Erebus Society

Dante's Divine Comedy - Illustrated

by Constantin Vaughn

The Divine Comedy is a long Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which the original was written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The narrative describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven, while allegorically the poem represents the soul's journey towards God. Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy derived from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called "the Summa in verse". In Dante's work, Virgil is presented as human reason and Beatrice is presented as divine knowledge. The work was originally simply titled Comedìa in the first printed edition, published in 1472, later adjusted to the modern Italian Commedia. The adjective Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio, and 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. This illustrated version of the book features all the original sketches by Sandro Botticelli that have survived to this day.

Details:

Pages: 584

Trim Size: 6" x 9" 

Edition: 1st 

ISBN: 978-1912461196

Publication Date: 10 March 2020

SKU: PC006

WHERE to GET the BOOK

United Kingdom

U.S.A. & International