Dante’s Comedy in English Translation: Critical Perspectives, Reception Histories, Assessments

This collection brings together leading and emerging scholars across Dante studies and translation studies to chart the English-language translation journey of the Divine Comedy from the 18th century to the present.

The book is divided into four sections, each taking in turn a different dimension of the rise in popularity of English-language translations through the 21st century. The first section includes introductory chapters outlining the historical context around Dante’s work in English more broadly and reflections on the unique issues surrounding the translation of the Commedia in English. The second part looks at translations of the work across the centuries, situating them within their respective historical periods via a range of case studies. The third section turns to formal and stylistic choices, analyzing how translators have rendered Dante’s poetry, from terza rima to blank verse, and the decisions guiding their interpretations. A final section ties these different threads together through a conversation between different scholars about future directions for research on English-language translations of this canonical text.

This volume will be of interest to scholars in translation studies, comparative literature, Italian literature, and English literature.

Jacob Blakesley is Associate Professor in Comparative Literature at University of Rome La Sapienza’s Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali. He formerly co-directed, with Federica Pich, the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies (2018-21). He co-edited The Afterlife of Dante’s Vita Nova in the Anglophone World (Routledge, 2022), with Federica Coluzzi. His forthcoming monograph on Dante’s global translation history will be published by Legenda (Transcript).

Theodore J. Cachey, Jr. is Pizzo Family Professor of Dante Studies and Ravarino Family Director of the Center of Italian Studies and the Devers Program in Dante Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Cachey specializes in Italian Medieval and Renaissance literature, particularly Dante and Petrarch, the history of the Italian language, and travel literature.

Federica Pich is Associate Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Trento. From 2012 to 2021 she taught at the University of Leeds, where she co-directed, with Jacob Blakesley, the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies (2018-21).