Richard Lansing is chair of Italian Studies at Brandeis University. His many publications include From Image to Idea: A Study of Simile in Dante's Commedia (1977) and a translation of Dante's "Il Convivio" (Garland, 1990). He has served on the board of the Dante Society of America and has been the recipient of numerous academic awards and grants.

The Dante Encyclopedia is a comprehensive resource that presents a systematic introduction to Dante's life and works and the cultural context in which his moral and intellectual imagination took shape.

Over 100 alphabetically arranged entries from 144 scholars on characters, places and proper names in Dante's works and items from his life, many including extensive bibliographies