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Primary sourceBook1892

The Hell of Dante Alighieri (Butler edition, 1892)

Dante Alighieri · 1892

An 1892 English translation of Dante's Inferno with notes, edited by Arthur John Butler.

This is an English translation of Dante's own Inferno, the opening section of his masterwork.

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The Hell of Dante Alighieri (Butler edition, 1892)PDF · 460 pages
Dante Alighieri, The Hell of Dante Alighieri, edited and translated by Arthur John Butler, 1892.

About this source

What it is

This is an 1892 edition of the Inferno, the first section of Dante's Divine Comedy, edited with an English translation and notes by Arthur John Butler, a scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Why it matters

Dante wrote the original poem in the early 1300s, but this book is a later scholarly translation meant to bring his work to English readers. It reflects how Victorian scholars worked to make medieval Italian literature accessible and studied Dante's language closely.

Look closer

  • What choices might a translator make when turning Dante's Italian poetry into English prose or verse?
  • Why do you think this edition includes detailed notes alongside the translation?
  • What might be lost or changed when reading Dante in translation rather than in Italian?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Dante Alighieri on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Painting of Dante in a red robe and laurel wreath, holding a book, gesturing toward Hell, Purgatory mountain, and Florence. Nude figures writhe in a lower-left inferno; an inscription runs along the bottom.Book

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