Dante's Comedy : a life's work. Notes on the poem's composition and publication

When we consider its macrotextual solidity, it is easy to forget that Dante’s Comedy was initially conceived as a “trilogy” of cantiche, and was never published in its entirety by its author. Delving into the problem of the Comedy’s composition and early circulation, as suggested by the extant documentary evidence and related chronological issues, the article attempts to sum up recent proposals on these questions. Attention is paid both to internal historical references or allusions and various types of external evidence for establishing the cvhronology of the first two cantiche.