marked the beginning of 600 years of German instability (Hollister, p. 205). Henry of Luxembourg followed as Emperor in 1308, submitted to papal authority, and vowed to restore peace, starting with Italy. Dante had high hopes for Henry’s reign, hopes that were never realized. By this time, Dante had grown increasingly critical of Florentine politics and the papacy, even urging Henry to attack Florence in 1311 when he was in Italy for his coronation. The emperor marched on Florence, but his efforts failed, marking “the end of Dante's hopes for the reestablishment of effective imperial power in Italy in the foreseeable future” (Chiarenza,The Divine Comedy: Tracing God's Art, p. 3).

Florence: Civic Strife

Prior to and during Dante’s era, Italy was, as Charles T. Davis describes, “a peninsula united by language and history but not by any central government.” Indeed, “Italy remained, after the failure of Frederick II’s attempt to conquer her, in her habitual state of political chaos” (Dante’s Italy and Other Essays, p. 1). Dante was deeply dissatisfied with the political climate in Florence. Despite being one of the most prosperous city-states of its time and flourishing artistically, intellectually, and commercially, Florence had long been plagued by intermittent civil wars, gang violence, and family feuds that extended to regional and even international levels. This created a paradox: a city that was a hub of commerce and art, yet also a very perilous place to live. This contradiction fueled Dante’s complex love/hate relationship with his hometown. His sentiment was further complicated by his view of Florence as the “most beautiful and famous daughter of Rome,” as he mentioned in De Vulgari Eloquentia (On the Vulgar Tongue). We have already examined the state of Rome and its empire during this period.

Much of Florence’s internal conflicts were driven by the Guelf and Ghibelline parties, Italianized versions of the German Welf and Weiblingen. These factions had a long-standing rivalry in Germany dating back to the twelfth century. The Guelfs were typically associated with papal power and the French monarchy, while the Ghibellines aligned with imperial power, though the reality was more complicated. Their introduction into Florentine politics followed a dispute stemming from the murder of Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti by members of the Amidei family on Easter Sunday in 1215. The Buondelmonti family led the Guelf faction, and the Uberti led the Ghibellines. After the murder, the Guelfs sought support from the papacy, while the Ghibellines turned to the empire, leading to a bitterly divided Florence. Their conflicts persisted earnestly (though never fully ceased) for sixty-three years, until 1278, with control of Florence alternating between the Guelfs and Ghibellines. In 1266, one year after Dante’s death, the Guelfs regained control of Florence, ushering in nearly three decades of peace and prosperity. However, in 1300, the Guelfs splintered into factions: the White Guelfs and the Black Guelfs. The Whites, led by the wealthy and influential Cerchi family, were prosperous merchants who eventually allied with the Ghibellines. The Blacks were led by the Donati family, who had banking interests throughout Europe.

Dante was deeply involved in the conflict of his time. Although he was born into a Guelf family, he eventually sided with the Whites and the Ghibellines, opposing a papal monarchy and Charles of Valois. In 1289, Dante joined the cavalry and saw military service. He fought alongside Florence and its Guelf allies against Arezzo, achieving victory at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289 and again at Caprona in August of the same year.

In 1295, Dante served on the People’s Council of the Commune of Florence and participated in the council that elected the city’s priors. By 1296, he was a member of the Council of the Hundred, a significant political body managing Florentine civic and financial affairs. In 1300, he traveled as an ambassador to San Gimignano and was elected to the prominent office of prior. He also served as an ambassador for the Whites, meeting with Pope Boniface at Anagni.

During his absence, the Whites lost power, and the Blacks exiled Dante for two years, accusing him of conspiracy against the pope and Florence. Dante refused to attend his hearing in 1302 or pay the fines, believing that doing so would imply guilt. The Blacks warned him that if he ever returned to Florence, he would be arrested and burned alive. There is no evidence that he ever went back.

Not all epics fit a single definition, but they share enough similar poetic traits to be classified under the genre of epic. Traditionally, epics address grand and significant themes, often starting "in the middle of things," or in medias res. They span extensive periods and vast areas, feature a large ensemble of characters, and center around heroic, often legendary figures. Due to their serious subject matter, epics frequently involve the gods or God in some capacity. They are narrative in nature, meaning they tell a story. Epics are composed in a high register of verse, employing formal language and poetic devices such as symbolism, metaphor, and simile, which is a type of figurative language. Dante’s Divine Comedy exemplifies all these characteristics.

Dante’s epic narrates his journey from sin to grace. For medieval Christians, no theme was more exalted than the salvation of the soul. At the poem's outset, Dante the pilgrim, representing the poet himself, finds himself lost in sin, wandering "in the middle of the road of our life" (Inferno 1.1.1). Dante is at the midpoint of his life's journey, a well-known metaphor. The use of the plural pronoun "our" draws readers into the narrative, making them virtual pilgrims on this journey to God. Consequently, Dante symbolizes all Christians, who can read and learn, as he does, about the nature of sin and the means to overcome it.

In addition to its exalted theme and beginning in medias res, The Divine Comedy unfolds over several days and an infinitely vast setting. The narrative spans from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. The setting encompasses the entire universe, including places like the Mountain of Purgatory, which Dante created specifically for the poem. Dante, guided by the classical epic poet Virgil (70–19 BCE), travels through the depths of hell, up the Mountain of Purgatory, and through the heavenly spheres to ultimately meet God face to face.

The vast theme and scope of this epic are complemented by its extensive cast of characters, many of whom are legendary or even mythological. The Divine Comedy features over five hundred characters, each playing a crucial role in Dante’s theological exploration. These characters include a multitude of Dante's Italian contemporaries, both pagan and Christian heroes and martyrs, as well as kings, queens, emperors, empresses, devils, angels, saints, philosophers, theologians, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Christ, and God the Father. Additionally, the epic includes several poets, both past and present, with the most significant being Virgil. What better guide could an epic poet have than Publius Virgilius Maro? Alongside Homer, Virgil is almost synonymous with the term epic poet. Virgil’s Aeneid, which narrates Aeneas’s adventures post-Trojan War, remains one of the timeless epics. Particularly, Book 6 of the Aeneid, where the destined founder of Rome ventures into the underworld, served as a significant inspiration for Dante.

The Divine Comedy, much like Virgil's Aeneid and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, dedicates considerable attention to supernatural beings. However, as a Christian epic, Dante’s divine entities are saints, angels, and the Trinity. These divine figures actively participate in aiding Dante’s journey to the Empyrean, a realm of pure white light where God resides. The Virgin Mary informs Saint Lucy of Dante’s spiritual peril. Saint Lucy, in turn, alerts the blessed Beatrice, who then sends Virgil to guide Dante, her earthly admirer, through hell and purgatory.

Dante chose to recount this grand tale of his alter ego’s journey through the three realms in verse, adhering to the epic form. However, he opted not to write in Latin, the language of the church and most serious religious poetry of the time. Instead, Dante wrote in the vernacular, specifically the Tuscan dialect of his people. He did so to ensure that his message reached a broader audience, beyond just those who were literate in Latin. Despite writing in the common tongue, his diction is of the highest caliber, perfectly aligning with his lofty purposes.

Despite its flexibility and expressiveness, Dante’s Tuscan dialect was not entirely adequate for his purposes. This is not a critique of the language itself, as it is unlikely that Latin or any other language would have served him any better. The main issue was that many concepts Dante wanted to express were simply too otherworldly. In other words, he struggled to depict God and aspects of His Creation. To address this, Dante invented words, the most famous being the nearly untranslatable trasumanar. He also frequently relied on metaphor and figurative language in his attempt to convey Creation. The passage in which trasumanar appears exemplifies the poet's recognition of his insurmountable task: “The passing beyond humanity [trasumanar] may not be set forth in words” (Paradise 1, l. 70).

The nearer Dante approaches God and the more he transcends his humanity, the more often he admits that language fails him. On a profound level, the entire poem serves as a metaphor, representing a journey that may never have actually occurred but seemingly had to have been experienced for Dante to describe it to his readers.

Circa 1300: Dante's grasp of the cosmos, which is essential for interpreting his works, was rooted in the theories of the Greek astronomer, mathematician, and geographer Claudius Ptolemy (circa BCE 100–circa 178). Ptolemy proposed that stars and planets were set within crystalline spheres that orbited the Earth. This geocentric (Earth-centered) view placed Earth and humanity at the focal point of creation, signifying their utmost importance.

Late twentieth century: In 1543, the Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) introduced a groundbreaking theory that challenged Ptolemy's views. Copernicus contended that Earth is not the center of the universe; rather, it and all other planets in our solar system revolve around the Sun. This heliocentric (Sun-centered) model revolutionized classical and medieval perceptions of humanity’s significance in the universe and laid the groundwork for modern astronomy.

Circa 1300: Dante believed that the southern hemisphere was entirely covered with water and thus uninhabitable. Maps from that era depict this belief, showing only the populated northern hemisphere. Dante’s innovative concept of the Mountain of Purgatory, with the Garden of Eden at its summit, situated in the supposedly uninhabited southern region, was unique to him. Nevertheless, he adhered to mapmaking traditions of the time, which often represented the Garden as a difficult-to-reach earthly paradise. These maps typically positioned it in the east, sometimes as an island, and depicted it surrounded by stone walls and a ring of fire. This is the island Ulysses and his crew encounter (Inferno 26, ll. 133–42), the one Virgil describes to Dante as they exit hell (Inferno 34, l. 121), and the one they ascend in Purgatory.

Late twentieth century: Shortly after Dante’s era, in the early fourteenth century, mariners began to explore more extensively, charting vast areas of oceans, seas, and coastlines. The Age of Exploration produced significantly more accurate maps, dramatically altering the way people like Dante perceived the Earth. This perspective has evolved even further with space exploration advancements in the late twentieth century.

Circa 1300: Despite the rapid changes and expansion in Western Europe during Dante’s time, society remained fundamentally hierarchical and highly structured. Christians believed that God ruled over all, akin to a king or emperor, and that everything was arranged in a descending order of importance beneath Him. The universe in Dante’s Divine Comedy is shaped by these hierarchical principles. Beatrice and Saint Bernard explain this to Dante, demonstrating how God’s love governs and orders the universe (Paradise 27-33).

Late twentieth century: Social structures in the late twentieth century are markedly different, although remnants of medieval hierarchies and class systems still exist. Since the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, much of humanity has grown more skeptical and less inclined to believe in a divinely ordered universe like Dante’s.

Circa 1300: In Dante’s era, the Christian church stood as possibly the most powerful institution in Europe. The pope’s authority was matched only by that of the emperor, and the two were frequently at odds. Besides its spiritual responsibilities, the church played a significant role in both global and local politics. Scholars throughout the church’s domain communicated in Latin, its official language.

Late twentieth century: By the late twentieth century, no institution held a comparable global influence. No single entity wielded such extensive spiritual and political power. The United States emerged as a leading global force, with English rapidly becoming the international language. Initially spread by the British Empire, English's prominence was further cemented by the global reach of American business and tourism.

The Divine Comedy, or parts of it, has influenced several films. In 1912, Giuseppe de Liguoro directed a silent film titled Dante's Inferno. Another silent version with the same name was directed by Henry Otto in 1924. In 1935, Harry Lachman directed a film called Dante’s Inferno, featuring Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor, Rita Hayworth, Yakima Cannutt, and Dorothy Dix. This film revolves around a carnival attraction that depicts scenes from Dante’s poem.

Peter Greenaway produced TV Dante: The Inferno Cantos I–VIII for Channel Four television in Great Britain, which aired in 1989. Tom Phillips wrote the screenplay for this highly stylized, almost experimental, interpretation of the first eight cantos of the Inferno. The cast includes Sir John Gielgud as Virgil, Bob Peck as Dante, and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as Beatrice. Although difficult to find since its original broadcast, Greenaway and Phillips’s graphic rendition is available as a Films for the Humanities videocassette. This ninety-minute film has been retitled The Inferno.

Dante’s work has also inspired classical composers. In 1980, Carlo Maria Giulini, Dame Janet Baker, the Philharmonia Chorus, and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London recorded Giuseppe Verdi’s (1813–1901) Four Sacred Pieces. This work, which sets some of Dante’s texts to music, is available on a His Master’s Voice recording. In 1987, Eric Ericson created modern choir music inspired by the thirty-fourth and final canto of Dante’s Inferno, as well as poetry by Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374), e.e. cummings (1894–1962), and Ezra Pound (1885–1972). Ericson’s contemporary compositions are available on a compact disc produced by Phono Suecia in Stockholm.

The tradition of illustrating Dante’s poem dates almost to its creation in the early fourteenth century. Peter H. Brieger’s two-volume Illuminated Manuscripts of the Divine Comedy includes commentaries by the esteemed Dante scholar Charles S. Singleton, along with numerous manuscript illuminations. Princeton University Press published this work in 1969. Giovanni di Paolo (1403–1482) illustrated the final section of Dante’s epic, Paradise. John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy edited and published these illustrations with Random House in New York in 1993, under the title Paradiso: The Illuminations to Dante’s Divine Comedy by Giovanni di Paolo.

Sandro Botticelli (1444–1510) illustrated the entire Divine Comedy. Sir Kenneth Clark released an edition of Botticelli’s work in 1976 through Thames and Hudson publishers in London. The English visionary poet William Blake (1757–1827) created a renowned set of illustrations for Dante’s epic. In 1953, Albert S. Roe published these as Blake’s Illustrations to the Divine Comedy. Greenwood of Westport, Connecticut reissued Roe’s 1953 collection in 1977. In 1976, Paddington Press in New York reissued Gustave Doré’s (1832–1883) famous 1861 illustrations of the Inferno. This large-format edition, titled Inferno Doré: The Vision of Hell by Dante Alighieri, also includes Henry Cary’s translation of the poem and is available in paperback.

Students exploring Dante’s works now have numerous online resources at their disposal. A great starting point is the ELT Web Digital Dante Project. Edited by Jennifer Hogan from Columbia University in New York, this comprehensive page offers a wealth of materials. Among these are the complete texts of The Divine Comedy in a parallel Italian and English format, translated by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882).

The site also features links to other works by Dante, images of medieval art, various Bibles, and classical, medieval, and Renaissance literature related to Dante and his creations. Additionally, you can find images by artists like Sandro Botticelli, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), and Gustave Doré. The website can be accessed at http://daemon.ilt.columbia.edu/projects/dante/index.html.

Sources for Further Study

Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy, Vol. I: Inferno, Vol. II: Purgatory, Vol. III: Paradise. Translated and annotated by Mark Musa. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1984. Musa’s unrhymed verse translation closely mirrors the meter and essence of Dante’s challenging terza rima. This esteemed Dante scholar offers a summary at the beginning of each canto, comprehensive explanatory notes, illustrations, and a bibliography.

———. The Divine Comedy. Translated and with notes and commentary by Charles S. Singleton, 3 vols., Bollingen Series 80. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970–75. Singleton’s side-by-side prose translation is widely regarded as the definitive edition of Dante’s epic poem. His detailed notes and commentary include full texts of all references, both in English and their original languages.

———. The Portable Dante. Edited with an introduction and notes by Mark Musa. New York: Viking Penguin, 1995. This single-volume paperback compiles Musa’s earlier translations of Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise, and the Vita Nuova. Like the previous Penguin editions, this volume provides summaries of each canto, a select bibliography, and illustrations. However, Musa’s commentary in this edition is presented as concise footnotes.

Bergin, Thomas G., ed. Dante: His Life, His Times, His Works. New York: American Heritage Press, 1968. This older introductory study includes a collection of excerpts from Dante’s writings, along with several useful sections: a brief biography, a select chronology of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a section on the arts of the time, and one on the characters in The Divine Comedy.

Bergin, Thomas G. Dante. New York: Orion, 1965. A classic, scholarly examination of Dante’s work.

Chiarenza, Marguerite Mills. The Divine Comedy: Tracing God's Art. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989. A study aimed at students new to The Divine Comedy. Chiarenza offers accessible insights into the historical context, reception, and significance of the poem, along with an analysis of each canticle, a detailed chronology (1215–1321), and a well-annotated bibliography.

Davis, Charles T. “Dante’s Italy.” Dante’s Italy and Other Essays. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984, pp.1–22. This essay focuses on Dante’s views about language, particularly his belief in the power of Italian (rather than Latin) poetry. It also explores his political and religious perspectives.

Demaray, John G. The Invention of Dante’s Commedia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974. Demaray argues that Dante based his heavenly journey on real medieval pilgrimages to the Holy Land, providing extensive historical and cultural information about such pilgrimages.

Fowlie, Wallace. A Reading of Dante’s Inferno. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981. Fowlie offers an analysis of each canto from the first canticle of Dante’s epic. Each entry concludes with a helpful section titled “Principal Signs and Symbols,” and the book ends with an insightful section called “Note on Reading Dante Today.”

Freccero, John. Dante: The Poetics of Conversion. Edited and introduced by Rachel Jacoff. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986. This challenging yet insightful collection of essays by America’s leading Dante scholar provides unique and original interpretations of selected cantos from Dante’s poem.

Friederich, Werner P. Dante’s Fame Abroad: 1350–1850, Studies in Comparative Literature 2. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1950. A thorough examination of existing research on Dante’s influence on poets and scholars in the United States and Europe.

Giamatti, A. Bartlett, ed. Dante in America: The First Two Centuries, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 23. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1983. This anthology, curated by the distinguished scholar and former Major League Baseball Commissioner, compiles significant critical analyses by American scholars from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Kirkpatrick, Robin. Dante: The Divine Comedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. A scholarly examination that includes a section on Dante’s evolution as a poet, an in-depth analysis of each canticle, a brief essay on Dante’s “impact,” and a helpful “guide to further reading.”

Kleiner, John. Mismapping the Underworld: Daring and Error in Dante’s “Comedy.” Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994. Kleiner explores Dante’s “enthusiasm for error,” challenging a critical tradition that seeks perfection in TheDivine Comedy.

Mazzeo, Joseph Anthony. Medieval Cultural Tradition in Dante’s “Comedy.” Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1968. This essential collection of essays by a distinguished Dante scholar addresses the structure of TheDivine Comedy and firmly situates the poem within its cultural context.

Musa, Mark. “The ‘Sweet New Style’ I Hear.” Advent at the Gates: Dante’s “Comedy.” Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1974, pp. 111–28. One of America’s leading Dante scholars elucidates the poet's dolce stil novo, the “sweet new style” of lyric poetry employed by Dante and his contemporaries.

Quinones, Ricardo J. Dante Alighieri. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1979. Quinones discusses Dante’s life and each of his works within the context of their cultural and historical events. While Quinones’s chronology (1215–1321) is less informative than Chiarenza’s, it offers a more detailed historical perspective on Dante’s era.

Thompson, David. Dante’s Epic Journeys. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974. An accessible study that provides a comprehensive discussion of Dante’s utilization of works by Homer and Virgil.

Toynbee, Paget. Dante Alighieri: His Life and Works, 4th ed. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1971. Originally published in 1901, Toynbee’s work was long regarded as the definitive bibliographical and historical study of Dante’s life, offering still-relevant background information.

——— . Dante Dictionary, rev. ed. Edited by Charles S. Singleton. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Toynbee’s original title, A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante, broadly indicates its scope. First published in 1889, this work remains one of the most valuable resources for students of Dante’s works.

Yates, Frances A. The Art of Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966. While somewhat dated, this book remains valuable, particularly for readers curious about the function of memory in works such as Dante's.