The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian
narrative poem
Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not need to rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may ...
by
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...
, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in
Italian literature
Italian literature is written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian, including ...
and one of the greatest works of
Western literature
Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, and is shaped by the periods in which they were conceived, with each period containing prominent weste ...
. The poem's imaginative vision of the
afterlife
The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...
is representative of the
medieval worldview as it existed in the
Western Church
Western Christianity is one of two subdivisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic C ...
by the 14th century. It helped establish the
Tuscan language
Tuscan ( ; ) is a set of Italo-Dalmatian varieties of Romance spoken in Tuscany, Corsica, and Sardinia.
Standard Italian is based on Tuscan, specifically on its Florentine dialect, and it became the language of culture throughout Italy beca ...
, in which it is written, as the standardized
Italian language
Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...
. It is divided into three parts: ''
Inferno'', ''
Purgatorio
''Purgatorio'' (; Italian for "Purgatory") is the second part of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', following the ''Inferno (Dante), Inferno'' and preceding the ''Paradiso (Dante), Paradiso''; it was written in the early 14th century. It is an alleg ...
'', and ''
Paradiso''.
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.
[Vallone, Aldo. "Commedia" (trans. Robin Treasure). In: Lansing (ed.), ''The Dante Encyclopedia'', pp. 181–184.] It describes Dante's travels through
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
,
Purgatory
In Christianity, Purgatory (, borrowed into English language, English via Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman and Old French) is a passing Intermediate state (Christianity), intermediate state after physical death for purifying or purging a soul ...
, and
Heaven
Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
.
Allegorically, the poem represents the soul's journey towards
God
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
, 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, especially
Thomistic philosophy derived from the ''
Summa Theologica
The ''Summa Theologiae'' or ''Summa Theologica'' (), often referred to simply as the ''Summa'', is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main t ...
'' of
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
.
In the poem, the pilgrim Dante is accompanied by three guides:
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
, who represents
human reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...
, and who guides him for all of ''Inferno'' and most of ''Purgatorio'';
Beatrice, who represents
divine revelation
Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and theology.
Types Individual revelation
Thomas A ...
[Emmerson, Richard K., and Ronald B. Herzman. "Revelation". In: Lansing (ed.), ''The Dante Encyclopedia'', pp. 742–744.] in addition to theology, grace, and faith; and guides him from the end of ''Purgatorio'' onwards; and
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist. (; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templar, and a major leader in the reform of the Benedictines through the nascent Cistercian Order.
Bernard was ...
, who represents
contemplative mysticism and
devotion to Mary the Mother, guiding him in the final cantos of ''Paradiso''.
The work was originally simply titled ''Comedìa'' (,
Tuscan for "Comedy") – so also in the first printed edition, published in 1472 – later adjusted to the modern Italian . The earliest known use of the adjective appears in
Giovanni Boccaccio's,
biographical work ''Trattatello in laude di Dante'' ("Treatise in Praise of Dante"), which was written between 1351 and 1355 – the adjective likely referring to the poem's profound subject matter and elevated style. The first edition to name the poem ''Divina Comedia'' in the title was that of the Venetian
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...
Lodovico Dolce
Lodovico Dolce (1508/10–1568) was an Italian man of letters and theorist of painting. He was a broadly based Venetian humanist and prolific author, translator, and editor; he is now mostly remembered for his ''Dialogue on Painting'' or ''L'Aret ...
, published in 1555 by
Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari
Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari (c. 1508 – 1578) was a 16th-century Italian printer active in Venice. He was one of the first major publishers of literature in the vernacular Italian language.
Early life and career
Giolito was born at Trino to ...
.
Structure and story

The ''Divine Comedy'' is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three ''cantiche'' (singular ''cantica'') – ''Inferno'' (
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
), ''Purgatorio'' (
Purgatory
In Christianity, Purgatory (, borrowed into English language, English via Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman and Old French) is a passing Intermediate state (Christianity), intermediate state after physical death for purifying or purging a soul ...
), and ''Paradiso'' (
Paradise
In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...
) – each consisting of 33
canto
The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry.
Etymology and equivalent terms
The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from th ...
s (Italian plural ''canti''). An initial canto, serving as an introduction to the poem and generally considered to be part of the first ''cantica'', 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 each ''cantica'' serve as prologues to each of the three ''cantiche''.
The number three is prominent in the work, represented in part by the number of ''cantiche'' and their lengths. Additionally, the verse scheme used, ''
terza rima
''Terza rima '' (, also , ; ) is a rhyming verse form, in which the poem, or each poem-section, consists of tercets (three-line stanzas) with an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: The last word of the second line in one tercet provides the rh ...
'', is
hendecasyllabic
In poetry, a hendecasyllable (as an adjective, hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poet ...
(lines of eleven syllables), with the lines composing
tercet
A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem.
Examples of tercet forms
English-language haiku is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem. A poetic triplet is a tercet in which all three lines follow the same r ...
s according to the
rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
An example of the ABAB rh ...
ABA BCB CDC DED... The total number of syllables in each tercet is thus 33, the same as the number of cantos in each ''cantica''.
Written in the first person, the poem tells of Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from
the night before Good Friday
Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...
to the Wednesday after
Easter
Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
guides him through Hell and Purgatory;
Beatrice, Dante's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a Florentine woman he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable
courtly love
Courtly love ( ; ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies b ...
tradition, which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work ''
La Vita Nuova
''La Vita Nuova'' (; modern Italian for "The New Life") or ''Vita Nova'' (Latin and medieval Italian title ) is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a ...
''. The Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux guides Dante through the last three cantos.
The structure of the three realms follows a common
numerical 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 the
Garden of Eden
In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden (; ; ) or Garden of God ( and ), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2–3 and Ezekiel 28 and 31..
The location of Eden is described in the Book of Ge ...
crowning its summit; and the nine celestial bodies of Paradiso, followed by the
Empyrean
In ancient European cosmologies inspired by Aristotle, the Empyrean heaven, Empyreal or simply the Empyrean, was the place in the highest heaven which was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire (or aether in Aristotle's natural philos ...
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, the
seven deadly sins
The seven deadly sins (also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins) function as a grouping of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. In the standard list, the seven deadly sins according to the Catholic Church are pride, greed ...
that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the late repentant and the
excommunicated
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...
. The core seven sins within Purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love (
Lust
Lust is an intense desire for something. Lust can take any form such as the lust for sexuality (see libido), money, or power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food (see gluttony) as distinct from the need for food or lust for red ...
,
Gluttony
Gluttony (, derived from the Latin ''gluttire'' meaning "to gulp down or swallow") means over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste.
In Christianity, it is considered a sin if the excessive desire for food leads to a ...
,
Greed
Greed (or avarice, ) is an insatiable desire for material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions) or social value, such as status or power.
Nature of greed
The initial motivation for (or purpose of) greed and a ...
), deficient love (
Sloth
Sloths are a Neotropical realm, Neotropical group of xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant Arboreal locomotion, arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of move ...
), and malicious love (
Wrath
Anger, also known as wrath ( ; ) or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong, uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt, or threat.
A person experiencing anger will often experience physical ef ...
,
Envy
Envy is an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another's quality, skill, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it. Envy can also refer to the wish for another person to lack something one already ...
,
Pride
Pride is a human Emotion, secondary emotion characterized by a sense of satisfaction with one's Identity (philosophy), identity, performance, or accomplishments. It is often considered the opposite of shame or of humility and, depending on conte ...
).
In central Italy's political struggle between
Guelphs and Ghibellines
The Guelphs and Ghibellines ( , ; ) were Political faction, factions supporting the Pope (Guelphs) and the Holy Roman Emperor (Ghibellines) in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy during the Middle Ages. During the 12th ...
, Dante was part of the Guelphs, who in general favoured the
papacy
The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...
over the
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...
. Florence's Guelphs split into factions around 1300the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. 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
Charles, Count of Valois (12 March 1270 – 16 December 1325), was a member of the House of Capet and founder of the House of Valois, which ruled over France from 1328. He was the fourth son of King Philip III of France and Isabella o ...
entered the city, at the request of
Pope Boniface VIII, who supported the Black Guelphs. 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.
The last word in each of the three ''cantiche'' is ''stelle'' ("stars").
''Inferno''
The poem begins on the
night 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
The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament.
The book is an anthology of B ...
89:10, Vulgate), lost in a dark
wood
Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
(understood as sin), assailed by beasts (a
lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...
, a
leopard
The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...
, and a
she-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 in ''Inferno'' is a ''
contrapasso'', a symbolic instance of
poetic justice
Poetic justice, also called poetic irony, is a literary device with which ultimately virtue is rewarded and misdeeds are punished. In modern literature, it is often accompanied by an ironic twist of fate related to the character's own action, h ...
; for example, in Canto XX,
fortune-tellers
Fortune telling is the spiritual practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115–116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle ...
and
soothsayers must walk with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because that was what they had tried to do in life:
Allegorically, the ''Inferno'' 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. 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
Lust is an intense desire for something. Lust can take any form such as the lust for sexuality (see libido), money, or power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food (see gluttony) as distinct from the need for food or lust for red ...
,
gluttony
Gluttony (, derived from the Latin ''gluttire'' meaning "to gulp down or swallow") means over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste.
In Christianity, it is considered a sin if the excessive desire for food leads to a ...
,
avarice
Greed (or avarice, ) is an insatiable desire for material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions) or social value, such as status or power.
Nature of greed
The initial motivation for (or purpose of) greed and a ...
,
anger
Anger, also known as wrath ( ; ) or rage (emotion), rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong, uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt, or threat.
A person experiencing anger will often experie ...
); 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 the
virtuous 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.
''Purgatorio''
Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of
Purgatory
In Christianity, Purgatory (, borrowed into English language, English via Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman and Old French) is a passing Intermediate state (Christianity), intermediate state after physical death for purifying or purging a soul ...
on the far side of the world. The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the
Southern Hemisphere, created by the displacement of rock which resulted when
Satan
Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...
's fall created Hell (which Dante portrays as existing underneath
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
). The mountain has seven terraces, corresponding to the
seven deadly sins
The seven deadly sins (also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins) function as a grouping of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. In the standard list, the seven deadly sins according to the Catholic Church are pride, greed ...
or "seven roots of sinfulness". The classification of sin here is more psychological than that of the ''Inferno'', being based on motives, rather than actions. It is also drawn primarily from Christian theology, rather than from classical sources. 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 the ''Divine 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
Anger, also known as wrath ( ; ) or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong, uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt, or threat.
A person experiencing anger will often experience physical ef ...
,
Envy
Envy is an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another's quality, skill, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it. Envy can also refer to the wish for another person to lack something one already ...
,
Pride
Pride is a human Emotion, secondary emotion characterized by a sense of satisfaction with one's Identity (philosophy), identity, performance, or accomplishments. It is often considered the opposite of shame or of humility and, depending on conte ...
), or using it to proper ends but with love that is either not strong enough (
Sloth
Sloths are a Neotropical realm, Neotropical group of xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant Arboreal locomotion, arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of move ...
) or love that is too strong (
Lust
Lust is an intense desire for something. Lust can take any form such as the lust for sexuality (see libido), money, or power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food (see gluttony) as distinct from the need for food or lust for red ...
,
Gluttony
Gluttony (, derived from the Latin ''gluttire'' meaning "to gulp down or swallow") means over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste.
In Christianity, it is considered a sin if the excessive desire for food leads to a ...
,
Greed
Greed (or avarice, ) is an insatiable desire for material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions) or social value, such as status or power.
Nature of greed
The initial motivation for (or purpose of) greed and a ...
). 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.
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 (the authenticity of which is disputed
), Dante explains that this reference to Israel leaving Egypt refers both to the
redemption of
Christ
Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...
and to "the conversion of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace." Appropriately, therefore, it is
Easter Sunday
Easter, also called Pascha (Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek language, Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, de ...
when Dante and Virgil arrive.
The ''Purgatorio'' demonstrates the medieval knowledge of a
spherical Earth
Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of the figure of the Earth as a sphere. The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Ancient Greek philos ...
. During the poem, Dante discusses the different stars visible in the
southern hemisphere, the altered position of the sun, and the various
time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
s of the Earth. At this stage it is, Dante says, sunset at Jerusalem, midnight on the River
Ganges
The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...
, and sunrise in Purgatory.
''Paradiso''

After an initial ascension, Beatrice guides Dante through the nine
celestial spheres
The celestial spheres, or celestial orbs, were the fundamental entities of the cosmological models developed by Plato, Eudoxus, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and others. In these celestial models, the apparent motions of the fixed star ...
of
Heaven
Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
. These are concentric and spherical, as in
Aristotelian and
Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to:
Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty
*Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter
*Ptolemaic Kingdom
Pertaining t ...
cosmology. While the structures of the ''Inferno'' and ''Purgatorio'' were based on different classifications of sin, the structure of the ''Paradiso'' is based on the
four cardinal virtues
The cardinal virtues are four virtues of mind and character in classical philosophy. They are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. They form a virtue theory of ethics. The term ''cardinal'' comes from the Latin (hinge); these four ...
and the
three theological virtues.
The seven lowest spheres of Heaven deal solely with the cardinal virtues of
Prudence
Prudence (, contracted from meaning "seeing ahead, sagacity") is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. It is classically considered to be a virtue, and in particular one of the four cardinal virtues (which are, ...
,
Fortitude,
Justice
In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...
and
Temperance. The first three spheres involve a deficiency of one of the cardinal virtues – the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
, 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; and
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...
, 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 the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
, 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
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
contains the men of fortitude who died in the cause of Christianity;
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...
contains the kings of justice; and
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...
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 of
faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion".
According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...
,
hope
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large.
As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...
, and
love
Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...
, and represent the
Church Triumphant
In some strains of Christian theology, the Christian Church may be divided into:
*the Church Militant (), also called the Church Pilgrim, which consists of Christians on Earth who struggle as soldiers of Christ against sin, the devil, and "the ...
– the total perfection of humanity, cleansed of all the sins and carrying all the virtues of heaven; and the ninth circle, or
Primum Mobile
In classical, medieval, and Renaissance astronomy, the Primum Mobile (Latin: "first movable") was the outermost moving sphere in the geocentric model of the universe.
The concept was introduced by Ptolemy to account for the apparent daily moti ...
(corresponding to the geocentricism of medieval astronomy), which contains the angels, creatures never poisoned by original sin. Topping them all is the
Empyrean
In ancient European cosmologies inspired by Aristotle, the Empyrean heaven, Empyreal or simply the Empyrean, was the place in the highest heaven which was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire (or aether in Aristotle's natural philos ...
, which contains the essence of God, completing the nine-fold division to ten.
Dante meets and converses with several great saints of the Church, including
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
,
Bonaventure
Bonaventure ( ; ; ; born Giovanni di Fidanza; 1221 – 15 July 1274) was an Italian Catholic Franciscan bishop, Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal, Scholasticism, scholastic theologian and philosopher.
The seventh Minister General ( ...
,
Saint Peter
Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...
, and
St. John. Near the end, Beatrice departs and Bernard of Clairvaux takes over as the guide. The ''Paradiso'' is more theological in nature than the ''Inferno'' and the ''
Purgatorio
''Purgatorio'' (; Italian for "Purgatory") is the second part of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', following the ''Inferno (Dante), Inferno'' and preceding the ''Paradiso (Dante), Paradiso''; it was written in the early 14th century. It is an alleg ...
''. 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.
The ''Divine Comedy'' finishes with Dante seeing the
Triune God
The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three d ...
. In a flash of understanding that he cannot express, Dante finally understands the mystery of
Christ
Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...
's divinity and humanity, and his soul becomes aligned with God's love:
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers ( ; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic.
Born in Oxford, Sayers was brought up in rural East Anglia and educated at Godolphin School in Salisbury and Somerv ...
, ''Paradise'', notes on Canto XXXIII.
History
Manuscripts
According to the Italian Dante Society, no
original 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.
Early translations
Coluccio Salutati
Coluccio Salutati (16 February 1331 – 4 May 1406) was an Italian Renaissance humanist and notary, and one of the most important political and cultural leaders of Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history ...
translated some quotations from the ''Comedy'' into
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
for his ''De fato et fortuna'' in 1396–1397. The first complete translation of the ''Comedy'' was made into Latin prose by
Giovanni da Serravalle in 1416 for two English bishops,
Robert Hallam and
Nicholas Bubwith, and an Italian cardinal,
Amedeo di Saluzzo Amedeo di Saluzzo (1361 – 28 June 1419) was a cardinal during the Western Schism. He was born as the second son of Frederick II, Marquess of Saluzzo and Beatrice of Geneva. He was nephew of Avignon Pope Clement VII on his mother's side.Mirand ...
. It was made during the
Council of Constance
The Council of Constance (; ) was an ecumenical council of the Catholic Church that was held from 1414 to 1418 in the Bishopric of Constance (Konstanz) in present-day Germany. This was the first time that an ecumenical council was convened in ...
. The first verse translation, into Latin
hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of s ...
s, was made in 1427–1431 by .
The first translation of the ''Comedy'' into another vernacular was the prose translation into
Castilian completed by
Enrique de Villena
Enrique de Villena (1384–1434), also known as and , was a Spanish nobleman, writer, theologian and poet. He was also the last legitimate member of the House of Barcelona, the former royal house of Aragon. When political power was denied t ...
in 1428. The first vernacular verse translation was that of
Andreu Febrer into
Catalan in 1429.
Early printed editions
The first printed edition was published in
Foligno
Foligno (; Central Italian, Southern Umbrian: ''Fuligno'') is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennine Mountains, Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clit ...
, Italy, by Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da
Trevi
The area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) of the European Union (EU) is a policy domain concerning home affairs and migration, justice as well as fundamental rights, developed to address the challenges posed to internal security by col ...
on 1472. Of the 300 copies printed, fourteen still survive. The original printing press is on display in the ''Oratorio della Nunziatella'' in Foligno.
Thematic concerns
The ''Divine Comedy'' can be described simply as an
allegory
As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...
: 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 the ''Letter to
Cangrande'') he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory: the historical, the moral, the literal, and the
anagogical.
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 of
Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante's use of real characters, according to
Dorothy Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers ( ; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic.
Born in Oxford, Sayers was brought up in rural East Anglia and educated at Godolphin School in Salisbury and Somervi ...
in her introduction to her translation of the ''Inferno'', allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "
ake
Ake (or Aké in Spanish orthography) is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the municipality of Tixkokob, in the Mexican state of Yucatán; 40 km (25 mi) east of Mérida, Yucatán.
The n ...
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" was added later, in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). 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
Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...
's account that an early version of the poem was begun by Dante in
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
is still controversial.
Scientific themes
Although the ''Divine Comedy'' is primarily a religious poem, discussing sin, virtue, and theology, Dante also discusses several elements of the
science of his day (this mixture of science with poetry has received both praise and criticism over the centuries). The ''Purgatorio'' repeatedly refers to the implications of a
spherical Earth
Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of the figure of the Earth as a sphere. The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Ancient Greek philos ...
, such as the different stars visible in the
southern hemisphere, the altered position of the
sun
The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
, and the various
time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...
s of the Earth. For example, at sunset in Purgatory it is midnight at the
Ebro
The Ebro (Spanish and Basque ; , , ) is a river of the north and northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain. It rises in Cantabria and flows , almost entirely in an east-southeast direction. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea, forming a de ...
, dawn in Jerusalem, and noon on the
River Ganges
The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary riv ...
:
Dante travels through the centre of the Earth in the ''Inferno'', and comments on the resulting change in the direction of
gravity
In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
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.

Inevitably, given its setting, the ''Paradiso'' discusses
astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
extensively, but in the
Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to:
Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty
*Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter
*Ptolemaic Kingdom
Pertaining t ...
sense. The ''Paradiso'' also discusses the importance of the
experiment
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
al method in science, with a detailed example in lines 94–105 of Canto II:
A briefer example occurs in Canto XV of the ''Purgatorio'' (lines 16–21), where Dante points out that both theory and experiment confirm that the
angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Other references to science in the ''Paradiso'' include descriptions of
clock
A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...
work in Canto XXIV (lines 13–18), and
Thales' theorem
In geometry, Thales's theorem states that if , , and are distinct points on a circle where the line is a diameter, the angle is a right angle. Thales's theorem is a special case of the inscribed angle theorem and is mentioned and proved as pa ...
about triangles in Canto XIII (lines 101–102).
Galileo Galilei
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...
is known to have lectured on the ''Inferno'', and it has been suggested that the poem may have influenced some of Galileo's own ideas regarding mechanics.
Influences
Classical
Without access to the works of
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
, Dante used Virgil,
Lucan
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November AD 39 – 30 April AD 65), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba, Hispania Baetica (present-day Córdoba, Spain). He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imper ...
,
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
, and
Statius
Publius Papinius Statius (Greek language, Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; , ; ) was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid (Latin poem), Theb ...
as the models for the style, history, and mythology of the ''Comedy''. 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, the ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'', praised with language Dante reserves elsewhere for Scripture. 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 the ''
Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...
''. 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 the ''Divine Comedy'' in the twentieth century.
Besides Dante's fellow poets, the classical figure that most influenced the ''Comedy'' is
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
. Dante built up the philosophy of the ''Comedy'' 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 of
Albertus Magnus
Albertus Magnus ( 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great, Albert of Swabia, Albert von Bollstadt, or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop, considered one of the great ...
. Dante even acknowledges Aristotle's influence explicitly in the poem, specifically when Virgil justifies the Inferno's structure by citing the ''
Nicomachean Ethics
The ''Nicomachean Ethics'' (; , ) is Aristotle's best-known work on ethics: the science of the good for human life, that which is the goal or end at which all our actions aim. () It consists of ten sections, referred to as books, and is closely ...
''. In the same canto, Virgil draws on
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
's ''
De Officiis
''De Officiis'' (''On Duties'', ''On Obligations'', or ''On Moral Responsibilities'') is a 44 BC treatise by Marcus Tullius Cicero divided into three books, in which Cicero expounds his conception of the best way to live, behave, and observe mor ...
'' 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 the ''Inferno''.
Christian
The ''Divine Comedy''s language is often derived from the phraseology of the
Vulgate
The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...
. This was the only translation of the Bible Dante had access to, as it was one the vast majority of
scribe
A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing.
The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...
s 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.
The ''Divine Comedy'' is also a product of
Scholasticism
Scholasticism was a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It is known for employing logically precise analyses and reconciling classical philosophy and Ca ...
, especially as expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas. This influence is most pronounced in the ''Paradiso'', where the text's portrayals of God, the beatific vision, and
substantial form
Substantial form is a central philosophical concept in Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism ( ) is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by Prior Analytics, deductive logic and an Posterior Analytics, an ...
s all align with scholastic doctrine. It is also in the ''Paradiso'' that Aquinas and fellow scholastic St. Bonaventure appear as characters, introducing Dante to all of Heaven's wisest souls. Consequently, the ''Divine Comedy'' has been called "the ''Summa'' in verse". Despite all this, there are issues on which Dante diverges from the scholastic doctrine, such as in his unbridled praise for poetry.
The
Apocalypse of Peter
The Apocalypse of Peter, also called the Revelation of Peter, is an early Christian text of the 2nd century and a work of apocalyptic literature. It is the earliest-written extant work depicting a Christian account of heaven and hell in detail ...
is one of the earliest examples of a Christian-Jewish
katabasis
A katabasis or catabasis (; ) is a journey to the underworld. Its original sense is usually associated with Greek mythology and classical mythology more broadly, where the protagonist visits the Greek underworld, also known as Hades. The term is ...
, a genre of explicit depictions of heaven and hell. Later works inspired by it include the
Apocalypse of Thomas in the 2nd–4th century, and more importantly, the
Apocalypse of Paul
The Apocalypse of Paul (, literally "Revelation of Paul"; more commonly known in the Latin tradition as the or ) is a fourth-century non-canonical apocalypse and part of the New Testament apocrypha. The full original Greek version of the Apoc ...
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. The ''Divine Comedy'' belongs to the same genre
and was influenced by the Apocalypse of Paul.
Islamic
Dante lived in a Europe of substantial literary and philosophical contact with the Muslim world, encouraged by such factors as
Averroism
Averroism, also known as Rushdism, was a school of medieval philosophy based on the application of the works of 12th-century Andalusian philosopher Averroes, (Ibn Rushd in Arabic; 1126–1198) a commentator on Aristotle, in 13th-century Latin C ...
("Averrois, che'l gran comento feo" Commedia, Inferno, IV, 144, meaning "Averrois, who wrote the great comment") and the patronage of
Alfonso X of Castile
Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, ; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1 June 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Germany on 1 Apr ...
. Of the twelve wise men Dante meets in Canto X of the ''Paradiso'',
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
and, even more so,
Siger of Brabant
Siger of Brabant (''Sigerus'', ''Sighier'', ''Sigieri'' or ''Sygerius de Brabantia''; c. 1240 – before 10 November 1284) was a 13th-century philosopher from the southern Low Countries who was an important proponent of Averroism.
Life Ea ...
were strongly influenced by Arabic commentators on
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
.
Medieval
Christian mysticism
Christian mysticism is the tradition of mystical practices and mystical theology within Christianity which "concerns the preparation f the personfor, the consciousness of, and the effect of ..a direct and transformative presence of God" ...
also shared the
Neoplatonic
Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common id ...
influence of
Sufis
Sufism ( or ) is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, and asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are referred to as "Sufis" (from , ), and ...
such as
Ibn Arabi
Ibn Arabi (July 1165–November 1240) was an Andalusian Sunni
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest com ...
. Philosopher
Frederick Copleston
Frederick Charles Copleston (10 April 1907 – 3 February 1994) was a British Catholic priest, philosopher, and historian of philosophy, best known for his influential multi-volume '' A History of Philosophy'' (1946–75).
Copleston achieved ...
argued in 1950 that Dante's respectful treatment of
Averroes
Ibn Rushd (14 April 112611 December 1198), archaically Latinization of names, Latinized as Averroes, was an Arab Muslim polymath and Faqīh, jurist from Al-Andalus who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astron ...
,
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...
, and Siger of Brabant indicates his acknowledgement of a "considerable debt" to Islamic philosophy.
In 1919,
Miguel Asín Palacios, a Spanish scholar and a Catholic priest, published ''La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia'' (''Islamic
Eschatology
Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of Contemporary era, present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic and non-Abrah ...
in the Divine Comedy''), an account of parallels between
early Islamic philosophy
Early Islamic philosophy or classical Islamic philosophy is a period of intense philosophical development beginning in the 2nd century AH of the Islamic calendar (early 9th century Common Era, CE) and lasting until the 6th century AH (late 12th ...
and the ''Divine Comedy''. Palacios argued that Dante derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter from the spiritual writings of
Ibn Arabi
Ibn Arabi (July 1165–November 1240) was an Andalusian Sunni
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest com ...
and from the
Isra and Mi'raj
The Israʾ and Miʿraj (, ') are the names given to the narrations that the prophet Muhammad ascended to the sky during a night journey, saw Allah and the afterlife, and returned. It is believed that expressions without a subject in verses 1-18 of ...
, or night journey of
Muhammad
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
to heaven. The latter is described in the ''
ahadith
Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...
'' and the ''
Kitab al Miraj'' (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before
[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.] as ''
Liber scalae Machometi'', "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder"), and has significant similarities to the ''Paradiso'', such as a
sevenfold division of Paradise, although this is not unique to the ''Kitab al Miraj'' or Islamic cosmology.
Many scholars have not been satisfied that Dante was influenced by the ''Kitab al Miraj''. The 20th-century Orientalist
Francesco Gabrieli
Francesco Gabrieli (27 April 1904, in Rome – 13 December 1996, in Rome) was counted among the most distinguished Italian Arabists together with Giorgio Levi Della Vida and Alessandro Bausani, of whom he was respectively a student and colle ...
expressed skepticism regarding the claimed similarities, and the lack of evidence of a vehicle through which it could have been transmitted to Dante. The Italian philologist
Maria Corti pointed out that, during his stay at the court of Alfonso X, Dante's mentor
Brunetto Latini
Brunetto Latini (who signed his name ''Burnectus Latinus'' in Latin and ''Burnecto Latino'' in Italian; –1294) was an Italian philosopher, scholar, notary, politician and statesman. He was a teacher and friend of Dante Alighieri.
Life
Brunetto ...
met Bonaventura de Siena, a Tuscan who had translated the ''Kitab al Miraj'' from Arabic into Latin. Corti speculates that Brunetto may have provided a copy of that work to Dante.
René Guénon
René Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon (15 November 1886 – 7 January 1951), also known as Abdalwahid Yahia (; ), was a French intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from esoterici ...
, a Sufi convert and scholar of Ibn Arabi, confirms in ''The Esoterism of Dante'' the theory of the Islamic influence (direct or indirect) on Dante. Palacios' theory that Dante was influenced by Ibn Arabi was satirised by the Turkish academic
Orhan Pamuk
Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952; ) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, he has sold over 13 million books in 63 languages, making him ...
in his novel
''The Black Book''.
In addition to that, it has been claimed that ''
Risālat al-Ghufrān'' ("The Epistle of Forgiveness"), a
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
work mixing
Arabic poetry
Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...
and
prose
Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...
written by
Abu al-ʿAlaʾ al-Maʿarri around 1033 CE, had an influence on, or even inspired, Dante's ''Divine Comedy''.
Criticism and textual history
Critical reception of the ''Divine Comedy'' has varied considerably prior to its universal renown today. Although recognised as a
masterpiece
A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship.
Historically, ...
in the centuries immediately following its publication, the work largely fell into obscurity during the
Enlightenment
Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to:
Age of Enlightenment
* Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
, with some notable exceptions:
Vittorio Alfieri
Count Vittorio Amedeo Alfieri (, also , ; 16 January 17498 October 1803) was an Italians, Italian dramatist and poet, considered the "founder of Italian tragedy." He wrote nineteen tragedies, sonnets, satires, and a notable autobiography.
Early l ...
;
Antoine de Rivarol
Antoine de Rivarol (26 June 175311 April 1801) was a French royalist writer and translator who lived during the Revolutionary era. He was briefly married to the translator Louisa Henrietta de Rivarol.
Biography
Rivarol was born in Bagnols, L ...
, who translated the ''Inferno'' into French; and
Giambattista Vico
Giambattista Vico (born Giovan Battista Vico ; ; 23 June 1668 – 23 January 1744) was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist during the Italian Enlightenment. He criticized the expansion and development of modern rationali ...
, who in the ''Scienza nuova'' and in the ''Giudizio su Dante'' inaugurated what would later become the romantic reappraisal of Dante, juxtaposing him to Homer.
The ''Comedy'' was "rediscovered" in the English-speaking world by
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...
– who illustrated several passages of the epic – and the
Romantic writers of the 19th century. Later authors such as
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...
,
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
,
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
,
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...
and
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
have drawn on it for inspiration. The poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...
was its first American translator, and modern poets, including
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...
,
Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky (born October 20, 1940) is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. He was the first United States Poet Laureate to serve three terms. Recognized worldwide, Pinsky's work has earned numerous accolades. Pinsky ...
,
John Ciardi
John Anthony Ciardi ( ; ; June 24, 1916 – March 30, 1986) was an American poet, translator, and etymologist. While primarily known as a poet and translator of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', he also wrote several volumes of children's poetry, pursu ...
,
W. S. Merwin, and
Stanley Lombardo
Stanley F. "Stan" Lombardo (alias Hae Kwang; born June 19, 1943) is an American Classicist, and former professor of Classics at the University of Kansas.
He is best known for his translations of the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'', and the ''Aeneid' ...
, have also produced translations of all or parts of the book. In Russia, beyond
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...
's translation of a few tercets,
Osip Mandelstam
Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam (, ; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school.
Osip Mandelstam was arrested during the repressions of the 1930s and sent into internal exile wi ...
's late poetry has been said to bear the mark of a "tormented meditation" on the ''Comedy''. In 1934, Mandelstam gave a modern reading of the poem in his labyrinthine "Conversation on Dante".
Erich Auerbach
Erich Auerbach (; 9 November 1892 – 13 October 1957) was a German philologist and comparative scholar and critic of literature. His best-known work is '' Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature'', a history of representa ...
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 the ''Divine Comedy'', suggests that the ''Divine Comedy'' inaugurated
literary realism
Literary realism is a movement and genre of literature that attempts to represent mundane and ordinary subject-matter in a faithful and straightforward way, avoiding grandiose or exotic subject-matter, exaggerated portrayals, and speculative ele ...
and self-portraiture in modern fiction. In T. S. Eliot's estimation, "Dante and
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
divide the world between them. There is no third." For
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...
the ''Divine Comedy'' was "the best book literature has achieved".
The ''Comedy'' is considered one originator of the
encyclopedic novel
The encyclopedic novel is a genre of complex literary fiction which incorporates elements across a wide range of scientific, academic, and literary subjects. The concept was coined by Edward Mendelson in criticism of '' Gravity's Rainbow'' by Th ...
across multiple formulations of the concept. 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
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his no ...
, or
Melville.
English translations
The ''Divine Comedy'' has been translated into English more times than any other language, and new English translations of the ''Divine Comedy'' continue to be published regularly. Notable English translations of the complete poem include the following.
A number of other translators, such as
Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky (born October 20, 1940) is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. He was the first United States Poet Laureate to serve three terms. Recognized worldwide, Pinsky's work has earned numerous accolades. Pinsky ...
, have translated the ''Inferno'' only.
In popular culture

The ''Divine Comedy'' has been a source of inspiration for countless artists for almost seven centuries. There are many references to Dante's work in
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
. In
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
,
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...
was one of many composers to write
works
Works may refer to:
People
* Caddy Works (1896–1982), American college sports coach
* John D. Works (1847–1928), California senator and judge
* Samuel Works (c. 1781–1868), New York politician
Albums
* ''Works'' (Pink Floyd album), a Pi ...
based on the ''Divine Comedy''. In contemporary music,
Hozier
Andrew John Hozier-Byrne (born 17 March 1990), known professionally as Hozier ( ), is an Irish musician. His music primarily draws from Folk music, folk, Soul music, soul and blues, often using religious and literary themes and taking politica ...
's 2023 album
Unreal Unearth
''Unreal Unearth'' is the third studio album by Irish musician Hozier, released on 18 August 2023. A loose concept album inspired by and drawing on themes from Dante's ''Inferno'', it contains the singles "Eat Your Young" and "Francesca", along ...
also draws inspiration from Dante's epic.
In
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
, the work of
Auguste Rodin
François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...
includes themes from Dante. Sculptor
Timothy Schmalz
Timothy Paul Schmalz (born 1969) is a Canadian sculptor from St. Jacobs, Ontario, Canada. Cast editions of his life-sized sculptures have been installed in major cities in front of some of the most historically significant Christian sites in the ...
created a series of 100 sculptures, one for each canto, on the 700th anniversary of the date of Dante's death,
and many
visual artists
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...
have illustrated Dante's work, as shown by the examples above. There have also been many references to the ''Divine Comedy'' in
cinema
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
** Filmmaking, the process of making a film
* Movie theate ...
,
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
,
comics and video games.
See also
*
Allegory in the Middle Ages
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughout ...
*
Dream vision
A dream vision or ''visio'' is a literary device in which a dream or vision is recounted as having revealed knowledge or a truth that is not available to the dreamer or visionary in a normal waking state. While dreams occur frequently throughout ...
*
List of cultural references in ''Divine Comedy''
*
Seven Heavens
In ancient Near Eastern cosmology, the seven heavens refer to seven firmaments or physical layers located above the open sky. The concept can be found in ancient Mesopotamian religion, Judaism, and Islam. Some traditions complement the seven ...
*
Theological fiction
Theological fiction is fictional writing which shapes or depicts people's attitudes towards theological beliefs. It is typically ''instructional'' or ''exploratory'' rather than descriptive, and it engages specifically with the theoretical ideas wh ...
* ''
Risalat al-Ghufran
(), or ''The Epistle of Forgiveness'', is a satirical work of Arabic poetry written by Abu al-ʿAlaʾ al-Maʿarri around 1033 CE. It has been claimed that the had an influence on Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''.
Context
The work is a respo ...
''
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
Further reading
* Ziolkowski, Jan M. (2015).
Dante and Islam'. Fordham University Press, New York. .
External links
*
Princeton Dante Project website that offers the complete text of the ''Divine Comedy'' (and Dante's other works) in Italian and English along with audio accompaniment in both languages. Includes historical and interpretive annotation.
*
Full text of the ''Commedia''
Dante Dartmouth Project full text of more than 70 Italian, Latin, and English commentaries on the ''Commedia'', ranging in date from 1322 (
Iacopo Alighieri) to the 2000s (Robert Hollander)
*
A Dictionary of the Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante' by Paget Toynbee (Oxford: Clarendon, 1898)
*
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
'
Digital Dante features the full text in Italian alongside English translations from
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...
and
Allen Mandelbaum
__NOTOC__
Allen Mandelbaum (May 4, 1926 – October 27, 2011) was an American professor of literature and the humanities, poet, and translator from Classical Greek, Latin and Italian. His translations of classic works gained him numerous awards in ...
. Includes English commentary from
Teodolinda Barolini
Teodolinda Barolini (born December 19, 1951) is the Lorenzo Da Ponte Professor of Italian at Columbia University, and has twice served as Chair of the Department of Italian (1992–2004, 2011–2014).
Early life
Barolini was born December 19, ...
as well as multimedia resources relating to the Divine Comedy.
*
Going Through Hell: The Divine Dante exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, 9 April – 16 July 2023
{{Authority control
1321 books
14th-century poems
Allegory
Afterlife in Christianity
Catholic Church in popular culture
Christian art about death
Christian poetry
Cultural depictions of Virgil
Cultural depictions of Francesca da Rimini
Encyclopedic and systems novels
Epic poems in Italian
Fiction about God
Fiction about purgatory
Fiction about the Devil
Heaven in popular culture
Hell in popular culture
Italian poems
Katabasis
Medieval poetry
Poems about God
Visionary poems
Works by Dante Alighieri