English translations of Dante's Divine Comedy


The Divine Comedy by Dante Aligheri was translated into Latin, French, Spanish and other European languages well before it was first translated into English. In fact the first English translation was only completed in 1802, almost 500 years after Dante wrote his Italian original. The lack of English translations before this is due in part to Dante's Catholic views being distasteful, or at least uninteresting, to Protestant English audiences, who viewed such a Catholic theology, mixed with references to classical mythos, as heretical.
Since 1802, however, the Divine Comedy has been translated into English more times than it has into any other language, and new English translations continue to be published regularly, so that today English is the language with the most translations by far. A complete listing and criticism of all English translations of at least one of the three books up until 1966 was made by Cunningham. The table below summarises Cunningham's data with additions between 1966 and the present. Many more translations of individual cantos from the three cantiche exist, but these are too numerous to allow the compilation of a comprehensive list.
Publication dateNameNationalityParts translatedFormNotes
1782Charles RogersUKInfernoblank verseFirst translation of a full cantica into English
1785-1802Henry BoydUKComedyrhymed 6-line stanzasFirst full translation of the Comedy in English.
1805-1814Henry Francis CaryUKComedyblank verseVolume 20 in the Harvard Classics series.
1807Nathaniel HowardUKInfernoblank verse
1812Joseph HumeUKInfernoblank verseone of the two 'worst' translations according to Cunningham
1833-1840Ichabod Charles WrightUKComedyrhymed 6-line stanzas
1843-1865John DaymanUKComedyterza rima
1843-1893Thomas William ParsonsUnited StatesComedy quatrains and irregular rhyme
1849John Aitken CarlyleUKInfernoprose
1850Patrick BannermanUKComedyirregular rhymeone of the two 'worst' translations according to Cunningham
1851-1854Charles Bagot CayleyUKComedyterza rima
1852E. O'DonnellUKComedyprose
1854Thomas BrooksbankUKInfernoterza rima
1854Sir William Frederick PollockUKComedyblank terzine
1859Bruce WhyteUKInfernoirregular rhyme
1859-1866John Wesley ThomasUKComedyterza rima
1862William Patrick WilkieUKInfernoblank terzine
1862-1863Claudia Hamilton RamsayUKComedyterza rima
1865William Michael RossettiUKInfernoblank terzine
1865-1870James FordUKComedyterza rima
1867Henry Wadsworth LongfellowUnited StatesComedyblank terzineFirst complete American translation. Available.
1867-1868David JohnstonUKComedyblank terzine
1877Charles TomlinsonUKInfernoterza rima
1880-1892Arthur John ButlerUKComedyprose
1881Warburton PikeUKInfernoterza rima
1883William Stratford DugdaleUKPurgatorioprose
1884James Romanes SibbaldUKInfernoterza rima
1885James Innes MinchinUKComedyterza rima
1886-1887Edward Hayes PlumptreUKComedyterza rima
1887Frederick Kneeller Haselfoot HaselfootUKComedyterza rima
1888John Augustine WilstachUnited StatesComedyrhymed stanzas
1889-1900William Warren VernonUKComedyprose
1891-1892Charles Eliot NortonUnited StatesComedyproseTranslation used by Great Books of the Western World. Available at Project Gutenberg.
1892-1915Charles Lancelot ShadwellUKPurgatorio and ParadisoMarvellian stanzas
1893George MusgraveUKInfernoSpenserian stanzas
1893Sir Edward SullivanUKInfernoprose
1895Robert UrquhartUKInfernoterza rima
1898Eugene Jacob Lee-HamiltonUKInfernohendecasyllabic blank terzine
1899Philip Henry WicksteedUKParadisoprose
1899Arthur Compton AuchmutyUKPurgatoriooctosyllabic terza rima
1899-1901Samuel HomeUKPurgatorio hendecasyllabic blank terzine
1901John Carpenter GarnierUKInfernoprose
1901Thomas OakeyUKPurgatorioprose
1902Edward Clarke LoweUKComedyblank terzine
1903-1909Edward WilberforceUKComedyterza rima
1903-1911Sir Samuel Walker GriffithUKComedyhendecasyllabic blank terzine
1904Caroline C. PotterUKPurgatorio and Paradisorhymed quatrains
1904Henry Fanshawe TozerUKComedyprose
1904Marvin Richardson VincentUnited StatesInfernoblank verse
1905Charles Gordon WrightUKPurgatorioprose
1908Frances Isabella FraserUKParadisoblank terzine
1910Agnes Louisa MoneyUKPurgatorioblank terzine
1911Charles Edwin WheelerUKComedyterza rima
1914Edith Mary ShawUKComedyblank verse
1915Edward Joshua EdwardesUKInfernoblank terzine
1915Henry JohnsonUnited StatesComedyblank terzine
1918-1921Courtney LangdonUnited StatesComedyblank terzine
1920Eleanor Vinton MurrayUnited StatesInfernoterza rima
1921Melville Best AndersonUnited StatesComedyterza rima
1922Henry John HooperUKInfernounrhymed amphiambics
1927David James MacKenzieUKComedyterza rima
1928-1931Albert R. BandiniUnited States Comedyterza rima
1928-1954Sydney Fowler WrightUKInferno and Purgatorioirregularly rhymed decasyllables
1931Jefferson Butler FletcherUnited StatesComedydefective terza rima
1931Lacy LockertUnited StatesInfernoterza rima
1932-1935Geoffrey Langdale BickerstethUKComedyterza rima
1933-1943Laurence BinyonUKComedyterza rima
1934-1940Louis HowUnited StatesComedyterza rima
1938Ralph Thomas BodeyUKComedyblank verse
1939-1946John Dickson SinclairUKComedyprose
1948Lawrence Grant WhiteUnited StatesComedyblank verse
1948Patrick CumminsUnited StatesComedyhendecasyllabic terza rima
1948-1954Thomas Goddard BerginUnited StatesComedyblank verse
1949-1953Harry Morgan AyresUnited StatesComedyprose
1949-1962Dorothy Leigh SayersUKComedyterza rimaPenguin Classics edition. After Sayers' death in 1957, Paradiso XXI-XXXIII completed by Barbara Reynolds.
1952Thomas Weston RamseyUKParadisodefective terza rima
1954Howard Russell HuseUnited StatesComedyprose
1954-1970John CiardiUnited StatesComedydefective terza rimaInferno recorded and released by Folkways Records in 1954.
1956Glen Levin SwiggettUnited StatesComedyterza rima
1958Mary Prentice LillieUnited StatesComedyhendecasyllabic blank terzine
1961Warwick Fielding ChipmanUKInfernoterza rima
1962Clara Stillman ReedUnited StatesComedyprose
1965William F. EnnisUKComedydodecasyllabic terza rima
1965Aldo MaugeriItalyInfernoblank terzine
1967-2002Mark MusaUnited StatesComedyblank verseAn alternative Penguin Classics version.
1970-1991Charles S. SingletonUnited StatesComedyproseLiteral prose version with extensive commentary; 6 vols.
1980-1984Allen MandelbaumUnited StatesComedyblank verse
1981C. H. SissonUKComedy?Oxford World's Classics
1994Steve EllisUKInferno?Chatto & Windus
1995Robert PinskyUnited StatesInfernoterza rima
1996Peter DaleUKComedyterza rima
1996-2007Robert M. DurlingUnited StatesComedyproseOxford University Press
2000W. S. MerwinUnited StatesPurgatorio?
2000-2007Robert and Jean HollanderUnited StatesComedyblank verse as part of the Princeton Dante Project.
2002Ciaran CarsonIrelandInfernoterza rimaGranta Books
2002Michael Palma?Infernoterza rima
2002-2004Anthony M. EsolenUnited StatesComedyblank verseModern Library Classics.
2006-2007Robin Kirkpatrick?Comedy?A third Penguin Classics version, replacing Musa's
2009-2017Stanley LombardoUnited StatesComedyblank terzineHackett Classics
2010Burton RaffelUnited StatesComedy?Northwestern World Classics
2012J. Gordon NicholsUKComedy?Alma Classics
2013Mary Jo BangUnited StatesInferno?Graywolf Press
2013Clive JamesAustralia/UKComedyquatrainsPicador
2017Peter ThorntonUnited StatesInfernoblank verseArcade Publishing
2018-2020Alasdair GrayUKComedy?Canongate Books