The Infinite Beauty of the World

This book proposes a radically new interpretation of the Comedy’s encyclopedism by focusing on Dante’s work in light of the medieval imago mundi tradition. The work opens with a discussion of how the Florentine poet transgressed every generic boundary in his effort to gather «into one volume» a vast and varied set of creatures, places, landscapes, historical and mythological persons, weather conditions, and arts. It then goes on to show that this extraordinary encyclopedic breadth should be unde