The Divine Comedy was completed around 1321, shortly before Dante Alighieri’s death. The poem was composed over many years, probably beginning after Dante’s exile from Florence and continuing through the early fourteenth century.
Dante died in Ravenna in 1321, and the poem is generally treated as complete by that year. Its three cantiche—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—form a carefully balanced journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The work contains 100 cantos and 14,233 lines, using the interlocking rhyme scheme known as terza rima.
A common mix-up is 1472, which refers to the first printed edition, not the date of composition. Another misleading date is 1300: that is the fictional year in which Dante’s journey takes place, not the year the whole poem was finished. The original title was simply Commedia; the adjective Divina became associated with it later.