Synopsis:
This volume is intended to fill a need long felt by teachers who, year after year, have their students read Dante's Inferno in world literature or Italian language courses. The student is fascinated by Dante's overpowering visual imagination, and illustrative material directly treating or at least influenced by the Inferno is often sought. However, such a search can be carried on with some comprehensiveness only in the largest libraries in America, and then often only in the rare book rooms of these libraries.
In the three decades, in conjunction with the 700th anniversary of Dante's birth in 1265, several magnificent volumes dealing with illustrations to the Divine Comedy have been published. However, many of these are foreign-language editions rarely found on American library shelves. Additionally, such volumes are both expensive and specialized, covering specific time periods, such as the miniatures in the illuminated manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the earliest printed editions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, or the illustrations of a single artist, such as Botticelli, Signorelli, or Blake.
Illustrations to Dante's Inferno offers to a general readership, in a relatively compact and inexpensive format, a critical overview of illustrations to the Inferno from the age of Dante to modern times. Professor Nassar has selected more than 400 plates (many in color) for inclusion in this volume. His criteria for selection are those of a literary critic seeking fidelity to the tone and texture of a literary masterpiece, as is discussed in the introduction. He has organized the selections in a canto-by-canto format, which will prove convenient for both the teacher and student and will also allow for comparative studies. Also included are a select list of illustrated editions, a select bibliography, and a comprehensive index.