In his own lifetime Dante’s work was already being circulated and appreciated by Italian readers. Following his death in 1321 an editorial and critical industry rapidly developed in Florence and elsewhere in Italy around the three parts of his
Commedia:
Inferno,
Purgatorio, and
Paradiso. Surviving manuscripts of all or part of the poem number more than eight hundred, and although most of these date from the fifteenth century, large-scale production of copies was well under way by the mid fourteenth. At least eleven Latin and vernacular commentaries on all or part of the
Commediadate from the period up to 1355, and important examples continued to appear in the second half of the fourteenth century – notably those by Giovanni Boccaccio, Benvenuto da Imola and Francesco da Buti (Minnis…
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Citation: Havely, Nick. "Dante's reception in the English-speaking world". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5773, accessed 14 December 2024.]