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The first cosmographer of Dante's universe was the Florentine polymath Antonio Manetti, whose unpublished research -- which mathematically concluded that hell was 3246 miles wide and 408 miles deep -- inspired the woodcuts used for a landmark 1506 edition of the poem. In 1588, a young Galileo weighed in, deriving Lucifer's height and armlength (1200 and 340 meters respectively) and suggesting that the Inferno's vaulted ceiling was supported by the same physical principles as Brunellesci's dome. The scholarly tradition continued for centuries, culminating with the works of Michelangelo Caetani, who designed a series of maps and charts. These were published as The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Described in Six Plates and appeared in two editions, an 1855 edition featuring hand-colored lithographs and an 1872 edition printed using an early form of chromolithography, deployed by an order of monks at Monte Cassino near Rome. The first plate offers an overview of Dante's cosmography, leading from the lowest circle of the Inferno up through the nine heavenly spheres to Empyrean, the highest level of Paradise and the dwelling place of God. We get into specifics in plates IV-VI. The Inferno is visualized with a cutaway style that enforces its vertiginous depths. The initial hellish circles look like geological layers, but instead of crust and mantle, we find bands denoting limbo, lust, and gluttony with the relevant canto numbers. As our eyes descend, we are drawn into Malebolge, the eighth circle, whose ten "evil ditches" (male + bolgia) become a derelict high-rise. At the very bottom is Lucifer himself, in tiny form, intimating that even the demon's colossal scale is no match for the depths of hell. Purgatory is rendered at eye level, from the perspective of some lucky soul sailing by this island-mountain. Its terraces are concentric, shrinking as they ascend, making the whole thing resemble a yellow wedding cake, its bride-and-groom topper obscured by Eden's verdant groves. Caetani chose the most abstracted perspective for Paradise. The Inferno and Purgatory are now small blips on the page, worlds left behind, encircled by Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and the other heavenly spheres. Crowning Paradise, there is a funnel shape--the candida rosa, an amphitheater structure reserved for the souls of heaven--where Dante leaves behind Beatrice, his true love and guide, to come face-to-face with God and the Trinity. It mirrors both the conical pit of the Inferno and Purgatory's tiered terraces, revealing Caetani's visual sensitivity to Dante's epic structure. Born in Rome, Michelangelo Caetani (1804-1882), Duke of Sermoneta and Prince of Teano, descended from a noble family and dedicated his life to sculpture, Dante scholarship, and public office, eventually serving as Governor of Rome after the city's 1870 capture. In addition to these plates, he published, in 1852, a short work on canto 18 from "Paradise" and a longer 1881 commentary on the poem. But he was careful with his commentary, hesitant to conjecture, and described, in a 1903 collection of his Dante-related correspondence, how scholars should avoid "anything extraneous or useless to the clarity of the concept that Dante wished to express in his so simple and plain, equally sublime and poetic passage[s]". Below you can browse the hand-colored and chromolithographic plates from the two editions of Caetani's The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. For more Dantean cartography, see our post on "700 Years of Dante in Art". Text by Hunter Dukes Medium * Images Theme * Music & Arts * Religion, Myth & Legend Style * Book Illustration * Lithography Epoch * 19th Century Tags dante3hell5purgatory3heaven4divine comedy3maps22cosmography4diagrams9 Source Source Cornell University Library * Cornell University Library logo More Cornell University Library content on PDR (10) Rights Underlying PD Worldwide Work Rights Attribution Digital Copy * Source says no permission needed for Rights reuse permitted by copyright * See their general rights page * We offer this info as guidance only Download Download Right click on image or see source for higher res versions Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Universal Figure of The Divine Comedy" (1855) Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Plan of Hell and Dante's Journey " (1855) Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Cross Section of Hell" (1855) Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Order of Purgatory" (1855) Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Order of Paradise" (1855) Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Buy as a Print "Universal Figure of The Divine Comedy" (1872) Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Plan of Hell and Dante's Journey" (1872) Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "Cross Section of Hell" (1872) Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. "The Order of Purgatory" (1872) Chart of Dante's cosmographyScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Buy as a Print "The Order of Paradise" (1872) Want these images on your wall? We've a selection of images from this post in our online prints shop--all custom made to the highest standards, framed or unframed, and shipped to your door. Buy Prints Published Nov 26, 2024 If You Liked This... Hand holding envelope Get Our Newsletter Our latest content, your inbox, every fortnight Privacy Policy More Info [ ][ ] HP[ ] [Subscribe] Become a Friend of the PDRPostcardsWe rely on our annual donors to keep the project alive. Perks include receiving twice-a-year our very special themed postcard packs and getting 10% off our prints.Find Out More Ancient Courses print Shop Our Range of PrintsPremium prints using pigment-based archival inks (Giclee process) on high grade heavyweight art paper. 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