The Divine Comedy
La Divina Commedia
Written AD 1320*, in Tuscan
* An approximate date: when this work was composed or first set down isn’t known exactly.
The Divine Comedy is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed c. 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of Western literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it existed in the Latin Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
Your reading
Which translation to read
Robert and Jean Hollander2007Our pick
Accurate blank verse with the Italian alongside and the best notes in English: the companion for a full reading.
Allen Mandelbaum1984
Musical and close, in the Everyman edition.
John Ciardi1970
Rhymed and vigorous; it gives a sense of Dante's terza rima.
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