by Jon M. Sweeney
I actually read this book a few months ago but realized I hadn't noted it here. Sweeney shows in this work how Dante's Inferno captured the imagination of 14th Century Europe and how that subsequently changed how people understood the concept of Hell. At the time readers understood the elements of criticism and satire, and reveled in that. Later generations began to interpret Dante's fictional imaginative work more literally, and the understanding of Hell gleaned from Dante's work far surpassed what is found in scripture. It is essentially Dante's Hell that people were frightened of at the time of the Reformation a couple of centuries later. An interesting read that gives better insight into Dante's work and its impact on European society.
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