Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321)
Biography
Dante Alighieri (May/June 1265 – September 13/14, 1321) was a Florentine poet. His greatest work, La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy), is a culminating statement of the medieval world view and the basis of the modern Italian language. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri [Nov 2004]The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy (in Italian "Comedia" or "Commedia", later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1265 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the greatest epic poem of Italian literature, and one of the greatest of world literature. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy [Nov 2004]
Hell [...]
Later Western Christian scholars speculated that Hell is an underground place, presumably derived from the idea of the Sheol, and referred to as the lower part of the universe under the Earth's ground. The details as proposed in Dante's Commedia or Divine Comedy are perhaps the pinnacle of literary speculation; it is from his work that the phrase "Abandon all hope, you who enter" originated. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell#More_on_the_history_and_description_of_Hell_in_Christianity [Nov 2004]Inferno
Inferno The poem begins with the author lost in a dark wood and assailed by allegorical forces of darkness and spiritual calamity (Canto 1). He is rescued by Virgil at the intercession of Beatrice (Canto 2), and he and Virgil enter the Gate of Hell (Canto 3) and are ferried across the river Acheron to Hell proper.Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of Hell. The circles are concentric, with each new one representing further and further evil, culminating in the center of the earth, where Satan is held bound. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy#Inferno [Nov 2004]
La Divina Commedia (2003) - LA Fura Dels Baus
La Fura dels Baus is a transgressive theatrical company based in Catalonia. Since the late 70s, the group has produced a repertoire of great emotional impact, recorded in this book via their extraordinary performance in Florence's Piazza Pitti, a performance in which they grappled with the hallucinations of man suspended between heaven and earth--that divine and transcendent chaos represented by Dante's Commedia.
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