Treasures of the Bodleian

Dante’s great poem describes his visionary journal through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, guided first by Virgil, and then by the idealized figure of Beatrice. This is one of the oldest manuscripts of Dante’s poem, copied within a few decades of his death (1321), and one of the most copiously illustrated. Here, Dante and Virgil are in the ninth and lowest circle of Hell, the circle of traitors, who are shown imprisoned in ice. Among them, Count Ugolino can be seen gnawing the head of his enemy, Archbishop Ruggieri, while Dante tears at the hair of the Florentine traitor Bocca degli Abati.

Excerpt from Inferno, XXXIII 43-78, read by Francesca Magnabosco

An introduction to Dante’s Divine Comedy by Prof Martin McLaughlin, Agnelli-Serena Professor of Italian Studies, University of Oxford.