In the early 1300s, Dante Alighieri set out to write the three volumes which make the up The Divine Comedy. Purgatorio is the second volume in this set and opens with Dante the poet picturing Dante the pilgrim coming out of the pit of hell. Similar to the Inferno (34 cantos), this volume is divided into 33 cantos, written in tercets (groups of 3 lines). The English prose is arranged in tercets to facilitate easy correspondence to the verse form of the Italian on the facing page, enabling the reader to follow both languages line by line. In an effort to capture the peculiarities of Dante's original language, this translation strives toward the literal and sheds new light on the shape of the poem. Again the text of Purgatorio follows Petrocchi's La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata, but the editor has departed from Petrocchi's readings in a number of cases, somewhat larger than in the previous Inferno, not without consideration of recent critical readings of the Comedy by scholars such as Lanza (1995, 1997) and Sanguineti (2001). As before, Petrocchi's punctuation has been lightened and American norms have been followed. However, without any pretensions to being "critical", the text presented here is electic and being not persuaded of the exclusive authority of any manuscript, the editor has felt free to adopt readings from various branches of the stemma. One major addition to this second volume is in the notes, where is found the Intercantica - a section for each canto that discusses its relation to the Inferno and which will make it easier for the reader to relate the different parts of the Comedy as a whole.

Pardiso is the third of three volumes of a new edition and translation of Dantes's masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. Similar to volumes I Inferno and II Purgatorio, this translation will be into English prose, emphasizing the literal-vs-phonetic. A newly edited version of the Italian text will be on facing pages and includes fully comprehensive notes with the latest in contemporary scholarship.

Reproduction of the original: The Divina Comedia of Dante Alighieri by James Romanes Sibbald

Presents a verse translation of Dante's "Inferno" along with ten essays that analyze the different interpretations of the first canticle of the "Divine Comedy."

This is the first book of a trilogy. Click on the links below to view the other two volumes of the trilogy. LA DIVINA COMMEDIA (THE DIVINE COMEDY) : Purgatorio LA DIVINA COMMEDIA (THE DIVINE COMEDY) : Paradiso