Dizzy From Dante

At least I am. Here are a few Dante-related resources to help keep you grounded. Well, maybe not, but here they are anyway.
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First up, a brief explanation of allegory from the man himself:

To elucidate, then, what we have to say, be it known that the sense of the work is not simple, but on the contrary it may be called polysemous, that is to say, 'of more senses than one'; for it is one sense which we get through the letter, and another which we get through the thing the letter signifies: and the first is called literal, but the second allegorical or mystic. And this mode of treatment, for its better manifestation, may be considered in this verse: 'When Israel came out of Egypt, and the house of Jacob from a people of strange speech, Judaea became his sanctification, Israel his power.' For if we inspect the letter alone the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt in the time of Moses is presented to us; if the allegory, our redemption wrought by Christ; if the moral sense, the conversion of the soul from the grief and misery of sin to the state of grace is presented to us; if the anagoical, the departure of the holy soul from this corruption to the liberty of eternal glory is presented to us. And although these mystic senses have each their special denominations, they may all in general be called allegorical, since they differ from the literal and historical... When we understand this we see clearly that the subject round which the alternative senses play must be twofold. And we must therefore consider the subject of this work as literally understood, and then Its subject as allegorically intended.

 

Dante, Epistola X, to Can Grande della Scala, on the Comedy

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Next, a chronology of Dante's life and major works here.
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Whoa. I feel like I should be listening to Pink Floyd when looking at this.

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As digital literature projects go, The Dartmouth Dante Project is a frickin' beast. Full online text, with links to 70 (!) commentaries. If you are into figuring out all the nuances and allusions of The Comedia, than this is paradiso. If you aren't, well, then it's that other place.
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Finally, some visual schemes of The Comedia. As always, click to enlarge.