Dante and the Divine Comedy

    Caption: Dante Alighieri (1265--1321) and the realms of Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, and Florence in a fresco from 1465 located in Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral).

    Dante holds his Divine Comedy opened to the incipit "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" ("Midway in our life's journey"):

      O Tosco che per la citta del foco
      vivo ten vai cosi parlando onesto,
      piacciati di restare in questo loco.

      ---Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto X, Verse 8. See online Inferno, Canto X, Verse 8.

    Yours truly made it through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven in the translation by Laurence Binyon (1869--1943) and several times through Hell in the translation by John Ciardi (1916--1986) (The Inferno (1954))---it cheers me up.

    Credit/Permission: Dominco di Michelino (1417--1491) (uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Marie-Lan Nguyen (AKA User:Jastrow), 2006) / Public domain.
    Image link: Wikipedia.
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