Slide 1: BY: DANTE ALIGHIERI Slide 2: Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance

to Hell, t he seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino's fresco. Slide 3: The Divine Comedy (Italian: Commedia, later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Bocc accio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of t he greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the Chri stian afterlife is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church. It helped establish the Tuscan dialect in which it is wri tten as the Italian standard. Slide 4: Gustave Dor engravings illustrated the Divine Comedy (1861-1868); here Dante is l ost in Canto 1. Slide 5: The Divine Comedy is composed of three canticas (Ital. pl. "cantiche") Inferno ( Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise) composed each of 33 canto s (Ital. pl. "canti"). An initial canto serves as an introduction to the poem an d is generally not considered to be part of the first cantica, bringing the tota l number of cantos to 100. The number 3 is prominent in the work, represented he re by the length of each cantica. The verse scheme used, terza rima, is hendecas yllabic (line of eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercets according t o the rhyme scheme ABA, BCB, CDC ... DED. Slide 6: The poem is written in the first person, and tells of Dante's journey through th e three realms of the dead, lasting during the Easter Triduum in the spring of 1 300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice, Dant e's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a Florentine woman whom he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionab le courtly love tradition which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work La Vita N uova. Slide 7: In Northern Italy's political struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Dante wa s part of the Guelphs, who in general favored the Papacy over the Holy Roman Emp eror. Florence's Guelphs split into factions around 1300: the White Guelphs, who opposed secular rule by Pope Boniface VIII and who wished to preserve Florence' s independence, and the Black Guelphs, who favored the Pope's control of Florenc e. Dante was among the White Guelphs who were exiled in 1302 by the Lord-Mayor C ante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio, after troops under Charles of Valois entered the c ity, at the request of Boniface and in alliance with the Blacks. The Pope said i f he had returned he would be burned at the stake. This exile, which lasted the rest of Dante's life, shows its influence in many parts of the Comedy, from prop hecies of Dante's exile to Dante's views of politics to the eternal damnation of some of his opponents. Slide 8: In Hell and Purgatory, Dante shares in the sin and the penitence respectively. T he last word in each of the three parts of the Divine Comedy is "stars". STRUCTURE AND STORY : STRUCTURE AND STORY The Divine Comedy is composed of over 14,000 lines that are

divided into three canticas; Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradis o (Paradise) Each canticas consist of 33 cantos (canti). An initial canto serves as an introduction to the poem and is generally not considered to be part of th e first cantica, bringing the total number of cantos to 100. Virgil-The Roman po et who guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory. Beatrice- Dante's ideal woman, g uides him through Heaven. THE DIVINE COMEDY INFERNO : INFERNO Slide 11: The Barque of Dante by Eugne Delacroix. Where Dante Passes through the gate of He ll Slide 12: Sandro Botticelli's Chart of Hell c. 1490 Slide 13: Dante's guide rebuffs Malacoda and his fiends between bolgia five and six in the Eighth Circle of Hell, Inferno, Canto 21. Slide 14: Dante climbs the flinty steps in bolgia seven in the Eighth Circle of Hell, Infe rno, Canto 26. Slide 15: Satan is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Inferno , Canto 34. INFERNO : INFERNO 1930 the poem begins on the night before Good Friday, Dante was assumed 35 years old. Wood allegorically contemplating suicide, wherein Dante starts his journey which he used in his term lost in the dark wood . Virgil the poet who resc ued and accompanied him in his journey to the underworld. Charon - the pilot of the ferry in which Dante and Virgil used to cross the river of Acheron to the he ll. THE DIVINE COMEDY Slide 17: Inferno The poem begins on Good Friday of the year 1300, "midway in the journey of our life" (Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita), and so opens in medias res. Dante is thirty-five years old, half of the biblically allotted age of 70 (Psalm 90:10), lost in a dark wood (perhaps, allegorically, contemplating suicide as "wo od" is figured in Canto XIII, and also the mention of suicide is made in Canto I of Purgatorio with "This man has not yet seen his last evening; But, through hi s madness, was so close to it, That there was hardly time to turn about" implyin g that when Virgil came to him he was on the verge of suicide or morally passing the point of no return), assailed by beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf; allegorical depictions of temptations towards sin) he cannot evade, and unable to find the "straight way" (diritta via) to salvation (symbolized by the sun beh ind the mountain). Conscious that he is ruining himself, that he is falling into a "deep 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 underworl d. Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a symbolic instance of poetic justice; fo r example, the fortune-tellers have to walk backwards with their heads turned ar ound, unable to see what is ahead, because they tried to do so in life. Slide 18: Dante passes through the gate of hell, on which is inscribed the famous phrase " Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", or "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here "[1] Before entering Hell completely, Dante and his guide see the Opportunists,

souls of people who in life did nothing, neither for good nor evil (among these Dante recognizes either Pope Celestine V, or Pontius Pilate; the text is ambiguo us). Mixed with them are the outcasts, who took no side in the Rebellion of Ange ls. These souls are neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of t he Acheron, their punishment to eternally pursue a banner, and be pursued by was ps and hornets that continually sting them while maggots and other such insects drink their blood and tears. This symbolizes the sting of their conscience and t he repugnance of sin. Then Dante and Virgil reach the ferry that will take them across the river Acheron and to Hell proper. The ferry is piloted by Charon, who does not want to let Dante enter, for he is a living being. Virgil forces Charo n to take them, but their passage across is undescribed since Dante faints and d oes not awake until he is on the other side. INFERNO : INFERNO First Circle Here reside the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, th ough not sinful, did not accept Christ. They are not punished in an active sense , but rather grieve only their separation from God, without hope of reconciliati on. Second Circle Those overcome by lust are punished in this circle. They are t he first ones to be truly punished in Hell. These souls are blown about to and f ro by a violent storm, without hope of rest. Third Circle Cerberus guards the gl uttons, forced to lie in a vile slush made by freezing rain, black snow, and hai l. This symbolizes the garbage that the gluttons made of their lives on earth, s lavering over food. Fourth Circle Those whose attitude toward material goods dev iated from the desired mean are punished in this circle. Fifth Circle the wrathf ul fight each other on the surface, and the sullen or slothful lie gurgling bene ath the swamp-like water of the river Styx. Sixth Circle Heretics are trapped in flaming tombs. THE DIVINE COMEDY CIRCLES OF HELL INFERNO : INFERNO Seventh Circle - Lower Hell, inside the walls of Dis, in an illustration by Stradanus This circle houses the violent. Its entry is guarded by the Minota ur, and it is divided into three rings: Outer Ring - housing the violent against people and property, who are immersed in Phlegethon, a river of boiling blood, to a level commensurate with their sins Middle Ring - In this ring are the suici des, who are transformed into gnarled thorny bushes and trees. They are torn at by the Harpies. Inner Ring - The violent against God (blasphemers), the violent against nature (sodomites), and the violent against order (usurers), all reside in a desert of flaming sand with fiery flakes raining from the sky. THE DIVINE C OMEDY CIRCLES OF HELL INFERNO : INFERNO Eight Circle - The last two circles of Hell punish sins that involve con scious fraud or treachery. The Fraudulent - those guilty of deliberate, knowing evil are located in a circle named Malebolge. Bolgia 1 - Panderers (pimps) and sed ucers march in separate lines in opposite directions, whipped by demons Bolgia 2 - Flatterers are steeped in human excrement Bolgia 3 - Those who committed simo ny are placed head-first in holes in the rock, with flames burning on the soles of their feet (resembling an inverted baptism). Bolgia 4 - Sorcerers and false p rophets have their heads twisted around on their bodies backward. THE DIVINE COM EDY CIRCLES OF HELL INFERNO : INFERNO Bolgia 5 - Corrupt politicians (barrators) are immersed in a lake of boi ling pitch. Bolgia 6 - Hypocrites listlessly walking along wearing gilded lead c loaks. Bolgia 7 - Thieves, guarded by the centaur. Cacus, are pursued and bitten by snakes and lizards. Bolgia 8 - Fraudulent advisors are encased in individual flames. Bolgia 9 - A sword-wielding demon hacks at the sowers of discord. As th ey make their rounds the wounds heal, only to have the demon tear apart their bo dies again. Bolgia 10 - Here various sorts of falsifiers (alchemists, counterfei ters, perjurers, and impersonators), who are a disease on society, are themselve

s afflicted with different types of diseases. THE DIVINE COMEDY CIRCLES OF HELL INFERNO : INFERNO Ninth Circle This circle punished the traitors. They are being held froz en in the lake of ice known as Cocytus. The circle is divided into four concentr ic zones. Round 1 - Cana, named for Cain, is home to traitors to their kindred. T he souls here are immersed in the ice up to their necks. (Canto XXXII) Round 2 Antenora is named for Antenor of Troy, who according to medieval tradition betr ayed his city to the Greeks. Traitors to political entities, such as party, city , or country, are located here. Round 3 - Ptolomaea is probably named for Ptolem y, the captain of Jericho, who invited Simon Maccabaeus and his sons to a banque t and then killed them. Traitors to their guests are punished here. Round 4 - Ju decca, named for Judas Iscariot, Biblical betrayer of Christ, is for traitors to their lords and benefactors. All of the sinners punished within are completely encapsulated in ice, distorted in all conceivable positions. Satan trapped in th e frozen central zone in the ninth circle of hell in the Inferno Brutus and Cass ius the sinners in the mouths of Satan, they are involved in the assassination o f Julius Caesar. THE DIVINE COMEDY CIRCLES OF HELL PURGATORIO : PURGATORIO Slide 25: Dante gazes at Mount Purgatory in an allegorical portrait by Agnolo Bronzino, pa inted circa 1530. Slide 26: Dante's meeting with Matelda, lithograph by Cairoli (1889) Slide 27: Dante's meeting with Beatrice, by John William Waterhouse PURGATORIO : PURGATORIO Casella the lady who plays a music that attracted both Dante and Virg il in the Shores of Purgatory. Cato a pagan who has been placed by God as the ge neral guardian of the Purgatory Mountain. Gate of Purgatory it is guarded by an angel who uses sword to draw the letter P in the forehead to anyone who enters the purgatory. Matelda a woman of grace and beauty who prepares souls for their asc ent in heaven. THE DIVINE COMEDY PURGATORIO : PURGATORIO On the first three terraces of Purgatory are purified those whose sin s were caused by perverted love directed towards actual harm of others. First Te rrace - The proud are purged by carrying giant stones on their backs, unable to stand up straight. This teaches the sinner that pride puts weight on the soul an d it is better to throw it off. Second Terrace - The envious are purged by havin g their eyes sewn shut and wearing clothing that makes the soul indistinguishabl e from the ground. THE DIVINE COMEDY TERRACES OF PURGATORY PURGATORIO : PURGATORIO Third Terrace - The wrathful are purged by walking around in acrid sm oke. Souls correct themselves by learning how wrath has blinded their vision, im peding their judgment. On the fourth terrace we find sinners whose sin was that of deficient love that is, sloth or acedia. Fourth Terrace - The slothful are purg ed by continually running (Cantos XVIII and XIX). Those who were slothful in lif e can only purge this sin by being zealous in their desire for penance. THE DIVI NE COMEDY TERRACES OF PURGATORY PURGATORIO : PURGATORIO On the fifth through seventh terraces are those who sinned by loving

good things, but loving them in a disordered way. Fifth Terrace - The avaricious and prodigal are purged by lying face-down on the ground, unable to move. Exces sive concern for earthly goods whether in the form of greed or extravagance is punis hed and purified. Sixth Terrace - The gluttonous are purged by abstaining from a ny food or drink. Here, the soul's desire to eat a forbidden fruit causes its sh ade to starve. Seventh Terrace - The lustful are purged by burning in an immense wall of flame. All of those who committed sexual sins, both heterosexual and ho mosexual, are purified by the fire. THE DIVINE COMEDY TERRACES OF PURGATORY PARADISO : PARADISO Slide 33: Illustration of Dante's Paradiso, by Giovanni di Paolo, (between 1442 and c.1450 ) PARADISO : PARADISO First Sphere - The sphere of the Moon is that of souls who abandoned th eir vows, and so were deficient in the virtue of fortitude. Second Sphere - The sphere of Mercury is that of souls who did good out of a desire for fame, but wh o, being ambitious, were deficient in the virtue of justice. Third Sphere - The sphere of Venus is that of souls who did good out of love, but were deficient in the virtue of temperance. Fourth Sphere - The sphere of the Sun is that of soul s of the wise, who embody prudence. THE DIVINE COMEDY THE SPHERES OF HEAVEN PARADISO : PARADISO Fifth Sphere - The sphere of Mars is that of souls who fought for Chris tianity, and who embody fortitude. Sixth Sphere - The sphere of Jupiter is that of souls who personified justice, something of great concern to Dante. Seventh S phere - The sphere of Saturn is that of the contemplatives, who embody temperanc e. Eight Sphere - The sphere of fixed stars is the sphere of the Church Triumpha nt. Ninth Sphere - The Primum Mobile ("first moved" sphere) is the abode of ange ls. THE DIVINE COMEDY THE SPHERES OF HEAVEN Slide 36: Beatrice leaves Dante with Saint Bernard who prays to Mary on behalf of Dante an d Dante is allowed to see both Jesus and Mary. From the Primum Mobile, Dante asc ends to a region beyond physical existence, called the Empyrean (Cantos XXX thro ugh XXXIII). Here he comes face-to-face with God Himself, and is granted underst anding of the Divine and of human nature. His vision is improved beyond that of human comprehension. God appears as three equally large circles within each othe r representing the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with the essence of each part of God, separate yet one. The book ends with Dante trying to understand how the circles fit together, how the Son is separate yet one with the Father but a s Dante put it "that was not a flight for my wings" and the vision of God become s equally inimitable and inexplicable that no word or intellectual exercise can come close to explaining what he saw. Dante's soul, through God's absolute love, experiences a unification with itself and all things "but already my desire and my will were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed by the Love that turns the sun and all the other stars." Slide 37: Earliest manuscripts Slide 38: Detail of a manuscript in Milan's Biblioteca Trivulziana (MS 1080), written in 1 337 by Francesco di ser Nardo da Barberino, showing the beginning of Dante's Com edy. According to the Societ Dantesca Italiana, no original manuscript written by Dante has survived, though there are many manuscript copies from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (more than 825 are listed on their site [5]). The oldes

t belongs to the 1330s, almost a decade after Dante's death. The most precious o nes are the three full copies made by Giovanni Boccaccio (1360s), who himself di d not have the original manuscript as a source. Slide 39: Thematic concerns The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: Each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternate meanings. Dante's a llegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the "Letter to Can Grande della Scala"), he outlines other levels of meaning bes ides the allegory (the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical). The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and num erological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines. The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; hi s bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poet ic imagination Slide 40: Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" added later in the 14th c entury) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") o r Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were of everyday or vulgar sub jects, while High poems were for more serious matters. Dante was one of the firs t in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of man, in th e low and vulgar Italian language and not the Latin language as one might expect for such a serious topic. . Dante's use of real characters, according to Doroth y Sayers in her introduction to her translation of "L'Inferno", allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to " [make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmos t importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety." Slide 41: The Divine Comedy and Islamic philosophy In 1919 Professor Miguel Asn Palacios, a Spanish scholar and a Catholic priest, published La Escatologa musulmana en la D ivina Comedia ("Islamic Eschatology in the Divine Comedy"), an account of parall els between early Islamic philosophy and the Divine Comedy. Asn Palacios argued t hat Dante derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter directly or indirectly from various versions of Islamic works: the Hadith and the Kitab al M iraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before[3] as Liber Scale Machomet i, "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder") concerning Muhammad's ascension to Heaven, a nd the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi. Slide 42: The work of Professor Asn Palacios was criticized by many groups, including natio nalist Italians, the Roman Catholic clergy and other European Christians. He res ponded by enumerating the possible sources from which Dante could have obtained the salient features of Islamic eschatology. Slide 43: The issue is still divisive. Dante lived in a Europe of growing literary and phi losophical contacts with the Muslim world, encouraged by such factors as Averroi sm and the patronage of Alfonso X of Castile. Still, some scholars have not been satisfied with explanations of how Dante would have gained knowledge of particu lar Islamic texts. The twentieth century Orientalist Francesco Gabrieli, a stren uous opponent of the Arabic theory, expressed skepticism regarding some claimed similarities, and the lack of evidence of the vehicle through which Islamic desc riptions of the other world could have been transmitted to Dante. Even so, while dismissing the probability of some influences posited in Palacios's work, Gabri eli recognized that it was "at least possible, if not probable, that Dante may h ave known the Liber scalae and have taken from it certain images and concepts of Muslim eschatology".

Slide 44: More recently, scholar Giorgio Battistoni has brought to light the role that com missioned Jewish translators working in European circles during the 12th century played in making Arabic texts available to Christianity. Battistoni believes th is to be a clear route by which the possible sources of influence may have reach ed Dante.[5] Shortly before her death the Italian philologist Maria Corti pointe d out that, during his stay at the court of Alfonso X, Dante's mentor Brunetto L atini met Bonaventura da Siena, a Tuscan who had translated the Liber scalae fro m Arabic into Latin. According to Corti, It appears likely that Brunetto played a crucial role in providing Dante with Arab sources.[6] Slide 45: Literary influence in the English-speaking world The work was not always so well regarded. After being recognized as a masterpiece in the first centuries follow ing its publication, the work was largely ignored during the Enlightenment, only to be "rediscovered" by William Blake and the romantic writers of the 19th cent ury. Later authors such as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Samuel Beckett, and James Jo yce have drawn on it for inspiration. The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was it s first American translator, and modern poets, including Seamus Heaney, Robert P insky, John Ciardi, and William Merwin, have also given translations of all or p arts of the book. Slide 46: The Divine Comedy in the arts The Divine Comedy has been a source of inspiration for countless artists for almost seven centuries as one of the most well known and greatest artistic works in the Western tradition, its influence on culture c annot be overstated.