“The Guide and I into that hidden road

Now entered, to return to the bright

    world;

And without care of having any rest

We mounted up, he first and I the second,

Till I beheld through a round aperture

Some of the beauteous things that Heaven

    doth bear;

Thence we came forth to rebehold the

    stars.”

The Divine Comedy, Inferno Canto 34

The Divine Comedy, Dante’s masterpiece of poetry, is considered the central epic poem of Italian literature as it played a key role in introducing the Renaissance world view to the common man. This moving drama is Dante’s spiritual journey in his search for God. He is led through Hell and Purgatory by the Roman poet Virgil, and, finally, through Paradise by Beatrice, his ideal woman. This classic unites Christian and Greco-Roman thought in the power of poetic verse.