study of the Divine Comedy when I first had his incomparable aid
in the understanding of it.  During the last year of his life he
read the proofs of this volume, to what great advantage to my
work may readily be conceived. 

When, in the early summer of this year, the printing of the
Purgatory began, though illness made it an exertion to him, he
continued this act of friendship, and did not cease till, at the
fifth canto, he laid down the pencil forever from his dear and
honored hand. 

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. 

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, 

1 October, 1891 

The text followed in this translation is, in general, that of
Witte.  In a few cases I have preferred the readings which the
more recent researches of the Rev.  Dr.  Edward Moore, of Oxford,