The Divine Comedy

Description: The Divine Comedy is necessary to any classical curriculum, for it is the union of two traditions, both Christian and classical. In this course, we will be your Virgil (Dante’s guide in the Comedy) as we guide your student with an engaging, thoughtful presentation of Dante’s masterpiece. Students can expect to spend 45 minutes per day on this course. The grade is based upon attendance and participation, quizzes, activities, exams, and memory work.

Grade Level: 10-12 (ages 15-18)

Prerequisites: Students should be strong readers (this is a challenging text), proficient with English grammar, be able to write grammatically complete sentences, and be able to edit their work.

Required Texts: Students will read the entire text of The Divine Comedy, which includes Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The text edition that is required for this class is the Ciardi translation of the Divine Comedy. Students also need the Divine Comedy Student and Teacher Guides by Laura Musick. To participate in class, students will need a microphone (built-in microphones or USB headsets will work).