The Inferno

A New Verse Translation

Dante Alighieri, Peter Thornton

• Publisher: Arcade
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781628727487
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

This enthralling new translation of Dante's Inferno "immediately joins ranks with the very best" (Richard Lansing). One of the world's transcendent literary masterpieces, the Inferno tells the timeless story of Dante's journey through the nine circles of hell, guided by the poet Virgil, when in midlife he strays from his path in a dark wood. In this vivid verse translation into contemporary English, Peter Thornton makes the classic work fresh again for a new generation of readers. Recognizing that the Inferno was, for Dante and his peers, not simply an allegory but the most realistic work of fiction to date, he points out that hell was a lot like Italy of Dante's time. Thornton's translation captures the individuals represented, landscapes, and psychological immediacy of the dialogues as well as Dante's poetic effects.The product of decades of passionate dedication and research, his translation has been hailed by the leading Dante scholars on both sides of the Atlantic as exceptional in its accuracy, spontaneity, and vividness. Those qualities and its detailed notes explaining Dante's world and references make it both accessible for individual readers and perfect for class adoption.

Works Cited

Abbreviations for books of the bible are conventional; biblical quotations are from the Douay-Rheims version, sometimes modified, but biblical names follow the more familiar King James spellings. Commentaries on the Comedy, including notes to translations, are cited ad loc. References to the early commentators Benvenuto, Boccaccio, Lana and the Anonimo are taken from the Enciclopedia Dantesca and the Dartmouth Dante Database. (References to Boccaccio in the notes are to his commentary unless the Decameron is cited.) When the works cited are foreign- or dual-language texts, translations in the notes are mine. Where translations and/or reprints are cited, the date of original publication appears in brackets when feasible.

Aen.	Virgil, Aeneid
Civ. Dei	St. Augustine, City of God
CLD	California Lectura Dantis
Consol. Phil.	Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
Conv.	Dante, Convivio
Cron.	Villani, Nuova Cronica
De Animal.	Albertus Magnus, Man and the Beasts
Decam.	Boccaccio, Decameron
DE	The Dante Encyclopedia
EBDSA	Electronic Bulletin of the Dante Society of America
ED	Enciclopedia Dantesca
Epist.	Dante, Epistoli
Eth.	Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics
Etym.	St. Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum
Gold. Leg.	Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend
Hist. Adv. Pag.	Orosius, Seven Books of History Against the Pagans
In Eth.	St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
Inf.	Dante, Inferno
LCL	Loeb Classical Library
Metam.	Ovid, Metamorphoses
Meteorol.	Aristotle, Meteorology
Mon.	Dante, Monarchy
Nat. Hist.	Pliny, Natural History
Par.	Dante, Paradiso
Phars.	Lucan, Pharsalia
Purg.	Dante, Purgatorio
Rom. Rose	Lorris and Meun, The Romance of the Rose
SCG	St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles
ST	St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Theb.	Statius, Thebaid
Tresor	Brunetto Latini, Li Livres dou Tresor
VE	Dante, De Vulgari Eloquentia
VN	Dante, Vita Nuova

Abelard, Peter. Historia Calamitatum (History of His Misfortunes) in The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Translated by Betty Radice. Introduction by Betty Radice. London: Penguin, 1974.

Abulafia, David. Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor. London: Allen Lane / Penguin, 1988.

Alain of Lille. Plaint of Nature. Translated by James J. Sheridan. Commentary by James J. Sheridan. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980.

Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great, Saint). Man and the Beasts: De Animalibus books 22–26, Translated by James J. Scanlan. Introduction by James J. Scanlan. Binghamton, N.Y.: State University of New York at Binghamton, 1987.

Alighieri, Dante. Convivio in ED 6.679ff.

——. Epistole in ED 6.803ff.

——. Fiore in ED 6.965ff.

——. Inferno in ED 6.835ff. (Editions or translations of the Comedy with notes are listed under the name of the editor/translator/commentator.)

——. Lyric poetry. (Editions or translations listed under the name of the editor/translator.)

——. Monarchy. Translated and edited by Prue Shaw. Introduction by Prue Shaw. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

——. Paradiso in ED 6.922ff.

——. Purgatorio in ED 6.879ff.

——. Questio di Acqua et Terra in ED 6.825ff.

——. Vita Nuova in ED 6.622ff.

——. De Vulgari Eloquentia. Edited and translated by Stephen Botterill. Introduction by Stephen Botterill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Alighieri, Pietro. Il “Commentarium” di Pietro Alighieri. Edited by Roberto della Vedova and Maria Teresa Silvotti. Introduction by Egidio Guidubaldi. Florence: Olschki, 1978.

The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages. Edited by Richard K. Emmerson and Bernard McGinn. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992.

Apocalyptic Spirituality: Treatises and Letters of Lactantius, Adso of Montier-en-Der, Joachim of Fiore, The Spiritual Franciscans, Savonarola. Translation and Introduction by Bernard McGinn. Preface by Marjorie Reeves. New York: Paulist Press, 1979.

Aquinas, Saint Thomas. Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Translated by John P. Rowan. Preface by Ralph McInerny. Notre Dame, Ind.: Dumb Ox Books, 1995 [1961].

——. Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by C.I. Litzinger. Forward by Ralph McInerny. Notre Dame, Ind.: Dumb Ox Books, 1993 [1964].

——. Summa Contra Gentiles. Book Three: Providence. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Vernon J. Bourke. Notre Dame, Ind.: Notre Dame University Press, 1975 [1956].

——. Summa Theologica. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. 3 vols. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1948.

Aristotle. The Complete Works of Aristotle. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. 2 vols. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.

——. Metphysics. Translated by W.D. Ross in The Complete Works of Aristotle, supra.

——. ——. Translation of the medieval Latin text in Aquinas, Commentary on the Metaphysics, supra.

——. Meteorology. Translated by E.W. Webster in The Complete Works of Aristotle, supra.

——. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by, W.D. Ross and J.O. Urmson in The Complete Works of Aristotle, supra.

——. ——. Translation of the medieval Latin text in Aquinas, Commentary on the Ethics, supra.

——. Physics. Translated by R.P. Hardie and R.K. Gaye in The Complete Works of Aristotle, supra.

Ascoli, Albert Russell. “Palinode and History in the Oeuvre of Dante” in Dante Now 155–86.

Auerbach 1929 – Auerbach, Erich. Dante: Poet of the Secular World. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961 [1929].

Auerbach 1944 – ——. “Figura,” in Scenes from the Drama of European Literature. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Foreword by Paolo Valesio. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984 [1944].

Auerbach 1946 – ——. Mimesis: the Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Translated by Willard R. Trask. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1953 [1946].

Auerbach 1958 – ——. Literary Language and its Public in Latin Antiquity and in the Middle Ages. Translated by Ralph Mannheim. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965 [1958].

Augustine, Saint. The City of God. Translated by Marcus Dodd. Introduction by Thomas Merton. Modern Library. New York: Random House, 1950.

——. Confessions. Translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin. London: Penguin, 1961.

——. On Christian Doctrine. Translated by D.W. Robertson, Jr. New York: Macmillan, 1958.

Baranski 1995 – Baranski, Zygmunt. “The Poetics of Meter: Terza Rima, ‘Canto,’ ‘Canzon,’ ‘Cantica’” in Dante Now 3–42.

Baranski 2003 – ——. “Scatology and Obscenity in Dante” in Dante for the New Millenium 259–73.

Barolini 1984 – Barolini, Teodolinda. Dante’s Poets: Textuality and Truth in the “Comedy.” Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Barolini 1992 – ——. The Undivine Comedy: Detheologizing Dante. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Barolini 1998 – ——. “True and False See-ers” in CLD 275–86.

Barolini 2006 – ——. Dante and...