Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) composed the Divine Comedyover a period of 12 years, completing it in 1320. He divided the poem into three parts - Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso- and it is the first canto from Inferno that we have reproduced here. The Divine Comedy was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy. Though no original manuscripts have survived, this 14th-century copy is one of the earliest produced.