pCharles S. Singleton's edition of the iDivine Comedyi, of which this is the first part, provides the English-speaking reader with everything he needs to read and understand Dante's great masterpiece. pThe Italian text here is in the edition of Giorgio Petrocchi, the leading Italian editor of Dante. Professor Singleton's prose translation, facing the Italian in a line-for-line arrangement on each page, is smooth and literate. The companion volume, the Commentary, marshals every point of information the reader may require vocabulary grammar identification of Dante's characters historical sources of some of the incidents and, where pertinent, excerpts from those sources in their original languages and in translation profound clear analysis of the iDivine Comedyi's basic allegory. There is a complete bibliography of every aspect of Dante studies. pThis first part of the iDivine Comedyi which is illustrated with maps of Italy and the region Dante knew especially, diagrams of the circles of