The Divine Comedy

Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world. The mountain has seven terraces, corresponding to the seven deadly sins. Dante's illustrative examples of sin and virtue draw on classical sources as well as on the Bible and on contemporary events.

The Divine Comedy represents a vision of the afterlife of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14^th century. The narrative describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, while allegorically the poem represents the soul's journey towards God. The poem is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature.