Editing Divine Comedy (section)

== Structure and story ==
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[[File:Dante03.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Dante gazes at Mount Purgatory in an allegorical portrait by [[Agnolo Bronzino]], painted {{circa|1530}}]]

The ''Divine Comedy'' is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three ''cantiche'' (singular ''cantica'')&nbsp;– ''Inferno'' ([[Hell]]), ''Purgatorio'' ([[Purgatory]]), and ''Paradiso'' ([[Heaven|Paradise]])&nbsp;– each consisting of 33 [[canto]]s (Italian plural ''canti'')<!--NOTE: BEFORE ADDING "Inferno has 34" (AGAIN) READ THE NEXT SENTENCE-->. An initial canto, serving as an introduction to the poem and generally considered to be part of the first ''cantica'', brings the total number of cantos to 100. It is generally accepted, however, that the first two cantos serve as a unitary prologue to the entire epic, and that the opening two cantos of each ''cantica'' serve as prologues to each of the three ''cantiche''.<ref>Dante The Inferno A Verse Translation, by Professor Robert and Jean Hollander, p.&nbsp;43.</ref><ref>Epist. XIII, 43–48.</ref><ref>Wilkins, E.&nbsp;H., The Prologue to the Divine Comedy Annual Report of the Dante Society, pp.&nbsp;1–7.</ref>

The number three is prominent in the work, represented in part by the number of ''cantiche'' and their lengths. Additionally, the verse scheme used, ''[[terza rima]]'', is [[hendecasyllabic]] (lines of eleven syllables), with the lines composing [[tercet]]s according to the [[rhyme scheme]] ABA BCB CDC DED{{nbsp}}...<ref>[[Robert Kaske|Kaske, Robert Earl]], et al. ''Medieval Christian Literary Imagery: A Guide to Interpretation''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988. p. 164.</ref> 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 [[Maundy Thursday|the night before]] [[Good Friday]] to the Wednesday after [[Easter]] in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet [[Virgil]] guides him through Hell and Purgatory; [[Beatrice Portinari|Beatrice]], Dante's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven.<ref>Ferrante, Joan M. "Beatrice". In: Lansing (ed.), The Dante Encyclopedia, pp. 87–94.</ref> Beatrice was a Florentine woman he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable [[courtly love]] tradition, which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work ''[[La Vita Nuova]]''.{{sfn|Shaw|2014|pp=xx, 100–101, 108}} The Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux guides Dante through the last three cantos.<ref>Picone, Michelangelo. "Bernard, St." (trans. Robin Treasure). In: Lansing (ed.), ''The Dante Encyclopedia'', pp. 99–100.</ref>

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The structure of the three realms follows a common [[numerology|numerical pattern]] of 9 plus 1, for a total of 10. There are nine  circles of the Inferno, followed by Lucifer contained at its bottom; nine rings of Mount Purgatory, followed by the [[Garden of Eden]] crowning its summit; and the 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 [[excommunication|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 (deadly sin)|Sloth]]), and malicious love ([[Wrath]], [[Envy]], [[Pride]]).{{sfn|Eiss|2017|p=8}}

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{{snd}}the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. Dante was among the White Guelphs who were exiled in 1302 by the Lord-Mayor [[Cante dei Gabrielli|Cante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio]], after troops under [[Charles of Valois]] entered the city, at the request of [[Pope Boniface&nbsp;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.{{sfn|Trone|2000|pp=362–364}}

The last word in each of the three ''cantiche'' is ''stelle'' ("stars").
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=== ''Inferno'' ===
[[File:Gustave Doré - Dante Alighieri - Inferno - Plate 9 (Canto III - Charon).jpg|thumb|[[Gustave Doré]]'s engravings illustrated the ''Divine Comedy'' (1861–1868); here [[Charon (mythology)|Charon]] comes to ferry souls across the river [[Acheron]] to Hell.]]
{{Main|Inferno (Dante)}}
The poem begins on the [[Maundy Thursday|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 ([[Psalms]] 89:10<!-- do not change to Ps. 90; in the Vulgate, as specified, the chapter is 89 -->, Vulgate), lost in a dark [[forest|wood]] (understood as sin),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abebooks.it/INFERNO-DIVINA-COMMEDIA-ANNOTATA-COMMENTATA-TOMMASO/590245816/bd |title=Inferno, la Divina Commedia annotata e commentata da Tommaso Di Salvo, Zanichelli, Bologna, 1985 |publisher=Abebooks.it |access-date=16 January 2010 |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225073127/https://www.abebooks.it/INFERNO-DIVINA-COMMEDIA-ANNOTATA-COMMENTATA-TOMMASO/590245816/bd |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>''Lectura Dantis'', Società dantesca italiana.</ref><ref>Online sources include [http://www.ladante.it/DanteAlighieri/hochfeiler/inferno/naviga/selva.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111113326/http://www.ladante.it/DanteAlighieri/hochfeiler/inferno/naviga/selva.htm|date=11 November 2014}}, [http://www.operare.net/news.php?id=55] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723233122/http://www.operare.net/news.php?id=55|date=23 July 2011}}, [https://web.archive.org/web/20061113164331/http://www.learnitaly.com/selva.htm] [http://balbruno.altervista.org/index-182.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040223202105/http://balbruno.altervista.org/index-182.html|date=23 February 2004}}, {{cite web |title=Le caratteristiche dell'opera |url=http://www.primocircolopotenza.it/DivinaCommedia/Dante/caratteristiche.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091202062524/http://www.primocircolopotenza.it/DivinaCommedia/Dante/caratteristiche.htm |archive-date=2 December 2009 |access-date=1 December 2009}},    {{Cite web |title=Selva Oscura |url=http://www.ladante.it/DanteAlighieri/hochfeiler/inferno/naviga/selva.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052503/http://www.ladante.it/DanteAlighieri/hochfeiler/inferno/naviga/selva.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=20 February 2010}}</ref> assailed by beasts (a [[lion]], a [[leopard]], and a [[wolf|she-wolf]]) he cannot evade and unable to find the "straight way" (''diritta via'') to salvation (symbolised by the sun behind the mountain). Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is 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-telling|fortune-tellers]] and [[Divination|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:

{{poemquote|they had their faces twisted toward their haunches
and found it necessary to walk backward,
because they could not see ahead of them.
... and since he wanted so to see ahead,
he looks behind and walks a backward path.<ref>''Inferno'', Canto&nbsp;XX, lines 13–15 and 38–39, Mandelbaum translation.</ref>}}

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.<ref>[[Dorothy L. Sayers]], ''Purgatory'', notes on p.&nbsp;75.</ref> These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell, outside the city of Dis, for the four sins of indulgence ([[lust]], [[gluttony]], [[avarice]], [[anger]]); Circle 7 for the sins of violence against one's neighbor, against oneself, and against God, art, and nature; and Circles 8 and 9 for the sins of fraud and treachery. Added to these are two dissimilar, spiritual categories: Limbo, in Circle 1, contains the [[Virtuous pagan|virtuous pagans]] who were not sinful but were ignorant of Christ, and Circle 6 contains the heretics who contradicted the doctrine and confused the spirit of Christ.<ref>Carlyle-Okey-Wicksteed, ''Divine Comedy'', "Notes to Dante's Inferno".</ref>

=== ''Purgatorio'' ===
{{Main|Purgatorio}}
[[File:Hippolyte Flandrin - Le Dante, conduit par Virgile, offre des consolations aux âmes des Envieux.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Dante, accompanied by Virgil, consoles the souls of the envious, from the Canto III of ''Purgatorio'']]
Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of [[Purgatory]] on the far side of the world. The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the [[Southern Hemisphere]], created by the displacement of rock which resulted when [[Satan]]'s fall created Hell<ref>''Inferno'', Canto 34, lines 121–126.</ref> (which Dante portrays as existing underneath [[Jerusalem]]<ref>Barolini, Teodolinda. "Hell." In: Lansing (ed.), ''The Dante Encyclopedia'', pp. 472–477.</ref>). The mountain has seven terraces, corresponding to the [[seven deadly sins]] or "seven roots of sinfulness".<ref>[[Dorothy L. Sayers]], ''Purgatory'', Introduction, pp.&nbsp;65–67 (Penguin, 1955).</ref> The classification of sin here is more psychological than that of the ''Inferno'', being based on motives, rather than actions. It is also drawn primarily from Christian theology, rather than from classical sources.<ref>Robin Kirkpatrick, ''Purgatorio'', Introduction, p.&nbsp;xiv (Penguin, 2007).</ref> However, Dante's illustrative examples of sin and virtue draw on classical sources as well as on the Bible and on contemporary events.

Love, a theme throughout the ''Divine Comedy'', is particularly important for the framing of sin on the Mountain of Purgatory. While the love that flows from God is pure, it can become sinful as it flows through humanity. Humans can sin by using love towards improper or malicious ends ([[Wrath]], [[Envy]], [[Pride]]), or using it to proper ends but with love that is either not strong enough ([[Sloth (deadly sin)|Sloth]]) or love that is too strong ([[Lust]], [[Gluttony]], [[Greed]]). Below the seven purges of the soul is the Ante-Purgatory, containing the Excommunicated from the church and the Late repentant who died, often violently, before receiving rites. Thus the total comes to nine, with the addition of the Garden of Eden at the summit, equaling ten.<ref>Carlyle-Oakey-Wickstead, ''Divine Comedy'', "Notes on Dante's Purgatory.</ref> <!-- 7 + 2 = 9 not 10 -->

Allegorically, the ''Purgatorio'' represents the Christian life. Christian souls arrive escorted by an angel, singing ''[[Psalm 114|In exitu Israel de Aegypto]]''. In his [[Epistle to Cangrande|letter to Cangrande]] (the authenticity of which is disputed<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Kelly |first=Henry Ansgar |author-link=Henry Ansgar Kelly |date=2018-09-18 |title=Epistle to Cangrande Updated |url=https://www.dantesociety.org/publicationsdante-notes/epistle-cangrande-updated |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Dante Society |publisher=[[Dante Society of America]]}}</ref>), Dante explains that this reference to Israel leaving Egypt refers both to the [[redemption (religious)|redemption]] of [[Christ]] and to "the conversion of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace."<ref>"The Letter to Can Grande," in ''Literary Criticism of Dante Alighieri'', translated and edited by Robert S. Haller (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973), p. 99.</ref> Appropriately, therefore, it is [[Easter Sunday]] when Dante and Virgil arrive.

The ''Purgatorio'' demonstrates the medieval knowledge of a [[spherical Earth]]. During the poem, Dante discusses the different stars visible in the [[southern hemisphere]], the altered position of the sun, and the various [[time zone]]s of the Earth. At this stage it is, Dante says, sunset at Jerusalem, midnight on the River [[Ganges]], and sunrise in Purgatory.

=== ''Paradiso'' ===
{{Main|Paradiso (Dante)}}
[[File:Philipp Veit 004.jpg|thumb|''Paradiso'', Canto III: Dante and Beatrice speak to [[Piccarda]] and [[Constance I of Sicily|Constance of Sicily]], in a fresco by [[Philipp Veit]].]]

After an initial ascension, Beatrice guides Dante through the nine [[celestial spheres]] of [[Heaven]]. These are concentric and spherical, as in [[Aristotle|Aristotelian]] and [[Ptolemy|Ptolemaic]] cosmology. While the structures of the ''Inferno'' and ''Purgatorio'' were based on different classifications of sin, the structure of the ''Paradiso'' is based on the [[four cardinal virtues]] and the [[three theological virtues]].

The seven lowest spheres of Heaven deal solely with the cardinal virtues of [[Prudence]], [[Courage|Fortitude]], [[Justice]] and [[Temperance (virtue)|Temperance]]. The first three spheres involve a deficiency of one of the cardinal virtues&nbsp;– the [[Moon]], containing the inconstant, whose vows to God waned as the moon and thus lack fortitude; [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]], containing the ambitious, who were virtuous for glory and thus lacked justice; and [[Venus]], containing the lovers, whose love was directed towards another than God and thus lacked temperance. The final four incidentally are positive examples of the cardinal virtues, all led on by the [[Sun]], containing the prudent, whose wisdom lighted the way for the other virtues, to which the others are bound (constituting a category on its own). [[Mars]] contains the men of fortitude who died in the cause of Christianity; [[Jupiter]] contains the kings of justice; and [[Saturn]] contains the temperate, the monks. The seven subdivided into three are raised further by two more categories: the eighth sphere of the fixed stars that contain those who achieved the theological virtues of [[faith]], [[hope]], and [[love]], and represent the [[Church Triumphant]]&nbsp;– the total perfection of humanity, cleansed of all the sins and carrying all the virtues of heaven; and the ninth circle, or [[Primum Mobile]] (corresponding to the geocentricism of medieval astronomy), which contains the angels, creatures never poisoned by original sin. Topping them all is the [[Empyrean]], which contains the essence of God, completing the nine-fold division to ten.

Dante meets and converses with several great saints of the Church, including [[Thomas Aquinas]], [[Bonaventure]], [[Saint Peter]], and [[John the Apostle|St. John]]. Near the end, Beatrice departs and Bernard of Clairvaux takes over as the guide.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Botterill |first=Steven |date=1990 |title=Life after Beatrice: Bernard of Clairvaux in Paradiso XXXI |journal=Texas Studies in Literature and Language |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=123}}</ref> The ''Paradiso'' is more theological in nature than the ''Inferno'' and the ''[[Purgatorio]]''. However, Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is merely the one his human eyes permit him to see, and thus Dante's personal vision.

The ''Divine Comedy'' finishes with Dante seeing the [[Trinity|Triune God]]. In a flash of understanding that he cannot express, Dante finally understands the mystery of [[Christ]]'s divinity and humanity, and his soul becomes aligned with God's love:<ref name="DLS33">[[Dorothy L. Sayers]], ''Paradise'', notes on Canto&nbsp;XXXIII.</ref>

{{poemquote|But already my desire and my will
were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed,
by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars.<ref>''Paradiso'', Canto&nbsp;XXXIII, lines 142–145, [[C. H. Sisson]] translation.</ref>}}