Divine Comedy

Lore & Background

The poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, exploring the condition of the soul after death and portraying divine justice. It is divided into three cantiche: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, each consisting of 33 cantos, with an initial canto bringing the total to 100. The work was originally simply titled Comedìa, later adjusted to the modern Italian Commedia. The earliest known use of the adjective Divina appears in Giovanni Boccaccio's Trattatello in laude di Dante, written between 1351 and 1355. The first edition to name the poem Divina Comedia in the title was published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari, edited by Lodovico Dolce. Dante is guided through the realms by three figures: Virgil, who represents human reason, guiding him for all of Inferno and most of Purgatorio; Beatrice, who represents divine revelation in addition to theology, grace, and faith, guiding him from the end of Purgatorio onwards; and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who represents contemplative mysticism and devotion to Mary the Mother, guiding him in the final cantos of Paradiso. The poem draws on medieval Catholic theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy derived from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. The structure of the three realms follows a pattern of 9 plus 1, totaling 10: nine circles of Inferno followed by Lucifer contained at its bottom; nine rings of Mount Purgatory followed by the Garden of Eden crowning its summit; and nine celestial bodies of Paradiso followed by the Empyrean containing the very essence of God. The poem reflects Dante's political context as a White Guelph 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 Pope Boniface VIII, who supported the Black Guelphs. Dante's desire for a strong emperor to restore order to Italy and Europe is a constant theme throughout the poem. The last word in each of the three cantiche is stelle ('stars').

Reader's Guide

The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines divided into three cantiche – Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso – each consisting of 33 cantos, with an initial canto bringing the total to 100. The verse scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables), with lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme 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 to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300. In 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, lost in a dark wood (understood as sin), assailed by beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf) he cannot evade. He is rescued by Virgil, and they begin their journey to the underworld. Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso, a symbolic instance of poetic justice; for example, in Canto XX, fortune-tellers and soothsayers must walk with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead. In Purgatorio, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world. The mountain has seven terraces, corresponding to the seven deadly sins. The classification of sin here is more psychological than that of the Inferno, based on motives rather than actions. Below the seven purges is the Ante-Purgatory, containing the Excommunicated and the Late repentant. The Purgatorio demonstrates the medieval knowledge of a spherical Earth, discussing different stars visible in the Southern Hemisphere, the altered position of the Sun, and various time zones. At this stage it is, Dante says, sunset at Jerusalem, midnight on the River Ganges. In Paradiso, Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial bodies, followed by the Empyrean containing the very essence of God. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux guides Dante through the last three cantos. Allegorically, the poem represents the soul's journey towards God, 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).

Did You Know?

• The poem was originally simply titled Comedìa, and the first edition to name it Divina Comedia in the title was published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.
• The earliest known use of the adjective Divina appears in Giovanni Boccaccio's Trattatello in laude di Dante, written between 1351 and 1355.
• The last word in each of the three cantiche is stelle ('stars').
• The poem is composed of 14,233 lines, with each cantica having 33 cantos plus an initial canto, totaling 100 cantos.
• Dante was among the White Guelphs exiled in 1302 by the Lord-Mayor Cante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio, after troops under Charles of Valois entered Florence at the request of Pope Boniface VIII.