The censorship of books and other media is a prevailing problem that has been plaguing our civilization for hundreds of years. This means that sadly, some books have been lost to successful censorship or banning. However, one of the books that survived is Dante Alighieri’s La Commedia (The Divine Comedy), which tells the story of Dante’s journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Heaven (Paradiso). Most relevant for this exhibition, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library has a copy of the book which has marks of censorship, and that specific book is the one that will be talked about today. This analysis will try to figure out what the censorship of La Commedia says about the political climate of medieval Italy and the surrounding area and the mentality of the Catholic Church when censoring books at this time.
Credits
Madeline Albert