The work is widely considered the epic poem of Italian literature.
The 14,000 line poem is written in the first person, and tells of Dante’s journey through the three realms of the dead.
The 14,000 lines are divided into three sections (canticas, or cantiche in Italian)
Inferno (Hell)
Purgatorio (Purgatory)
Paradiso (Paradis)
A possible summary structural breakdown of Dante’s works might be as follows:
| works in Latin: | De vulgari eloquentia |
| De Monarchia** | |
| Eclogues | |
| Letters |
** condemned and burned after Dante’s death by the Papal Legate Bertrasndo del Poggetto
| works in Italian: | La Vita Nuova |
| Le Rime | |
| Convivio | |
| Divina Commedia: | |
| Inferno / Purgatorio / Paradiso |
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) was a Florentine (Italy) poet of the Middle Ages. In Italian he is known as “il Sommo Poeta” – the Supreme Poet.
From Dante’s Divine Comedy–
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
– Dante’s Inferno, canto 3, lines 35–42