The Divine Comedy

Lore & Background

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 biographical work Trattatello in laude di Dante, written between 1351 and 1355. The first edition to name the poem Divina Comedia in the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce, published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari. 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. It describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. 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). Dante draws on medieval Catholic theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy derived from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas.

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, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic with lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC DED, and the total number of syllables in each tercet is 33. The structure of the three realms follows a common numerical pattern of 9 plus 1, for a total of 10: nine circles of the Inferno followed by Lucifer; nine rings of Mount Purgatory followed by the Garden of Eden; and nine celestial bodies of Paradiso followed by the Empyrean. Within each group of nine, seven elements correspond to a specific moral scheme, subdivided into three subcategories. For example, the seven deadly sins cleansed in Purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of love perverted, subdivided into excessive love (Lust, Gluttony, Greed), deficient love (Sloth), and malicious love (Wrath, Envy, Pride). The poem is written in the first person and 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. The pilgrim Dante is accompanied by three guides: Virgil, who represents human reason and guides him for all of Inferno and most of Purgatorio; Beatrice, who represents divine revelation, theology, grace, and faith, and guides 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 last word in each of the three cantiche is stelle ("stars").

Did You Know?

• The last word in each of the three cantiche is 'stelle' (stars).
• The poem is composed of 14,233 lines divided into 100 cantos (33 per cantica plus one introductory canto).
• Each tercet in terza rima contains exactly 33 syllables, matching the number of cantos in each cantica.
• The earliest known use of the adjective 'Divina' for the poem appears in Giovanni Boccaccio's Trattatello in laude di Dante, written between 1351 and 1355.
• Dante was among the White Guelphs exiled in 1302 by Lord-Mayor Cante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio, an exile that lasted the rest of his life.

Architectural Design and Numerical Symbolism

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 number three is prominent: three cantiche, and the verse scheme, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic with lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC DED, and the total number of syllables in each tercet is 33, the same as the number of cantos in each cantica. The structure of the three realms follows a common numerical pattern of 9 plus 1, for a total of 10: nine circles of the Inferno followed by Lucifer; nine rings of Mount Purgatory followed by the Garden of Eden; and nine celestial bodies of Paradiso followed by the Empyrean 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 that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the late repentant and the excommunicated. The core seven sins within Purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love (Lust, Gluttony, Greed), deficient love (Sloth), and malicious love (Wrath, Envy, Pride).

The Pilgrimage and Its Three Guides

In the poem, the pilgrim Dante is accompanied by three guides. Virgil, who represents human reason, guides him for all of Inferno and most of Purgatorio. Beatrice, who represents divine revelation in addition to theology, grace, and faith, guides him from the end of Purgatorio onwards. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who represents contemplative mysticism and devotion to Mary the Mother, guides him in the final cantos of Paradiso. 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, lost in a dark wood, assailed by beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf) he cannot evade and unable to find the 'straight way' (diritta via) to salvation. Conscious that he is ruining himself and 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; for example, in Canto XX, fortune-tellers 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 for the four sins of indulgence (lust, gluttony, avarice, anger); Circle 7 for the sins of violence; and Circles 8 and 9 for the sins of fraud and treachery. Added to these are Limbo, in Circle 1, containing the virtuous pagans, and Circle 6 containing the heretics.

Exile, Politics, and the Making of a Poem

In central Italy's political struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Dante was part of the Guelphs, who in general favoured the papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor. Florence's Guelphs split into factions around 1300 – the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. While both had once supported a strong papacy, the White Guelphs later supported greater imperial power in Italy. Dante's desire for a strong emperor to restore order to Italy and Europe is a constant theme throughout the poem. Dante was among the White Guelphs who were exiled in 1302 by the Lord-Mayor Cante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio, after troops under Charles of Valois entered the city, at the request of 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.

Title, Language, and Literary Legacy

The work was originally simply titled Comedìa – so also in the first printed edition, published in 1472 – later adjusted to the modern Italian Commedia. The earliest known use of the adjective Divina appears in Giovanni Boccaccio's biographical work Trattatello in laude di Dante, written between 1351 and 1355. The first edition to name the poem Divina Comedia in the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce, published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari. The poem helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. 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 Western Church by the 14th century. Dante draws on medieval Catholic theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy derived from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas.