈、背叛），分别接受不同的严酷刑罚。
炼狱（又称净界）共7级，加上净界山和地上乐园，共9层。生前犯有罪过，但程度较轻，已经悔悟的灵魂，按人类7大罪过（傲慢、忌妒、忿怒、怠惰、贪财、贪食、贪色），分别在这里修炼洗过，而后一层层升向光明和天堂。在净界山顶的地上乐园，维吉尔隐退，贝娅特丽丝出现。
贝娅特丽丝责备但丁迷误在罪恶的森林，希望他忏悔，并让他观看表示教堂种种腐败的幻景，饮用忘川水，以遗忘过去的过失，获取新生。随后，贝娅特丽丝引导但丁游历天堂九重天。这里是幸福的灵魂的归宿；他们是行善者、虔诚的教士、立功德者、哲学家和神学家、殉教者、正直的君主、修道者、基督和众天使。在九重天之上的天府，但丁得见上帝之面，但上帝的形象如电光之一闪，迅即消失，于是幻象和《神曲》也戛然而止。
《神曲》是一部充满隐喻性、象征性，同时又洋溢着鲜明的现实性、倾向性的作品。但丁借贝娅特丽丝对他的谈话表示，他写作《神曲》的主旨，是“为了对万恶的社会有所裨益”，也就是说，《神曲》虽然采用了中世纪特有的幻游文学的形式，其寓意和象征在解释上常常引发颇多争议，但它的思想内涵则是异常明确的，即映照现实，启迪人心，让世人经历考验，摆脱迷误，臻于善和真，使意大利走出苦难，拨乱反正，寻得政治上、道德上复兴的道路。 但丁生活在社会变革的历史时期，作为一位“有强烈倾向的诗人”，他一心想革新政治，实现他的理想与抱负。但他痛苦地看到，他的故乡佛罗伦萨成了分裂与内讧的受害者，“祸起萧墙，戈操同室”，城市陷于党派的仇恨，虚弱无能，日益堕落：在你所记忆的年月里，你改变了多少次法律、钱币、官吏、风俗，更换过多少次市政府的委员!
而意大利动乱的现实，封建主暴虐无能使生灵涂炭的情景，更令他痛心疾首：
呜呼，奴隶的意大利，痛苦的温床，你是暴风雨中失去舵手的孤舟，你不复是各省的主妇，却沉沦为娼妓!
因此，但丁比任何时候都更加迫切地希望建立中央集权的君主政体，以约束和驾驭互相敌对的城邦和封建诸侯，保障意大利成为一个统一的、富强的国家，“使世纪获得稳固的和平，使雅诺的庙门关闭”。
当时，意大利名义上隶属神圣罗马帝国，但帝国的皇帝通常从德意志诸侯中产生，仅仅在名义上行使对意大利的统治。但丁抨击皇帝鲁道夫一世和阿伯特一世父子只热中于在德国扩充势力，不来意大利行使权力，使意大利实际上陷于政治分裂状态，“帝国的花园荒芜了”。但丁在深刻地描绘了当时的政治和社会现实后，对企图主宰基督教世界的教会，对垄断中世纪全部文化的宗教神学，给予异常严厉的揭露和批判。他进一步发挥在《帝制论》中阐述的政教分离的原则，并针对中世纪神学宣扬的“日月说”，在《神曲》里把自己的政教平等的观点形象地概括为“两个太阳说”：
造福世界的罗马，向来有
两个太阳，分别照明两条路径，
尘世的路径，和上帝的路径。
这个比喻生动地说明，政权和教权是分别照耀尘世生活和精神世界的两个太阳，它们之间应当是独立平等、分工合作的关系，而不是从属、争斗的关系，更不可合而为一。而如今呢？
但丁无限感慨地指出：
一个太阳把另一个熄灭，
宝剑和十字架都拿在一个人的手里。
教权入侵政权的结果，使两者互相制约、监督的职能丧失了，世界由此“遭了殃”，连教会也“跌入泥潭，玷污了自己所承担的责任”。
因此，但丁对教会肆无忌惮地干涉意大利内政，破坏国家的和平与统一的罪恶，对教会僧侣颠倒善恶，犯罪造孽的种种败行劣迹，表示了异常强烈的憎恨。他痛斥教皇、主教、教士“日夜在那里用基督的名义做着买卖”，干着买卖圣职，敲诈勒索、荒淫无度、迫害基督徒等丑恶的行为，“使世界陷入悲惨的境地”；他们沉湎于金钱的淫秽污臭，“到处断绝上帝赐
给人民的面包”，树立了导致人民“走上邪路”的“坏榜样”。但丁指出，背弃《圣经》教义的僧侣，把圣保罗、圣彼得抛到九霄云外，把罗马教廷变为“污血的沟，垃圾的堆”，“圣殿变成了兽窟，法衣也变为装满罪恶面粉的麻袋”。
耐人寻味的是，但丁把贪婪的教皇、主教、教士置于第4层接受惩罚，并把当时还在世的镇压佛罗伦萨共和政权，在意大利制造动乱和分裂，企图篡夺世俗权力的教皇朋尼法斯八世预告打入地狱第8层，头脚倒栽在深穴里，接受火刑。但丁借用中世纪处置政治谋杀犯的酷刑，严厉惩罚朋尼法斯八世，预言式地宣告了正义必将战胜邪恶，教会干涉世俗的局面必将结束的前景。但丁的这种愿望和情感，表达了新兴市民阶级摆脱中世纪教会束缚和宗教神学桎梏的要求。
但丁热情地歌颂现世生活的意义，认为现世生活自有本身的价值。他在《神曲》中强调人赋有“自由意志”，这是“上帝最伟大的主张”，上帝给予人类“最伟大的赠品”。他鼓励世人在现实生活中应该坚定不移地遵循理性：
你随我（按：指象征理性的诗人维吉尔）来，
让人们去议论吧，
要像竖塔一般，
任凭狂风呼啸，
塔顶都永远岿然不动。
诗中热烈歌颂历史上具有伟大理想和坚强意志的英雄豪杰，希望世人以他们为榜样，振奋精神，避开怠惰，战胜一切艰险，去创造自己的命运。在但丁看来，坐在绒垫上或者睡在被子里，是不会成名的；只能是虚度一生。
赞颂理性和自由意志，召唤对现世和斗争的兴趣，追求荣誉的思想，这是但丁作为新时代最初一位诗人的特征之一。这种以人为本，重视现实生活价值的观念，同中世纪一切归于神的思想，同宗教神学宣扬的来世主义，都是针锋相对的。
《神曲》还表露了反对中世纪的蒙昧主义，提倡文化，尊重知识的新思想。但丁称颂人的才能和智慧，对于教会排斥和否定的古典文化，他更是推崇备至。他在诗中奉荷马为“诗人之王”，亚里斯多德是“哲学家的大师”，称维吉尔是“智慧的海洋”。他热情洋溢地讴歌荷马史诗中的英雄奥德修斯在求知欲的推动下，离开家庭，抛弃个人幸福，历尽千难万险，扬帆于天涯海角去探险的事迹，并通过奥德修斯指出：
你们生来不是为了走兽一样生活，
而是为着追求美德和知识。
意大利从中世纪向近代社会过渡的历史时期的社会政治变化和精神道德情状，在《神曲》中也获得了真切、广泛的描绘。难能可贵的是，但丁对新兴市民阶级的贪图私利，追逐金钱，高利贷者的重利盘剥，对正在形成中的资本主义关系的罪恶，也有清晰而深刻的认识，并予以严厉的谴责。他指出，市民阶级暴发户充满了“骄狂傲慢和放荡无度之风”，田园式的宁静生活已一去不复返，因为骄傲、嫉妒和贪婪是三颗星火，使人心燃烧起来。
但丁是新旧交替时期的伟大诗人。基督教神学观念，中世纪思想的偏见，世界观的种种矛盾，也在《神曲》中得到表现。
《神曲》中处处洋溢着对现世生活的热忱歌颂，但是但丁又把现世生活看作来世永生的准备。他揭发教会和僧侣的败行劣迹，但又不整个地反对宗教神学和教会，甚至还把宗教神学置于哲学之上，把信仰置于理性之上。例如，他把维吉尔选为他幻游地狱和炼狱的向导，隐喻理性和哲学指引人类认识邪恶的途径，而把贝娅特丽丝作为游历天堂的向导，说明诗人仍然局限于信仰和神学高踞理性和哲学之上，人类只有依靠信仰和神学，才能达到至善之境的经院哲学观点。
但丁对奥德修斯远航探险的英雄业绩的描绘，是《神曲》中最光彩夺目的诗章之一，奥德修斯召唤世人追求美德和知识的话语，也已成为至理名言传留下来。而另一方面，但丁又借维吉尔之口表明理性的软弱：“谁希望用我们微弱的理性识破无穷的玄梦，那真是非愚即狂。”《神曲》中抒写的保罗和弗朗齐丝卡这对痴情恋人的悲剧性遭遇，凄楚动人，但丁因听到他们的哭诉而极度痛苦，以致昏厥。后世无数的画家、诗人、音乐家以这则故事为素材，创作出许多优秀的艺术作品。但是但丁又根据中世纪的道德标准，把这对青年恋人作为贪色的罪人，放入地狱接受惩戒。他还把苦行禁欲派始祖圣芳济谷置于荣耀的天堂。但丁对中世纪禁欲主义和旧礼教既摒斥又在一定程度上认同的矛盾在这里充分体现了出来。
在对待封建君主的态度上，但丁也常常是矛盾的。他曾义愤填膺地谴责，说意大利没有一块干净的土地，“意大利所有的城市，到处充斥着暴君”。在《神曲》中，他对那不勒斯和西西里王国的国王查理一世以及法国国王腓力普四世的罪行是痛加鞭挞的。但在但丁的政治理想中，皇帝又被视为拯救陷于危难中的意大利的救星。他在《神曲》中时常提到亨利七世，认为只有这位皇帝才是能够使意大利这艘在暴风雨中漂荡的“孤舟”拨正航向，顺流而进的“舵手”，并在《神曲·天堂》里给他预告保留了一个光荣的位置。这正是在特定的历史条件下。弱小的市民阶级的软弱性、妥协性的反映。为了对抗专横恣肆的教会，最初的人文主义者不得不谋求王权的支持和保护。
《神曲》是一部达到很高的艺术境界的作品。但丁描写的地狱、炼狱和天堂，受到古典文学尤其是中世纪梦幻文学的启示和影响，如维吉尔在《埃涅阿斯记》中关于主人公由神巫引导游历阴间的描写，中世纪作家达·维隆纳的《耶路撒冷天国颂》、《巴比仑地狱诗》和德拉·利瓦的《三卷书》对罪孽的灵魂在地狱接受惩戒，天堂光明、幸福的叙述，都给但丁提供了借鉴。但《神曲》不像中世纪文学作品那样粗糙庸俗、虚无缥缈，诗人以丰富的想象力、精深的神学、哲学修养和新颖的构思，为三个境界设计了严密的结构、清晰的层次。他把地狱、炼狱、天堂各分为9层，蕴含着深邃的道德涵义。在描绘不同境界时，他采用不同的色彩。地狱是惩戒罪孽的境界，色调凄幽、阴森；炼狱是悔过和希望的境界，色彩转为恬淡、宁静；天堂是至善至美的境界，笼罩在一片灿烂、辉煌之中。多层次、多色调的形象描绘，表达了诗人精辟而又抽象的哲学、神学观点，又赋予这些境界以巨大的真实性，奇而不诡，精微致深，使人如身临其境。
《神曲》堪称一座多姿多彩、形象鲜活的人物画廊。作为这部史诗的主人翁，但丁本人苦苦求索的品格和丰富复杂的精神世界，刻画得最为细微、饱满。维吉尔和贝娅特丽丝这两位向导，虽然具有象征性和寓意性，但仍然各具鲜明的个性。维吉尔是导师，在对但丁的关怀和教诲中，显示出父亲般和蔼、慈祥的性格。贝娅特丽丝是恋人，在对诗人的救助和鼓励中，显示出母亲般温柔、庄重的性格。但丁擅长在戏剧性的场面和行动中，以极其准确、简洁的语言，勾勒出人物外形和性格的特征。在哀怨欲绝的悲剧性氛围中，诗人描写保罗与弗朗齐丝卡这对恋人对爱情忠贞不渝的品格，在阴暗、愤懑的情境中，诗人勾画教皇朋尼法斯八世贪婪、欺诈的性格，无不入木三分。《神曲》中种种惊心动魄和神奇的景象，地狱形形色色的妖魔鬼怪，如吞噬幽灵的三个头的恶犬猞拜罗，飞翔于自杀者树林之上的人面妖鸟，长着三副不同颜色的面孔、三对庞大无比的翅膀的地狱王，满身污血、头上盘着青蛇的复仇女神，在但丁的笔下，寥寥数笔，便形象逼真、栩栩如生地勾画了出来。他们不只是高度写实的艺术形象，而且出色地烘托了地狱各个特定环境的氛围。
但丁在写人绘景时，常常喜欢采用来源于日常生活和自然界的极其通俗的比喻，产生极不寻常的艺术效果。例如，地狱里的幽灵遇见陌生来客维吉尔和但丁，惊奇地盯视着他们，好像老眼昏花的裁缝凝视针眼一样。形容枯瘦的幽灵两眼深陷无神，好像一对宝石脱落的戒指。在魔鬼卡隆的鞭打下，幽灵从岸边跳进地狱界河的小船，好像秋天的树叶一片一片落下。
《神曲》的《地狱》、《炼狱》、《天堂》各有33歌，加上长诗的序曲，共100歌，计14233行。这三个境界的结构也异常匀称、严谨，共有9层。每部曲的最后一行都以“群星”一词作韵脚，彼此呼应。这种精确的结构和对称的布局，是建立于数字3和10对中世纪文化所具
有的神秘的、象征的意义上的。
《神曲》的韵律形式是民间诗歌中流行的一种格律三韵句，即第三行为一音节，隔行押韵，连锁循环，贯穿全诗始终。这也显示了诗人深厚的语言功力，使用韵律的技巧很成熟。但丁摒弃中世纪文学作品习惯运用的拉丁语，采用俗语写作《神曲》，这对促进意大利民族语言的统一，对丰富意大利文学语言起了重要的作品。
凡此种种都表明但丁摆脱了中世纪文学传统的羁绊，力图用新的艺术形式表现新时代的思想内容，这使但丁成为意大利第一个民族诗人。
《神曲》的伟大历史价值在于，它以极其广阔的画面，通过对诗人幻游过程中遇到的上百个各种类型的人物的描写，反映出意大利从中世纪向近代过渡的转折时期的现实生活和各个领域发生的社会、政治变革，透露了新时代的新思想——人文主义的曙光。《神曲》对中世纪政治、哲学、科学、神学、诗歌、绘画、文化，作了艺术性的阐述和总结。因此，它不仅在思想性、艺术性上达到了时代的先进水平，是一座划时代的里程碑，而且是一部反映社会生活状况、传授知识的百科全书式的鸿篇巨制。
《神曲》原名《喜剧》，薄伽丘在《但丁传》中为了表示对诗人的崇敬，给这部作品冠以“神圣的”称谓。后来的版本便以《神圣的喜剧》作书名。中译本通称《神曲》。
“神曲”是汉代名医刘义研制出的一种医治消化不良的名药。然而，神曲的问世之初，却是受到了野生动物自疗行为的启示。一段时间，刘义发现自家鸡窝里的鸡蛋经常丢失，便留心观察，发现是一条火练蛇所为。于是，他决定惩罚一下这条蛇。他用石灰裹着石子做了几枚假蛋，又在假蛋外面涂上一层鸡蛋清，放在鸡窝里面，然后便守候在一旁。不久，他看到那条蛇爬进鸡窝里，将那几枚假蛋吞下了。不多一会儿，那蛇在地上痛苦挣扎起来，然后它忍着痛苦爬进草丛里，拼命地吞食一种毛绒绒的小草。不多时，蛇排出了一堆类便，然后无事地爬走了。刘义想，这种草一定能治消化不良。于是，他以这种草为主药，研制出治疗消化不良的名药神曲。
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地 狱 篇
第 一 首 森林－阳光照耀下的山丘－三头猛兽－维吉尔－猎犬－冥界之行
第 二 首 但丁的困惑与恐惧－维吉尔的慰籍与贝阿特丽切的救援－但丁恢复坦然的心情
第 三 首 地狱之门－无所作为者－阿凯隆特河与卡隆－地震与但丁的昏厥
第 四 首 林勃－古代名诗人－伟大灵魂的城堡
第 五 首 第二环，米诺斯－淫欲者－佛兰切丝卡?达?里米尼
第 六 首 贪食者与刻尔勃路斯－恰科及其预言－最后审判后的受苦亡魂
第 七 首 普鲁托－贪财者与挥霍者－幸运女神－斯提克斯沼泽：易怒者
第 八 首 渡斯提克斯沼泽：弗列居阿斯－腓力普?阿尔詹蒂－狄斯城－魔鬼的抗拒与维吉尔的失意
第 九 首 但丁的恐惧与维吉尔的安慰－复仇女神－天国使者－但丁和维吉尔进入第六环
第 十 首 伊壁鸠鲁派信徒的坟墓－法里纳塔?德利?乌贝尔蒂－卡瓦尔坎泰－法里纳塔的预言－亡魂预卜的局限性－但丁的惶惑
第 十一 首 教皇阿纳斯塔修斯墓前－地狱中鬼魂的分布－高利贷者的下场
第 十二 首 塌方与米诺陀－弗列格通河与肯陶尔－奇隆－涅索斯
第 十三 首 自杀者的丛林－皮埃尔?德拉?维涅亚－倾家荡产者－自寻短见的佛罗伦萨人
第 十四 首 火雨纷飞的沙地－卡帕纽斯－血溪－克里特岛的老人和地府的河流
第 十五 首 鸡奸者－布鲁内托?拉蒂尼－犯鸡奸罪的神职人员和文人学士
第 十六 首 三个佛罗伦萨人－佛罗伦萨的腐败－但丁的绳子－格吕翁 的出现
第 十七 首 格吕翁－高利贷者－下降到第八环
第 十八 首 恶囊－淫媒者和诱奸者－维内迪科?卡恰内米科－伊阿宋－阿谀者
第 十九 首 买卖圣职者－教皇尼可洛三世－对所有买卖圣职的教皇的谴责
第 二十 首 占卜者－安菲阿拉俄斯、泰雷西阿斯、阿伦斯－曼图和曼 图亚－其他占卜者
第二十一首 贪官污吏的恶囊－马拉布兰卡们－维吉尔与马拉科达的谈话－魔鬼巡逻队
第二十二首 魔鬼与贪官污吏－恰姆波罗?迪?纳瓦拉－恰姆波罗的诡计与魔鬼的争斗
第二十三首 但丁与维吉尔的逃离－伪善者的恶囊－两个享乐修士－ 该以法－离开第六个恶囊
第二十四首 登上第七个恶囊的堤岸－盗贼的恶囊－变形－瓦尼?福齐及其预言
第二十五首 瓦尼?福齐的侮辱行为和但丁对皮斯托亚的诅咒－肯陶尔 卡库斯－五个佛罗伦萨盗贼：第二种变形－第三种变形 第二十六首 对佛罗伦萨的诅咒－阴谋献计者的恶囊－尤利西斯与狄奥墨德斯－尤利西斯的最后一次航行
第二十七首 圭多?达?蒙泰菲尔特罗－罗马涅的现状－圭多的罪孽与受惩
第二十八首 挑拨离间者－穆罕默德与阿里－皮埃尔?达?梅迪齐纳－ 库利奥－莫斯卡?德伊?兰贝尔蒂－贝尔特朗?德?鲍恩
第二十九首 杰里?德尔?贝洛－金属伪造者：格里弗利诺?德?阿雷佐与卡波基奥?达?锡耶纳－锡耶纳人的虚荣心
第 三十 首 假扮他人者：贾尼?斯吉基、米耳拉－伪造货币者：亚当 师傅－说假话者：西农－亚当师傅与西农的争吵
第三十一首 巨人－宁禄－厄菲阿尔特斯与布里阿留斯－安泰俄斯
第三十二首 科奇士斯湖－该隐环－安特诺尔环－博卡?德利?阿巴蒂－乌哥利诺伯爵与鲁吉埃里大主教
第三十三首 乌哥利诺伯爵－对比萨的谴责－托勒密环－阿尔贝里哥修士与布兰卡?多里亚－对热亚亚的谴责
第三十四首 犹大环－卢齐菲罗－犹大、布鲁都与卡修斯－脱离卢齐菲罗的身体－维吉尔对宇宙的解释－重登地面
炼 狱 篇
第 一 首 序诗－难半球的天空－卡托－谦卑的灯心草
第 二 首 驾舟的天使－赎罪的魂灵－卡塞拉－卡托的训斥
第 三 首 重登旅程－亡人的缥缈身躯－被革除教门者－曼弗雷迪
第 四 首 炼狱外界－难半球太阳的运行－炼狱山的特征－贝拉夸
第 五 首 维吉尔的责备－暴死者－雅科波?德尔?卡塞罗－ 蓬孔特?达?蒙泰菲尔特罗－皮娅
第 六 首 暴死者的魂灵－祈祷的效用－索尔戴洛－对意大利和佛罗伦萨的哀叹
第 七 首 维吉尔和索尔戴洛的谈话－君主之谷－对君主的巡礼
第 八 首 黄昏的祈祷－守护天使－尼诺?维斯贡蒂－三颗星辰－ 天使驱蛇－科拉多?马拉斯皮纳
第 九 首 但丁的梦－重新上路－炼狱的守门人－炼狱的大门
第 十 首 炼狱第一层－谦卑的范例－犯骄傲罪者
第 十一 首 犯骄傲罪者歌颂天父－翁贝尔托?阿尔多布兰德斯科－奥德里西? 达?古比奥 普罗文扎诺?萨尔瓦尼
第 十二 首 受惩的犯骄傲罪者的其他范例－谦卑的天使－登上炼狱第二层
第 十三 首 犯嫉妒罪者－仁慈的范例－犯嫉妒者的刑罚－萨皮娅
第 十四 首 圭多?德尔?杜卡与里尼耶里?达?卡尔博利－阿尔诺河谷－福尔齐耶里?达?卡尔博利－罗马涅的堕落－被惩罚的嫉妒罪
第 十五 首 慈悲天使－嫉妒与仁爱－昏迷的幻觉－但丁的苏醒
第 十六 首 易怒者环－马可?仑巴德－道德与政治败坏的原因
第 十七 首 受惩的愤怒罪－和平天使－爱的理论和炼狱的次序安排
第 十八 首 爱的理论（续）－爱与自由意志－怠情者－但丁的困睡
第 十九 首 但丁的梦－热心的天使－释梦－贪婪者－阿德里亚诺五世
第 二十 首 对贪婪的谴责－贫穷与慷慨的范例－乌哥?卡佩托－地震与荣耀颂歌
第二十一首 一个鬼魂的突然出现－地震与颂歌的起因－斯塔提乌斯的历史－斯塔提乌斯与维吉尔
第二十二首 斯塔提乌斯的罪过－斯塔提乌斯皈依基督教－林勃的一些幽魂－登上第六环
第二十三首 贪食者－但丁与佛雷塞?多纳蒂的相遇
第二十四首 但丁与佛雷塞的谈话（续）－博纳钟塔与温柔新体诗－ 科尔索?多纳蒂－第二棵果树－惩罚贪食罪的范例－ 节制天使
第二十五首 但丁的疑问－斯塔提乌斯的训教－缥缈的躯体－贪色者环
第二十六首 贪色者－圭多?圭尼采利－阿纳尔多?丹尼埃洛
第二十七首 贞洁天使－火墙－但丁的第三梦－登上伊甸园
第二十八首 伊甸园的森林－玛泰尔达－伊甸园的风与水－伊甸园与黄金时代
第二十九首 神圣的队伍－七座烛台－二十四位长老－凯旋车与狮鹰兽 －七位贵妇与七位老者
第 三十 首 贝阿特丽切的出现－维吉尔的消逝－贝阿特丽切对但丁的责备
第三十一首 贝阿特丽切的指责与但丁的忏悔－悔罪与昏厥－浸入勒特 河－卑呵特丽切显露真容
第三十二首 亚当的树－但丁的困睡－但丁的使命－大车的演变－ 娼妓与巨人
第三十三首 女神的哭泣－贝阿特丽切的预言和训教－但丁到欧诺埃河－但丁涤清罪过
天 堂 篇
第 一 首 序诗－登天－但丁的疑问－宇宙的秩序
第 二 首 对读者的告诫－抵达月球天－月球的斑点
第 三 首 月球天－皮卡尔达?多纳蒂－享受天福的不同程度－科斯坦扎皇后
第 四 首 但丁的疑问－享天福者的所在地——天国－誓愿未偿－但丁的新疑问
第 五 首 关于誓愿的理论－对基督教徒的告诫－升入水星天
第 六 首 朱斯蒂尼亚诺－帝国的历史和作用－罗米欧?迪?维拉诺瓦
第 七 首 但丁的疑问－化为肉身的基督受难－结论
第 八 首 金星天－查理?马尔泰洛－人之天性
第 九 首 查理?马尔泰洛的预言－库妮扎?达?罗马诺－库妮扎的
预言－马赛的佛尔凯托－喇合－对贪婪僧侣的谴责
第 十 首 世界的秩序－日球天－学识渊博的精灵－托马索?德?阿奎诺与第一花环中的学者
第 十一 首 尘世事物的虚妄与天国的荣光－但丁的疑问－对圣方济的颂扬－多明我会的堕落
第 十二 首 第二个花环与圣博纳文图拉－对圣多明我的赞颂－方济会的堕落－第二个花环中的精灵
第 十三 首 享天福者的歌舞－圣托马索谈亚当与耶稣的智慧－所罗门 的政治智慧－世人的判断
第 十四 首 精灵们的欢庆－所罗门谈享天福者的光芒－精灵们的又一次欢庆－火星天与十字架
第 十五 首 享天福者的沉默－卡恰圭达－但丁的感谢与请求－ 对旧佛罗伦萨的礼赞
第 十六 首 但丁向卡恰圭达提问－卡恰圭达的回答－佛罗伦萨古老家族的没落与衰亡
第 十七 首 但丁的困惑－卡恰圭达的预言－诗人的使命
第 十八 首 贝阿特丽切对但丁的安慰－为信仰而战斗的魂灵－木星天 －鹰－祈祷与谴责
第 十九 首 鹰－但丁的疑问－上帝的正义－得救之说－恶劣的基督教君主者
第 二十 首 正义的精灵－鹰之眼－里菲俄斯与特拉亚诺－天命
第二十一首 土星天－金梯－圣彼特罗?达米亚尼－对高级教士的谴责
第二十二首 享天福者的呼喊－圣本笃－升入恒星天－双子星座
第二十三首 贝阿特丽切的期待－基督的胜利－圣母的胜利
第二十四首 圣彼得的回答－但丁的信仰－圣彼得的赞许
第二十五首 但丁的希望－圣雅各－关于希望问题的考试－圣约翰－令但丁目眩的光辉
第二十六首 关于仁爱问题的考试－视力的恢复－亚当
第二十七首 对上帝的歌颂－圣彼得对腐败教皇的谴责－但丁登上原动天－贝阿特丽切的预言
第二十八首 一个光点和九个火圈－贝阿特丽切的解释－天使的等级
第二十九首 天使的创造－天使的职能－天使的数目－上帝与天使
第 三十 首 贝阿特丽切的美丽－净火天－光之河－天国的玫瑰－亨利七世的席位
第三十一首 洁白的玫瑰－但丁的惊愕－圣贝纳尔多－对贝阿特丽切的感谢－圣母的胜利
第三十二首 享天福者在天国玫瑰中的秩序安排－天真无邪儿童的命运－天使与圣者对圣母的歌颂－最大的圣者
第三十三首 圣贝纳尔多的祷告－觐见上帝－三位一体与化为肉身－ 结局
Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy (Italian: Commedia, later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature.[1] The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church. It helped establish the Tuscan dialect in which it is written as the Italian standard.[2]
More than 14,000 lines long, the Divine Comedy is composed of three canticas (Ital. pl. cantiche) — Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise) — each consisting of 33 cantos (Ital. pl. canti). An initial canto serves as an introduction to the poem and is generally not considered to be part of the first cantica, bringing the total number of cantos to 100. The number 3 is prominent in the work, represented here by the length of each cantica. The verse scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded, ....
Albert Ritter sketched the Comedy's geography from Dante's Cantos: Hell's entrance is near Florence with the circles descending to Earth's centre; sketch 5 reflects Canto 34's inversion as Dante passes down, and thereby up to Mount Purgatory's shores in the southern hemisphere, where he passes to the first sphere of Heaven at the top.The poem is written in the first person, and tells of Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting during the Easter Triduum in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice, Dante's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a Florentine woman whom he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work La Vita Nuova.
In Northern Italy's political struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Dante was part of the Guelphs, who in general favored the Papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor. Florence's Guelphs split into factions around 1300: the White Guelphs, who opposed secular rule by Pope Boniface VIII and who wished to preserve Florence's independence, and the Black Guelphs, who favored the Pope's control of Florence. Dante was among the White Guelphs who were exiled in 1302 by the Lord-Mayor Cante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio, after troops under Charles of Valois entered the city, at the request of Boniface and in alliance with the Blacks. The Pope said if he had returned he would be burned at the stake. This exile, which lasted the rest of Dante's life, shows its influence in many parts of the Comedy, from prophecies of Dante's exile to Dante's views of politics to the eternal damnation of some of his opponents.
In Hell and Purgatory, Dante shares in the sin and the penitence respectively. The last word in each of the three parts of the Divine Comedy is "stars".
Inferno
The poem begins on the night before Good Friday in the year 1300, "midway in the journey of our life" (Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita), and so opens in medias res. Dante is thirty-five years old, half of the biblically allotted age of 70 (Psalm 90:10), lost in a dark wood (perhaps, allegorically, contemplating suicide—as "wood" is figured in Canto XIII, and also the mention of suicide is made in Canto I of Purgatorio with "This man has not yet seen his last evening; But, through his madness, was so close to it, That there was hardly time to turn about" implying that when Virgil came to him he was on the verge of suicide or morally passing the point of no return), assailed by beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf; allegorical depictions of temptations towards sin) he cannot evade, and unable to find the "straight way" (diritta via) to salvation (symbolized by the sun behind the mountain). Conscious that he is ruining himself, that he is falling into a "deep 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 in Inferno is a symbolic instance of poetic justice; for example, the fortune-tellers have to walk forwards with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because they tried to do so in life. Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is.
The Barque of Dante by Eugène Delacroix.Dante passes through the gate of hell, on which is inscribed the famous phrase "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", or "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"[3] Before entering Hell completely, Dante and his guide see the Opportunists, souls of people who in life did nothing, neither for good nor evil (among these Dante recognizes either Pope Celestine V, or Pontius Pilate; the text is ambiguous). Mixed with them are the outcasts, who took no side in the Rebellion of Angels. These souls are neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of the Acheron, their punishment to eternally pursue a banner, and be pursued by wasps and hornets that continually sting them while maggots and other such insects drink their blood and tears. This symbolizes the sting of their conscience and the repugnance of sin.
Then Dante and Virgil reach the ferry that will take them across the river Acheron and to Hell proper. The ferry is piloted by Charon, who does not want to let Dante enter, for he is a living being. Virgil forces Charon to take them, but their passage across is undescribed since Dante faints and does not awake until he is on the other side.
The Circles of Hell
Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are concentric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the center of the earth, where Satan is held in bondage. Each circle's sinners are punished in a fashion fitting their crimes: each sinner is afflicted for all of eternity by the chief sin he committed. People who sinned but prayed for forgiveness before their deaths are found in Purgatory -- where they labor to be free of their sins -- not in Hell. Those in Hell are people who tried to justify their sins and are unrepentant. Furthermore, those in hell have knowledge of the past and future, but not of the present. This is a joke on them in Dante's mind because after the Final Judgment, time ends; those in Hell would then know nothing. The nine circles are:
First Circle (Limbo)
Here reside the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, though not sinful, did not accept Christ. Here also reside those who, if they lived before the coming of Christ, did not pay fitting homage to their respective deity. They are not punished in an active sense, but rather grieve only their separation from God, without hope of reconciliation. The chief irony in this circle is that Limbo shares many characteristics with Elysian Fields; thus the guiltless damned are punished by living in a deficient form of Heaven. Without baptism ("the portal of faith," Canto IV, l.36) they lacked the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive. Limbo includes green fields and a castle, the dwelling place of the wisest men of antiquity, including Virgil himself, as well as the Islamic philosophers Averroes and Avicenna. In the castle Dante meets the poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan and the philosophers Socrates and Plato. Interestingly, he also sees Saladin in Limbo. (Canto IV) Dante implies that all virtuous pagans find themselves here, although he later encounters two in heaven and one (Cato of Utica) in Purgatory.
Beyond the first circle, all of those condemned for active, deliberately willed sin are judged by Minos, who sentences each soul to one of the lower eight circles by wrapping his tail around himself a corresponding number of times. The lower circles are structured according to the classical (Aristotelian) conception of virtue and vice, so that they are grouped into the sins of incontinence, violence, and fraud (which for many commentators are represented by the leopard, lion, and she-wolf[4]). The sins of incontinence — weakness in controlling one's desires and natural urges — are the mildest among them, and, correspondingly, appear first:
"Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca" by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
Second Circle
Those overcome by lust are punished in this circle. They are the first ones to be truly punished in Hell. These souls are blown about to and fro by a violent storm, without hope of rest. This symbolizes the power of lust to blow one about needlessly and aimlessly. Francesca da Rimini informs Dante of how she and her husband's brother Paolo committed adultery and died a violent death at the hands of her husband. (Canto V)
Third Circle
Cerberus guards the gluttons, forced to lie in a vile slush made by freezing rain, black snow, and hail. This symbolizes the garbage that the gluttons made of their lives on earth, slavering over food. Dante converses with a Florentine contemporary identified as Ciacco ("Hog" — probably a nickname) regarding strife in Florence and the fate of prominent Florentines. (Canto VI)
Fourth Circle
Those whose concern for material goods deviated from the desired mean are punished in this circle. They include the avaricious or miserly, who hoarded possessions, and the prodigal, who squandered them. Guarded by Plutus (whom Dante almost certainly conflated with Pluto), each group pushes a great weight against the heavy weight of the other group. After the weights crash together the process starts over again. (In Gustave Doré's illustrations for this scene, the damned push huge money bags.) (Canto VII)
Fifth Circle
In the swamp-like water of the river Styx, the wrathful fight each other on the surface, and the sullen or slothful lie gurgling beneath the water. Phlegyas reluctantly transports Dante and Virgil across the Styx in his skiff. On the way they are accosted by Filippo Argenti, a Black Guelph from a prominent family. (Cantos VII and VIII)
Lower Hell, inside the walls of Dis, in an illustration by Stradanus. There is a drop from the sixth circle to the three rings of the seventh circle, then again to the ten rings of the eighth circle, and, at the bottom, to the icy ninth circle.The lower parts of hell are contained within the walls of the city of Dis, which is itself surrounded by the Stygian marsh. Punished within Dis are active (rather than passive) sins. The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels. Virgil is unable to convince them to let Dante and him enter, and the Furies and Medusa threaten Dante. An angel sent from Heaven secures entry for the poets. (Cantos VIII and IX)
Sixth Circle
Heretics are trapped in flaming tombs. Dante holds discourse with a pair of Florentines in one of the tombs: Farinata degli Uberti, a Ghibelline; and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, a Guelph who was the father of Dante's friend and fellow poet Guido Cavalcanti (Cantos X and XI). The followers of Epicurus are also located here (Canto X).
Seventh Circle
This circle houses the violent. Its entry is guarded by the Minotaur, and it is divided into three rings:
Outer ring, housing the violent against people and property, who are immersed in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood, to a level commensurate with their sins. The Centaurs, commanded by Chiron, patrol the ring, firing arrows into those trying to escape. The centaur Nessus guides the poets along Phlegethon and across a ford in the river. (Canto XII)
Middle ring: In this ring are the suicides, who are transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees. They are torn at by the Harpies. Unique among the dead, the suicides will not be bodily resurrected after the final judgment, having given their bodies away through suicide. Instead they will maintain their bushy form, with their own corpses hanging from the limbs. Dante breaks a twig off one of the bushes and hears the tale of Pier delle Vigne, who committed suicide after falling out of favor with Emperor Frederick II. The other residents of this ring are the profligates, who destroyed their lives by destroying the means by which life is sustained (i.e. money and property). They are perpetually chased by ferocious dogs through the thorny undergrowth. (Canto XIII) The trees are a metaphor; in life the only way of the relief of suffering was through pain (i.e. suicide) and in Hell, the only form of relief of the suffering is through pain (breaking of the limbs to bleed).
Inner ring: The violent against God (blasphemers), the violent against nature (sodomites), and the violent against art (usurers), all reside in a desert of flaming sand with fiery flakes raining from the sky. The blasphemers lie on the sand, the usurers sit, and the sodomites wander about in groups. Dante converses with two Florentine sodomites from different groups. One of them is Dante's mentor, Brunetto Latini. Dante is very surprised and touched by this encounter and shows Brunetto great respect for what he has taught him. The other is Iacopo Rusticucci, a politician. (Cantos XIV through XVI) Those punished here for usury include Florentines Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi, Ciappo Ubriachi, and Giovanni di Buiamonte, and Paduans Reginaldo degli Scrovegni and Vitaliano di Iacopo Vitaliani.
Eighth Circle
Dante's guide rebuffs Malacoda and his fiends between bolgia five and six in the Eighth Circle of Hell, Inferno, Canto 21.
Dante climbs the flinty steps in bolgia seven in the Eighth Circle of Hell, Inferno, Canto 26.
The falsifiers, who thrive in a diseased society, are now themselves diseased, Inferno, Canto 30.The last two circles of Hell punish sins that involve conscious fraud or treachery. The circles can be reached only by descending a vast cliff, which Dante and Virgil do on the back of Geryon, a winged monster represented by Dante as having the face of an honest man and a body that ends in a scorpion-like stinger. (Canto XVII)
The fraudulent—those guilty of deliberate, knowing evil—are located in a circle named Malebolge ("Evil Pockets"), divided into ten bolgie, or ditches of stone, with bridges spanning the ditches:
Bolgia 1: Panderers (pimps) and seducers march in separate lines in opposite directions, whipped by demons. Just as they misled others in life, they are driven to march by demons for all eternity. In the group of panderers the poets notice Venedico Caccianemico, who sold his own sister to the Marchese d'Este, and in the group of seducers Virgil points out Jason. (Canto XVIII)
Bolgia 2: Flatterers are steeped in human excrement. This is because their flatteries on earth were nothing but "a load of crap". (Canto XVIII)
Bolgia 3: Those who committed simony are placed head-first in holes in the rock, with flames burning on the soles of their feet (resembling an inverted baptism). One of them, Pope Nicholas III, denounces as simonists two of his successors, Pope Boniface VIII and Pope Clement V. (Canto XIX)
Bolgia 4: Sorcerers and false prophets have their heads twisted around on their bodies backward. In addition, they cry so many tears that they cannot see. This is symbollic because these people tried to see into the future by forbidden means; thus in Hell they can only see what is behind them and cannot see forward. (Canto XX)
Bolgia 5: Corrupt politicians (barrators) are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch, which represents the sticky fingers and dark secrets of their corrupt deals. They are guarded by devils called the Malebranche ("Evil Claws"). Their leader, Malacoda ("Evil Tail"), assigns a troop to escort Virgil and Dante to the next bridge. The troop hook and torment one of the sinners (identified by early commentators as Ciampolo), who names some Italian grafters and then tricks the Malebranche in order to escape back into the pitch. (Cantos XXI through XXIII)
Bolgia 6: The bridge over this bolgia is broken: the poets climb down into it and find the Hypocrites listlessly walking along wearing gold-gilded lead cloaks. Dante speaks with Catalano and Loderingo, members of the Jovial Friars. It is also ironic in this canto that whilst in the company of hypocrites, the poets also discover that the guardians of the fraudulent (the malebranche) are hypocrites themselves, as they find that they have lied to them, giving false directions, when at the same time they are punishing liars for similar sins. (Canto XXIII)
Bolgia 7: Thieves, guarded by the centaur (as Dante describes him) Cacus, are pursued and bitten by snakes. The snake bites make them undergo various transformations, with some resurrected after being turned to ashes, some mutating into new creatures, and still others exchanging natures with the snakes, becoming snakes themselves that chase the other thieves in turn. Just as the thieves stole other people's substance in life, and because thievery is reptillian in its secrecy, the thieves' substance is eaten away by snakes and their bodies are constantly stolen by other thieves. (Cantos XXIV and XXV)
Bolgia 8: Fraudulent advisors are encased in individual flames. Dante includes Ulysses and Diomedes together here for their role in the Trojan War. Ulysses tells the tale of his fatal final voyage (an invention of Dante's), where he left his home and family to sail to the end of the Earth. He equated life as a pursuit of knowledge that humanity can attain through effort, and in his search God sank his ship outside of Mount Purgatory. This symbolizes the inability of the individual to carve out one's own salvation. Instead, one must be totally subservient to the will of God and realize the inability of one to be a God unto oneself. Guido da Montefeltro recounts how his advice to Pope Boniface VIII resulted in his damnation, despite Boniface's promise of absolution. (Cantos XXVI and XXVII)
Bolgia 9: A sword-wielding demon hacks at the sowers of discord. As they make their rounds the wounds heal, only to have the demon tear apart their bodies again. "How mutilated, see, is Mahomet; In front of me doth Ali weeping go, Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin; And all the others whom thou here beholdest, Disseminators of scandal and of schism. While living were, and therefore are cleft thus." Muhammad tells Dante to warn the schismatic and heretic Fra Dolcino (Cantos XXVIII and XXIX). Interestingly enough, Dante views both Muhammad and Ali as schismatic Christians, blaming the former for conflict between Christian and Muslim, and the second for conflict between Sunni and Shiite.
Bolgia 10: Here various sorts of falsifiers (alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, and impersonators), who are a disease on society, are themselves afflicted with different types of diseases (Cantos XXIX and XXX). Potiphar's wife is briefly mentioned here for her false accusation of Joseph. In the notes on her translation, Dorothy L. Sayers remarks that Malebolge "began with the sale of the sexual relationship, and went on to the sale of Church and State; now, the very money is itself corrupted, every affirmation has become perjury, and every identity a lie; no medium of exchange remains."[5]
Ninth Circle
See also: Ugolino and Dante
Dante speaks to the traitors in the ice, Inferno, Canto 32.The Ninth Circle is ringed by classical and Biblical giants. The giants are standing either on, or on a ledge above, the ninth circle of Hell, and are visible from the waist up at the ninth circle of the Malebolge. The giant Antaeus lowers Dante and Virgil into the pit that forms the ninth circle of Hell. (Canto XXXI) Traitors, distinguished from the "merely" fraudulent in that their acts involve betraying one in a special relationship to the betrayer, are frozen in a lake of ice known as Cocytus. Each group of traitors is encased in ice to a different depth, ranging from only the waist down to complete immersion. The circle is divided into four concentric zones:
Zone 1: Caïna, named for Cain, is home to traitors to their kindred. The souls here are immersed in the ice up to their necks. (Canto XXXII)
Zone 2: Antenora is named for Antenor of Troy, who according to medieval tradition betrayed his city to the Greeks. Traitors to political entities, such as party, city, or country, are located here. Count Ugolino pauses from gnawing on the head of his rival Archbishop Ruggieri to describe how Ruggieri imprisoned and starved him and his children. The souls here are immersed at almost the same level as those in Caïna, except they are unable to bend their necks. (Cantos XXXII and XXXIII)
Zone 3: Ptolomæa is probably named for Ptolemy, the captain of Jericho, who invited Simon Maccabaeus and his sons to a banquet and then killed them. Traitors to their guests are punished here. Fra Alberigo explains that sometimes a soul falls here before the time that Atropos (the Fate who cuts the thread of life) should send it. Their bodies on Earth are immediately possessed by a fiend. The souls here are immersed so much that only half of their faces are visible. As they cry, their tears freeze and seal their eyes shut- they are denied even the comfort of tears. (Canto XXXIII)
Zone 4: Judecca, named for Judas the Iscariot, Biblical betrayer of Christ, is for traitors to their lords and benefactors. All of the sinners punished within are completely encapsulated in ice, distorted to all conceivable positions.
Satan is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Inferno, Canto 34.
Dante and Virgil, with no one to talk to, quickly move on to the center of hell. Condemned to the very center of hell for committing the ultimate sin (treachery against God) is Satan, who has three faces, one red, one black, and one a pale yellow, each having a mouth that chews on a prominent traitor. Satan himself is represented as a giant, terrifying beast, weeping tears from his six eyes, which mix with the traitors' blood sickeningly. He is waist deep in ice, and beats his six wings as if trying to escape, but the icy wind that emanates only further ensures his imprisonment (as well as that of the others in the ring). The sinners in the mouths of Satan are Brutus and Cassius in the left and right mouths, respectively, who were involved in the assassination of Julius Caesar (an act which, to Dante, represented the destruction of a unified Italy), and Judas Iscariot (the namesake of this zone) in the central, most vicious mouth, who betrayed Jesus. Judas is being administered the most horrifying torture of the three traitors, his head in the mouth of Lucifer, and his back being forever skinned by the claws of Lucifer. (Canto XXXIV) What is seen here is a perverted trinity. Satan is impotent, ignorant, and evil while God can be attributed as the opposite: all powerful, all knowing, and good. The two poets escape by climbing down the ragged fur of Lucifer, passing through the center of the earth, emerging in the other hemisphere just before dawn on Easter Sunday beneath a sky studded with stars.
Purgatorio
Dante gazes at Mount Purgatory in an allegorical portrait by Agnolo Bronzino, painted circa 1530.
Plan of Mount Purgatory. As with Paradise, the structure is of the form 2+7+1=9+1=10, with one of the ten regions different in nature from the other nine.Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom, to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world (in Dante's time, it was believed that Hell existed underneath Jerusalem). The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the Southern Hemisphere, created with earth taken from the excavation of hell. At the shores of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil are attracted by a musical performance by Casella, but are reprimanded by Cato, a pagan who has been placed by God as the general guardian of the approach to the mountain. The text gives no indication whether or not Cato's soul is destined for heaven: his symbolic significance has been much debated. (Cantos I and II).
Allegorically, the Purgatorio represents the Christian life. Christian souls arrive escorted by an angel, singing in exitu Israel de Aegypto. In his Letter to Cangrande, Dante explains that this reference to Israel leaving Egypt refers both to the redemption of Christ and to "the conversion of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace."[6] Appropriately, therefore, it is Easter Sunday when Dante and Virgil arrive.
The Purgatorio is notable for demonstrating the medieval knowledge of a spherical Earth. During the poem, Dante discusses the different stars visible in the southern hemisphere, the altered position of the sun, and the various timezones of the Earth. At this stage it is, Dante says, sunset at Jerusalem, midnight on the River Ganges, and sunrise in Purgatory.
Dante starts the ascent of Mount Purgatory at sunrise. On the lower slopes (designated as "ante-Purgatory" by commentators) Dante meets first a group of excommunicates, detained for a period thirty times as long as their period of contumacy. Ascending higher, he encounters those too lazy to repent until shortly before death, and those who suffered violent deaths (often due to leading extremely sinful lives). These souls will be admitted to Purgatory thanks to their genuine repentance, but must wait outside for an amount of time equal to their lives on earth (Cantos III through VI). Finally, Dante is shown a beautiful valley where he sees the lately-deceased monarchs of the great nations of Europe, and a number of other persons whose devotion to public and private duties hampered their faith (Cantos VII and VIII). Dante's beautiful description of evening in this valley (Canto VIII) was the inspiration for a similar passage in Byron's Don Juan.[7] From this valley Dante is carried (while asleep) up to the gates of Purgatory proper (Canto IX).
The gate of Purgatory is guarded by an angel who uses the point of his sword to draw the letter "P" (signifying peccatum, sin) seven times on Dante's forehead, abjuring him to "wash you those wounds within." The angel uses two keys, silver (remorse) and gold (reconciliation) to open the gate – both are necessary.[8] The angel at the gate then warns Dante not to look back, lest he should find himself outside the gate again, symbolizing Dante having to overcome and rise above the hell that he has just left and thusly leaving his sinning ways behind him.
From there, Virgil guides the pilgrim Dante through the seven terraces of Purgatory. These correspond to the seven deadly sins, each terrace purging a particular sin in an appropriate manner. Those in purgatory can leave their circle whenever they like, but essentially there is an honor system where no one leaves until they have corrected the nature within themselves that caused them to commit that sin. Souls can only move upwards and never backwards, since the intent of Purgatory is for souls to ascend towards God in Heaven, and can ascend only during daylight hours, since the light of God is the only true guidance.
Associated with each terrace are historical and mythological examples of the relevant deadly sin and of its opposite virtue, together with an appropriate prayer and beatitude.
The Terraces of Purgatory
In an example of humility, the Emperor Trajan stops to render justice to a poor widow, Purgatorio, Canto 10
Dante's meeting with Matelda, lithograph by Cairoli (1889)On the first three terraces of Purgatory are purified those whose sins were caused by perverted love directed towards actual harm of others.
First Terrace. The proud are purged by carrying giant stones on their backs, unable to stand up straight (Cantos X through XII). This teaches the sinner that pride puts weight on the soul and it is better to throw it off. Furthermore, there are carvings of historical and mythological examples of pride and humility to learn from. With the weight on one's back, one cannot help but see this carved pavement and learn from it. The prayer for this terrace is the Lord's Prayer, and the beatitude is blessed are the poor in spirit. At the ascent to the next terrace, an angel clears a letter P from Dante's head. This process is repeated on each terrace. Each time a P is removed, Dante's body feels lighter, because he becomes less and less weighed down by sin.
Second Terrace. The envious are purged by having their eyes sewn shut and wearing clothing that makes the soul indistinguishable from the ground (Cantos XIII through XV). This is akin to a falconer's sewing the eyes of a falcon shut in order to train it. God is the falconer and is training the souls not to envy others and to direct their love towards Him. Two examples of envy (Cain who was jealous of his brother, and Aglauros who was jealous of her sister) are contrasted with three of generosity. Because the souls here cannot see, the examples are voices on the air, including Jesus' words "love your enemies." As he is leaving the terrace, the dazzling light of the angel causes Dante to observe that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection "as theory and experiment will show."[9]
Third Terrace. The wrathful are purged by walking around in acrid smoke (Cantos XV through XVII). Souls correct themselves by learning how wrath has blinded their vision, impeding their judgment (the sin of wrath represents a perversion of the natural love of justice). The prayer for this terrace is the Agnus Dei, and the beatitude is blessed are the peacemakers.
On the fourth terrace we find sinners whose sin was that of deficient love—that is, sloth or acedia.
Fourth Terrace. The slothful are purged by continually running (Cantos XVIII and XIX). Those who were slothful in life can only purge this sin by being zealous in their desire for penance. Allegorically, spiritual laziness and lack of caring lead to sadness, and so the beatitude for this terrace is blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.[10]
On the fifth through seventh terraces are those who sinned by loving good things, but loving them in a disordered way.
Fifth Terrace. The avaricious and prodigal are purged by lying face-down on the ground, unable to move (Cantos XIX through XXI). Excessive concern for earthly goods—whether in the form of greed or extravagance—is punished and purified. The sinner learns to turn his desire from possessions, power or position to God. It is here that the poets meet the soul of Statius, who has completed his purgation and joins them on their ascent to paradise.
Sixth Terrace. The gluttonous are purged by abstaining from any food or drink (Cantos XXII through XXIV). Here, the soul's desire to eat a forbidden fruit causes its shade to starve. To sharpen the pains of hunger, the former gluttons on this terrace are forced to pass by cascades of cool water without stopping to drink. (Considering Dante's use of Greek myth, this may be inspired by Tantalus.)
Seventh Terrace. The lustful are purged by burning in an immense wall of flames (Cantos XXV through XXVII). All of those who committed sexual sins, both heterosexual and homosexual, are purified by the fire. Excessive sexual desire misdirects one's love from God and this terrace is meant to correct that. In addition, perhaps because all sin has its roots in misguided love, every soul who has completed his penance on the lower six cornices must pass through the wall of flame before ascending to the Earthly Paradise. Here Dante, too, must share the penance of the redeemed as the last "P" is removed from his forehead.
Dante's meeting with Beatrice, by John William WaterhouseThe ascent of the mountain culminates at the summit, which is in fact the Garden of Eden (Cantos XXVIII through XXXIII). This place is meant to return one to a state of innocence that existed before the sin of Adam and Eve caused the fall from grace. Here Dante meets Matelda, a woman of grace and beauty who prepares souls for their ascent to heaven. With her Dante witnesses a highly symbolic procession that may be read as an allegorical masque of the Church and the Sacrament. The procession forms an allegory within the allegory, a little like Shakespeare's play within a play. One participant in the procession is Beatrice, whom Dante loved in childhood, and at whose request Virgil was commissioned to bring Dante on his journey.
Virgil, as a pagan, is a permanent denizen of Limbo, the first circle of Hell, and may not enter Paradise; he vanishes. Beatrice then becomes the second guide, and will accompany Dante in his vision of Heaven.
Dante drinks from the River Lethe, which causes the soul to forget past sins, and then from the River Eunoë, which effects the renewal of memories of good deeds. Thus purified, souls can direct their love fully towards God to the best of their inherent capability to do so. They are then ready to leave Mount Purgatory for Paradise. Being totally purged of sin, Purgatorio ends with Dante's vision aimed at the stars, anticipating his ascent to heaven.
Paradiso
Dante and Beatrice speak to Piccarda and Constance of Sicily, in a fresco by Philipp Veit, Paradiso, Canto 3After an initial ascension (Canto I), Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, similar to Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is the one that his human eyes permit him to see. Thus, the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's own personal vision, ambiguous in its true construction. The addition of a moral dimension means that a soul that has reached Paradise stops at the level applicable to it. Souls are allotted to the point of heaven that fits with their human ability to love God. Thus, there is a heavenly hierarchy. All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul. That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others. This is not determined by time or learning as such but by their proximity to God (how much they allow themselves to experience Him above other things). It must be remembered in Dante's schema that all souls in Heaven are on some level always in contact with God.
While the structures of the Inferno and Purgatorio were based around different classifications of sin, the structure of the Paradiso is based on the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues.
The Spheres of Heaven
The nine spheres are:
First Sphere. The sphere of the Moon is that of souls who abandoned their vows, and so were deficient in the virtue of fortitude (Cantos II through V). Dante meets Piccarda, sister of Dante's friend Forese Donati, who died shortly after being forcibly removed from her convent. Beatrice discourses on the freedom of the will, and the inviolability of sacred vows.
Second Sphere. The sphere of Mercury is that of souls who did good out of a desire for fame, but who, being ambitious, were deficient in the virtue of justice (Cantos V through VII). Justinian recounts the history of the Roman Empire. Beatrice explains to Dante the atonement of Christ for the sins of humanity.
Third Sphere. The sphere of Venus is that of souls who did good out of love, but were deficient in the virtue of temperance (Cantos VIII and IX). Dante meets Charles Martel of Anjou, who decries those who adopt inappropriate vocations, and Cunizza da Romano. Folquet de Marseilles points out Rahab, the brightest soul among those of this sphere, and condemns the city of Florence for producing that "cursed flower" (the florin) which is responsible for the corruption of the Church.
Folquet de Marseilles bemoans the corruption of the Church, in a miniature by Giovanni di Paolo, Paradiso, Canto 9
Illustration of Dante's Paradiso, showing Thomas Aquinas and 11 other teachers of wisdom in the sphere of the Sun, by Giovanni di Paolo (between 1442 and c.1450)
Dante and Beatrice see God as a point of light surrounded by angels; from Gustave Doré's illustrations for the Divine Comedy, Paradiso, Canto 28Fourth Sphere. The sphere of the Sun is that of souls of the wise, who embody prudence (Cantos X through XIV). Dante is addressed by St. Thomas Aquinas, who recounts the life of St. Francis of Assisi and laments the corruption of his own Dominican Order. Dante is then met by St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan, who recounts the life of St. Dominic, and laments the corruption of the Franciscan Order. The two orders were not always friendly on earth, and having members of one order praising the founder of the other shows the love present in Heaven. Dante arranges the wise into two rings of twelve; his choices of who to include give his assessment of the significant philosophers of medieval times. Finally, Aquinas introduces King Solomon, who answers Dante's question about the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.
Fifth Sphere. The sphere of Mars is that of souls who fought for Christianity, and who embody fortitude (Cantos XIV through XVIII). The souls in this sphere form an enormous cross. Dante speaks with the soul of his ancestor Cacciaguida, who praises the former virtues of the residents of Florence, recounts the rise and fall of Florentine families and foretells Dante's exile from Florence, before finally introducing some notable warrior souls (among them Joshua, Roland, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon).
Sixth Sphere. The sphere of Jupiter is that of souls who personified justice, something of great concern to Dante (Cantos XVIII through XX). The souls here spell out the Latin for "Love justice, ye that judge the earth," and then arrange themselves into the shape of an imperial eagle. Present here are David, Hezekiah, Trajan (converted to Christianity according to a medieval legend), Constantine, William II of Sicily, and (Dante is amazed at this) Rhipeus the Trojan, saved by the mercy of God.
Seventh Sphere. The sphere of Saturn is that of the contemplatives, who embody temperance (Cantos XXI and XXII). Dante here meets Peter Damian, and discusses with him monasticism, the doctrine of predestination, and the sad state of the Church. Beatrice, who represents theology, becomes increasingly lovely here, indicating the contemplative's closer insight into the truth of God.
Eighth Sphere. The sphere of fixed stars is the sphere of the Church Triumphant (Cantos XXII through XXVII). Here, Dante sees visions of Christ and of the Virgin Mary. He is tested on faith by Saint Peter, hope by Saint James, and love by Saint John the Evangelist. Dante justifies his medieval belief in astrology, that the power of the constellations is drawn from God.
Ninth Sphere. The Primum Mobile ("first moved" sphere) is the abode of angels (Cantos XXVII through XXIX). Dante sees God as a point of light surrounded by nine rings of angels, and is told about the creation of the universe.
From the Primum Mobile, Dante ascends to a region beyond physical existence, called the Empyrean (Cantos XXX through XXXIII). Here the souls of all the believers form the petals of an enormous rose. Beatrice leaves Dante with Saint Bernard, because theology has here reached its limits. Saint Bernard prays to Mary on behalf of Dante. Finally, Dante comes face-to-face with God Himself, and is granted understanding of the Divine and of human nature. His vision is improved beyond that of human comprehension. God appears as three equally large circles within each other representing the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with the essence of each part of God, separate yet one. The book ends with Dante trying to understand how the circles fit together, how the Son is separate yet one with the Father but as Dante put it "that was not a flight for my wings" and the vision of God becomes equally inimitable and inexplicable that no word or intellectual exercise can come close to explaining what he saw. Dante's soul, through God's absolute love, experiences a unification with itself and all things "but already my desire and my will were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed by the Love that turns the sun and all the other stars".
Earliest manuscripts
Detail of a manuscript in Milan's Biblioteca Trivulziana (MS 1080), written in 1337 by Francesco di ser Nardo da Barberino, showing the beginning of Dante's Comedy.According to the Società Dantesca Italiana, no original manuscript written by Dante has survived, though there are many manuscript copies from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (more than 825 are listed on their site [2]). The oldest belongs to the 1330s, almost a decade after Dante's death. The most precious ones are the three full copies made by Giovanni Boccaccio (1360s), who himself did not have the original manuscript as a source.
The first printed edition was published in Foligno, Italy, by Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini on 11 April 1472. Of the 300 copies printed, fourteen still survive. The original printing press is on display in the Oratorio della Nunziatella in Foligno.
Printing press of the first printed edition
Thematic concerns
The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Cangrande I della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical).
The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching 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 of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", 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."
Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 14th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar subjects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in the low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic. Boccaccio's account that an early version of the poem was begun by Dante in Latin is still controversial[11][12].
The Divine Comedy and Islamic philosophy
In 1919 Professor Miguel Asín Palacios, a Spanish scholar and a Catholic priest, published La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia ("Islamic Eschatology in the Divine Comedy"), an account of parallels between early Islamic philosophy and the Divine Comedy. Palacios argued that Dante derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter directly or indirectly from the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi and from the Isra and Mi'raj or night journey of Muhammad to heaven. The latter is described in the Hadith and the Kitab al Miraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before[13] as Liber Scale Machometi, "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder"), and has some slight similarities to the Paradiso, such as a seven-fold division of Paradise.[14]
Dante lived in a Europe of substantial literary and philosophical contact with the Muslim world, encouraged by such factors as Averroism and the patronage of Alfonso X of Castile. Of the twelve wise men Dante meets in Canto X of the Paradiso, Thomas Aquinas and, even more so, Sigier of Brabant were strongly influenced by Arabic commentators on Aristotle.[15] Medieval Christian mysticism also shared the Neoplatonic influence of Sufis such as Ibn Arabi. Philosopher Frederick Copleston argued in 1950 that Dante's respectful treatment of Averroes, Avicenna, and Sigier of Brabant indicates his acknowledgement of a "considerable debt" to Islamic philosophy.[16]
Although this philosophical influence is generally acknowledged, many scholars have not been satisfied that Dante was influenced by the Kitab al Miraj. The twentieth century Orientalist Francesco Gabrieli expressed skepticism regarding the claimed similarities, and the lack of evidence of a vehicle through which it could have been transmitted to Dante. Even so, while dismissing the probability of some influences posited in Palacios' work, Gabrieli recognized that it was "at least possible, if not probable, that Dante may have known the Liber scalae and have taken from it certain images and concepts of Muslim eschatology".[citation needed] Shortly before her death the Italian philologist Maria Corti pointed out that, during his stay at the court of Alfonso X, Dante's mentor Brunetto Latini met Bonaventura de Siena, a Tuscan who had translated the Liber scalae from Arabic into Latin. According to Corti,[17] Brunetto may have provided a copy of that work to Dante, though there is no evidence that this occurred.
Literary influence in the English-speaking world and beyond
The work was not always so well regarded. After being recognized as a masterpiece in the first centuries following its publication,[18] the work was largely ignored during the Enlightenment, only to be "rediscovered" by William Blake - who illustrated several passages of the epic - and the romantic writers of the 19th century. Later authors such as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Samuel Beckett, and James Joyce have drawn on it for inspiration. The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was its first American translator, and modern poets, including Seamus Heaney,[19] Robert Pinsky, John Ciardi, and William Merwin, have also given translations of all or parts of the book. In Russia, beyond Pushkin's memorable translation of a few triplets, Osip Mandelstam's late poetry has been said to bear of the mark of a "tormented meditation" on the Comedy.[20] In 1934 Mandelstam gave a disturbingly modern reading of the poem in his labyrinthine "Conversation on Dante"[21] .
The Divine Comedy in the arts
Main article: Dante and his Divine Comedy in popular culture
The Divine Comedy has been a source of inspiration for countless artists for almost seven centuries — as one of the most well known and greatest artistic works in the Western tradition, its influence on culture cannot be overstated.
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
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The Divine ComedyBangsian fantasy
List of cultural references in The Divine Comedy
Footnotes
^ Bloom, Harold (1994). The Western Canon. See also Western canon for other "canons" that include the Divine Comedy.
^ See Lepschy, Laura; Lepschy, Giulio (1977). The Italian Language Today. or any other history of Italian language.
^ There are many English translations of this famous line. Some examples include
All hope abandon, ye who enter here - Henry Francis Cary (1805–1844)
All hope abandon, ye who enter in! - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1882)
Leave every hope, ye who enter! - Charles Eliot Norton (1891)
Leave all hope, ye that enter - Carlyle-Wicksteed (1932)
Lay down all hope, you that go in by me. - Dorothy L. Sayers (1949)
Abandon every hope, you who enter. - Charles S. Singleton (1970)
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here - John Ciardi (1977)
No room for hope, when you enter this place - C. H. Sisson (1980)
Abandon every hope, who enter here. - Allen Mandelbaum (1982)
Abandon all hope, you who enter here - Robert Pinsky (1993)
Abandon every hope, all you who enter - Mark Musa (1995)
Abandon every hope, you who enter. - Robert M. Durling (1996)
All hope abandon, you who enter here. - James Finn Cotter (2000) [1]
Abandon all hope upon entering here! - Marcus Saunders (2004)
Verbatim, the line translates as "Leave (lasciate) every (ogne) hope (speranza), ye (voi) that (ch') enter (intrate)."
^ There is no general agreement on which animals represent the sins incontinence, violence, and fraud. Some see it as the she-wolf, lion, and leopard respectively, while others see it as the leopard, lion, and she-wolf respectively.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Inferno, notes on Canto XXIX.
^ "The Letter to Can Grande," in Literary Criticism of Dante Alighieri, translated and edited by Robert S. Haller (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973), 99
^ Byron, Don Juan, Canto 3, CVIII.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on page 140.
^ Purgatorio, XV, line 21, tr. Dorothy L. Sayers, 1955.
^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on pages 209 and 222.
^ Boccaccio also quotes the initial triplet:"Ultima regna canam fluido 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.
^ Hiram Peri, The Original Plan of the Divine Comedy, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 18, No. 3/4 (1955), pp. 189-210.
^ I. Heullant-Donat and M.-A. Polo de Beaulieu, "Histoire d'une traduction," in Le Livre de l'échelle de Mahomet, Latin edition and French translation by Gisèle Besson and Michèle Brossard-Dandré, Collection Lettres Gothiques, Le Livre de Poche, 1991, p. 22 with note 37.
^ See the English translation of the Kitab al Miraj.
^ Frederick Copleston (1950). A History of Philosophy, Volume 2. London: Continuum, 200.
^ Frederick Copleston, op. cit.
^ Maria Corti: Dante e l'Islam (interview)
^ as Chaucer wrote in the Monk'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".
^ see: Seamus Heaney, “Envies and Identifications: Dante and the Modern Poet.” The Poet’s Dante: Twentieth-Century Responses. Ed. Peter S. Hawkins and Rachel Jacoff. New York: Farrar, 2001. 239-258.
^ Marina Glazova, Mandelstam and Dante: The Divine Comedy in Mandelstam's poetry of the 1930s Studies in East European Thought, Volume 28, Number 4, November, 1984.
^ James Fenton, Hell set to music, The Guardian, July 16, 2005.
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