017 - Bk 3 Paradise Canto XVII - Canto XXI

The Divine Comedy (Italian Commedia), later named Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, is an epic masterpiece penned by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and 1321. Hailed as a cornerstone of Italian literature, it represents the pinnacle of medieval thought on the afterlife and heralds the dawn of the Renaissance. This monumental work, written in the Tuscan dialect that would become the Italian standard, comprises three canticas—Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise)—each made up of 33 cantos, with a prologue bringing the total to 100. Through the poets first-person journey across these realms during the Easter Triduum in the spring of 1300, readers are invited to explore profound themes of morality, redemption, and the human experience. (Summary from Wikipedia)