Divine Comedy

From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia) is an Italian epic poem, composed by Dante Alighieri, a poet from the city of Florence who lived during the 14th century. The epic is consisted of three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, chronicling a man's journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise, and expounding the medieval Christian cosmological, theological, and philosophical views. Throughout the epic, the protagonist and narrator, as Dante himself, is accompanied by Roman poet Virgil and later Lady Beatrice. It is considered to be one of the greatest accomplishment in the Western literary tradition, and one of the finest Italian pieces of literature ever written in history.