Dante and the genius of hypertextuality

Dante's Commedia remains, in my opinion, the archetype and the most accomplished exemplar of hypertextuality in European literature (no offense to Beckett fans).

It has been claimed that Virgil stands more indebted to Homer than Dante to Virgil. I don't think that's a fair assessment. Whilst there can be no doubt that in terms of form and content the Aen…