DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265–1321) was born in Florence to a prominent family and trained as a pharmacist. He fought in the Battle of Campaldino and was active in the internecine Florentine politics of the time, which resulted in his exile. During this time, he began writing Commedia, which he finished shortly before his death in Ravenna.
BURTON RAFFEL is a teacher and a poet as well as the acclaimed translator of Chaucer, Cervantes, Rabelais, and Stendahl. His translation of Beowulf has sold over a million copies. Raffel is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities and emeritus professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
PAUL J. CONTINO is the Professor of Great Books at Pepperdine University in California.
HENRY L. CARRIGAN JR. is the assistant director and senior editor at Northwestern University Press. He is the editor of works by Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Catherine of Siena, among other Christian classics. He reviews books for national newspapers and literary magazines and taught Dante’s Commedia for fourteen years at Otterbein College in Ohio.
