The Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote his iconic work over the course of thirteen years—from 1308 to 1321. It was originally titled "Comedy," following the accepted terminology of the Middle Ages. The epithet "Divine" was later added to the title by the writer Giovanni Boccaccio, thus paying homage to his idol.
Alighieri ascribed mystical significance to numbers, particularly to the numbers three, thirty-three, and one hundred. Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise are the three stages of the afterlife in Catholicism, the three parts of the work. Each contains thirty-three cantos. Together with the introductory canto, their total reaches one hundred. Thirty-three is the age of Christ. One hundred is a symbol of perfection...
The poem has found expression in virtually every area of ​​culture. Honoré de Balzac alluded to it in the title of "The Human Comedy." T.S. Eliot and Jorge Luis Borges used its stanzas as epigraphs to their works. Dan Brown incorporated its plot and creation story into his novel "Inferno." Alighieri's work inspired paintings by Domenico di Michelino, Salvador Dalí, Raphael Santi, Sandro Botticelli, Ingène Delacroix, and many others.