Considered the finest poet that Italy has ever produced, Dante is also celebrated as a major influence on western European culture. His masterpiece, La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy), is uni versally known as one of the greatest poems in world literature. Divided into three sections--the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso--The Divine Comedy presents an encyclopedic overview of the mores, attitudes, beliefs, p hilosophies, and aspirations, as well as the material aspects of the medieval world. More than a sum of medieval life, however, Dante's poem is a superb work of fiction with poignant dramatic episodes and unforgettable characters. "The prestige of the poe m has long endured," Thomas G. Bergin noted in the Reference Guide to World Literature. "Through the centuries immediately following its composition it maintained its eminence and survived through the less appreciative climate o f the 17th and 18th centuries, gathering new...