Sunday, February 26, 2012



The Divine Comedy - Purgatory by Dante Alighieri, tr Dorothy L. Sayers, 1955, ISBN 0140440461. The Divine Comedy - Purgatory tr Charles Eliot Norton, 1891.

The Sayers translation was an actual book. Probably purchased in 1973, for $1.05, maybe at Powells, maybe at a bookstore by PSU. This translation has a long introduction and notes after each canto. Plus there are several Appendix that discuss certain issues in more detail. In the Divine Comedy Dante mentions many people and scholars have tried since it was first made available to determine who these people where. Matilda is one such character who has be speculated about for many years. This translation is again in verse form, that tries to reproduce the Italian Terza rima.

The second translation I read was the Charles Eliot Norton. This is a file I read on my kindle (2ddcn10.mobi), which can be found at websites that have public domain texts. I think this was originally a project Gutenberg text (here.) This translation is older and in prose form. It also has notes to explain the various references.

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