Practice question · Numerical answer
Three canticles of 33 cantos each, plus one introductory canto. How many cantos does the Commedia have in total?
Hints
- Multiply before adding the extra one.
- 3 × 33 = 99, plus the proem.
Show the answer
100
Why
100. Three canticles of thirty-three, plus the introductory canto of the Inferno. Ten is the number of completeness and three of the Trinity, so the poem’s shape states its argument before a line is read.
Practise Dante’s Divine Comedy: an Architecture of the Afterlife
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