The first cosmographer of Dante's universe was the Florentine polymath Antonio Manetti, who concluded that hell was 3246 miles wide and 408 miles deep.
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.
Michelangelo Caetani published his own precise artistic renderings of not just the Inferno, but also the Purgatorio and Paradiso, in La materia della Divina commedia di Dante Alighieri dichiarata in VI tavole.
A young Galileo suggested that the Inferno's vaulted ceiling was supported by the same physical principles as Brunelleschi's dome.
Collection
[
|
...
]