Visions of Heaven & Hell Before Dante Paperback – Illustrated, September 29, 2008

great

I wish the visions hadn't been so brief. Other than that, great edifying book

Excellent.

Good book

This book was in excellent condition. I am more than satisfied with the purchase and pleased with the service.

In the early 1970s, as a young Art student in Leeds, I was browsing amongst the books at Lewis's when I picked up a paperback whose cover attracted me. It was one of those moments in your life that change you. The book was John Ciardi's fantastic translation of Dante's "Inferno".Ciardi's translation was so approachable, the notes that accompanied it were so informative, the imagery was so inspirational! Over the years I have read several translations of Dante's "Divine Comedy" and seen many visual interpretations of the book (my favourite being Blake's visions). It is, therefore, no surprise that I picked up this book.These predecessors of the Divine Comedy are important in our understanding of how Dante's poem drew on the visions of those who came before. Generally the visions are predictable and repetitive; souls suffer terrible torments by fire, they are torn apart by terrible beasts and demons, the parts are fried in pans and cauldrons, terrible stenches fumes and noise fill the air. One often gets the sense that the witnesses are taking great pleasure in describing the punishment being meted out in this chaos. Heaven, on the other hand, is a place of calm and sweet perfumes. Music plays an important role in this process of producing a sense of peace, as does the occasional vision of Christ on the cross or sat on His throne.Some of the visions are quite boring, particularly the seemingly pointless, meandering and repetitive voyage of St. Brendan. This particular vision is, however, brightened up by a super description of a volcanic eruption which stands in for the mouth of Hell. And herein lies the important point: the visionaries describe the horrors of Hell within the confines (or freedom) of their own experiences; fire is painful, stenches are uncomfortable and the chaos of Hell (which is the chaos and noise of the everyday world magnified) is contrasted with the calmness of a monastery or church during service. This is the world of the early mediaeval era and Hell is that nightmare so wonderfully depicted in the carvings of the great cathedrals and the painting of the great Dooms in the churches which reach their glory in the work of Van der Weyen, Van Eyke and, ultimately, Hieronymous Bosch.Two visions do stand out, that of Charles the Fat (whose demons march like conquering armies over the bodies of their tortured and tormented victims nailed to the ground) and that of Tundale (whose vision inspires images that can equally match Dante).The visions evolve, introducing the concept of a companion guide, then matching sins with punishments. The freezing cold is introduced as a contrast with fire until, in the later visions produced in the 10th and 11th centuries, we see Tundale's introduction of conceits that will evolve into Dante's circles, spirals and spheres (of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven) and Thurkill is encouraged to question the tormented as to what brought them to Hell.As an artist there are images here that inspire, as a fan of Dante there is an interest here that got me through the boringly repetitive bits, as a human being there was much that made me despair.

A good book, well written and accurate, extremely useful since it reunites many texts that are usually scattered in many different books.

This is a set of various accounts of Heaven and Hell but also, buried in the hells, of what became purgatory. I bought it when writing a thesis. It is very handy to have - most texts you want in on handy volume. There are lots of accounts, not just Bede