31
votes
Accepted
Why is Dante's Magnum Opus Called a 'Divine Comedy'?
The question can be broken down into two subquestions: one about the term "comedy" and one about the adjective "divine". Dante never referred to his own work as the "Divine ...
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19
votes
Accepted
What did Dante mean by "Papè Satan, papè Satan aleppe" in the Inferno?
There are a nauseatingly numerous amount of theories on what that illustriously ambiguous line could mean. It very well might have merely been invented by Dante to represent a sort of invocation (and ...
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11
votes
What is the planet that "leads men straight on every road" in Dante's "Inferno"?
The planet
Dante says that the “shoulders” of the hill “glowed” with the planet’s rays. The only celestial bodies bright enough to light up the shoulders of a hill are the Sun and the Moon. The next ...
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10
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Why is Dante's Magnum Opus Called a 'Divine Comedy'?
In the introduction by Bianca Garavelli to the Inferno there is a section titled "Il valore del titolo", that is, "The value of the title", in which this is explained in detail:
...
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9
votes
What does "were with him when Divine Love first moved those fair things" mean in Dante's "Inferno"?
“Him” is the sun. The line means that the “fair things” (the stars) that are “with” the sun now, are the same stars that were with the sun when the Divine Love (God) first moved them, that is, on the ...
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9
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What is the oldest non-biographical work of literature in which the author is also a protagonist?
As written, the most obvious answer would probably be a lyrical poet, writing in first person. Sappho's poetry (ca 600 BCE) appears to be among the first in the Western tradition to use such a device. ...
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7
votes
Accepted
How much time did one canto in Dante's Divine Comedy represent (if any)?
The cantos do not have a regular duration, but some elements in the story allow us to create a chronology.
There are several sources in Italian, I tried to translate the one provided by the Dante ...
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7
votes
Accepted
What does Dante mean here?
I am working with John Ciardi's translation, New American Library, 1954.
There are seven stanzas before this one which give some context to the lines you're asking about.
No tortured wailing rose ...
7
votes
Why the phrasing "where the sun is silent" in Dante's "Inferno"?
The original Italian is "là dove 'l sol tace" and, according to Bianca Garavelli in her notes to Dante's Inferno, it refers to
il buio della «selva». L'immagine fonde i due sensi di vista e ...
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5
votes
Accepted
How did Dante know so much about geography and astronomy in his Purgatorio?
TL;DR: Dante read a Latin translation of Al-Farghani, who summarized the work of Ptolemy.
Astronomical claims in Purgatory
There is a south celestial pole; the stars near it are not visible from the ...
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4
votes
Dante's Inferno reference in Much Ado About Nothing
There is no direct, obvious reference to Dante's Inferno in Much Ado About Nothing. However, there is a tangential link between the two works in their character and plot: both can be conceived as love ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Who is "the Adversary of all Evil" in Dante's "Inferno"?
It's God. If you consult a commentary, they should all attest to that fact. You could also find the reference in Andrew Pinsent's The History of Evil in the Medieval Age: 450-1450 CE (Routledge: 2018)....
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3
votes
What does the poet's introduction in Dante's Inferno mean?
The passage contains a number of curious anachronisms. It seems that Virgil was born in the village of Andes, near Mantua. Mantua is now the capital of Lombardy, but that name did not come into ...
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3
votes
Where did Boccaccio refer to Dante's Comedia or Commedia as the Divine Comedy?
Boccaccio used the title Divine Comedy for the first time in a work that has variously been called Vita di Dante ("Life of Dante") or Trattatello in laude di Dante ("Short Treatise in ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Free will in Dante's Divine Comedy
The following lines in Canto III of Paradiso appear to discuss this (quoted from the translation provided by WorldOfDante):
The essence of this blessed life consists
in keeping to the boundaries of ...
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3
votes
Reference for Dante Quote
If the quote comes from Dante, its most likely origin would be the first part, Inferno, from the Divine Comedy. The Italian text of the Divine Comedy or Divina Commedia is available online (also in ...
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3
votes
Dante Alleghieri's Divine Comedy "has been translated into the most languages in the world & top printed work after the Bible"?
The "[second] most translated book after the Bible" apparently depends on whom you ask.
According to Professor Alfredo Moro, the 17th-century noel “Don Quijote de la Mancha is the second most ...
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2
votes
Is there evidence that the fate of some "A Song of Ice and Fire" characters was inspired by the "Divine Comedy"'s contrapasso?
George has certainly made many references and homages in A Song of Ice and Fire.
However, the only direct mention I can find of Dante by Martin is the following:
Two thousand years after the ...
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2
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Why the phrasing "where the sun is silent" in Dante's "Inferno"?
The metaphor of silence for the absence of light recurs in Canto V:
Io venni in loco d’ogni luce muto
I came to a place mute of all light
Dante (c. 1310). Inferno V.28.
Several commentators on ...
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2
votes
Accepted
Should I read the original text or the guide to the text first?
Steve Ellis is a poet and a literary scholar who published about Dante before producing a translation of the Divine Comedy. His translation for Vintage / PenguinRandomHouse contains a considerable ...
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2
votes
Should I read the original text or the guide to the text first?
Read the book, not the guide.
If you read a guide first, you will as likely as not approach the book with preconceptions based upon the guide author's opinions. Your opinion and interpretation of the ...
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vote
Who was indignant at Dante’s behaviour to the sinners in the “Inferno”?
I found four members of the chorus, including one (Coleridge) from whom I would have expected a more insightful response.
There are few instances (notwithstanding his tremendous denunciations against ...
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