List_of_English_translations_of_the_Divine_Comedy

List of English translations of the <i>Divine Comedy</i>

List of English translations of the Divine Comedy

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The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is an epic poem in Italian written between 1308 and 1321 that describes its author's journey through the Christian afterlife.[1] The three cantiche[lower-roman 1] of the poem, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, describe Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, respectively. The poem is considered one of the greatest works of world literature[2] and helped establish Dante's Tuscan dialect as the standard form of the Italian language.[3] It has been translated over 400 times into at least 52 different languages.[4]

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A room in Dante's House Museum [it] containing many translations of the Divine Comedy into different languages

Though English poets Geoffrey Chaucer and John Milton referenced and partially translated Dante's works in the 14th and 17th centuries respectively,[5][6] it took until the early 19th century for the first full English translation of the Divine Comedy to be published.[7] This was over 300 years after the first Latin (1416),[8] Spanish (1515),[4] and French (1500s)[9] translations had been completed. By 1906, Dante scholar Paget Toynbee calculated that the Divine Comedy had been touched upon by over 250 translators[10] and sixty years later bibliographer Gilbert F. Cunningham observed that the frequency of English Dante translations was increasing with time.[11] As of 2022, the Divine Comedy has been translated into English more times than it has been translated into any other language.[4]

List of translations

A complete listing and criticism of all English translations of at least one of the three cantiche (parts) was made by Cunningham in 1966.[12] The table below summarises Cunningham's data with additions between 1966 and the present, many of which are taken from the Dante Society of America's yearly North American bibliography[13] and Società Dantesca Italiana [it]'s international bibliography.[14] Many more translations of individual lines or cantos[lower-roman 2] exist,[15] but these are too numerous for the scope of this list.

More information Published, Translator ...

See also

Notes

  1. Latin-derived term for the three parts of the Divine Comedy. The singular form is cantica.
  2. Each cantica is divided into thirty-three or thirty-four cantos so that the Comedy has a total of one hundred
  3. The Divine Comedy was originally written in hendecasyllabic terza rima, i.e. eleven-syllable lines and a rhyme scheme of aba bcb cdc... yzy z. Most English translations that attempt to replicate the rhyme scheme replace the hendecasyllables with iambic pentameter, a ten-syllable form more common in English-language poetry. Many translations use a simplified rhyme scheme of aba cdc efe..., described by Cunningham and listed here as "defective terza rima".[16]
  4. Born Claudia Hamilton Garden. Used pen name "Mrs. Ramsay"[19]
  5. Son of Sir Edward Sullivan, 1st Baronet[23]

References

  1. [1]
    Delmolino 2017.
  2. [2]
    Bloom 1994.
  3. [3]
    Lepschy 1977.
  4. [4]
    Tavoni 2022.
  5. [5]
    Chaucer 2008, Section 7.6: "Whoever wants to hear [the tale of Ugolino] in a longer version, read the great poet of Italy who is called Dante, for he can all narrate in great detail; not one word will he lack".
  6. [6]
    Milton 1641, p. 30: "Dante in his 19. Canto of Inferno hath thus, as I will render it you in English blank Verse. 'Ah Constantine, of how much ill was cause / Not thy Conversion, but those rich demaines / That the first wealthy Pope receiv'd of thee.' So in his 20. Canto of Paradise hee makes the like complaint".
  7. [7]
    Jacoff 1993.
  8. [8]
    Zanobini 2016.
  9. [9]
    Holekamp 1985.
  10. [10]
    Hainsworth 2018.
  11. [11]
    Cunningham 1966.
  12. [12]
    Cunningham 1966, pp. v.2 5-9.
  13. [13]
    "American Dante Bibliography". Dante Society of America. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  14. [14]
    "Bibliografia Internazionale Dantesca" [International Dante Bibliography]. Retrieved 12 November 2022. For a multilingual list of translations, see Dante Alighieri > Works > Commedia (Comedy) > Editions > Complete work
  15. [15]
    Toynbee 1921, See pages 156–280 for a comprehensive list of English Dante translations up to 1921, including single lines and cantos.
  16. [16]
    Cunningham 1954, pp. 115, 177.
  17. [17]
    Cunningham 1954, p. 28.
  18. [18]
    Jacoff 1993, p. 245-246.
  19. [19]
    Gifra, Pere. "An eye for detail - 01 Nov 2015". Catalonia Today. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  20. [20]
    "Longfellow's Translation of Dante's Divina Commedia". The Atlantic. 1 August 1867. Retrieved 12 November 2022. It is not to Mr. Longfellow's reputation only that these volumes will add, but to that of American literature. It is no little thing to be able to say, that, in a field in which some of England's great poets have signally failed, an American poet has signally succeeded ; that what the scholars of the Old World asserted to be impossible, a scholar of the New World has accomplished ; and that the first to tread in this new path has impressed his footprints so deeply therein, that, however numerous his followers may be, they will all unite in hailing him...
  21. [21]
    Cunningham 1954, p. 229.
  22. [22]
    Cunningham 1954, p. 255.
  23. [23]
    Cunningham 1954, p. 406.
  24. [24]
    Cunningham 1954, p. 428.
  25. [25]
    Cooper 1989.
  26. [26]
    "The Inferno (Dante Alighieri): The Immortal Drama of a Journey through Hell". folkways.si.edu. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  27. [27]
    Harrison 1966.
  28. [28]
    "American Dante Bibliography for 1967 | Dante Society". www.dantesociety.org. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  29. [29]
    Grimes 2011.
  30. [30]
    Hollander, Robert (26 August 2003). "Translating Dante into English Again and Again". Divine Comedies for the New Millennium. pp. 43–48. doi:10.1017/9789048505241.003. ISBN 9789048505241.
  31. [31]
    Josephine Balmer (13 March 1994). "BOOK REVIEW / The lost in translation: 'Hell' - Dante Alighieri". The Independent. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
  32. [32]
    "American Dante Bibliography for 2000 | Dante Society". www.dantesociety.org. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  33. [33]
    Parks, Tim (8 January 2001). "Hell and Back". The New Yorker. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  34. [34]
    Barbarese 2009.
  35. [35]
    "Hollander to be honored in Italy". Princeton University. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  36. [36]
    Johnson 2021.
  37. [37]
    Acocella 2013.

Bibliography

Further reading

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