Episode Topic: A Hell of a City: Infernal Rome (Inferno 18 & 27)

In Inferno 18, Dante and Virgil enter Malebolge (or Evil Pouches) in the eighth circle of Hell where fraud is punished. In the first pouch, the crowd of panderers and seducers conjures up the image of the pilgrims who go to Rome for the first jubilee promoted by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300, the same year in which Dante’s journey is set. Inferno 27 narrates the encounter with Guido da Montefeltro, a fraudulent counselor to the same Pope Boniface VIII. This infernal portrait of the holy city and its Pope leads up to the encounter with Satan at the bottom of Hell and the lowest point in the Cosmos.

Featured Speakers: 

• Theodore J. Cachey, Professor of Italian and the Albert J. and Helen M. Ravarino Family Director of Dante and Italian Studies, University of Notre Dame; Co-Director, University of Notre Dame Center for Italian Studies 
• David Lummus, Visiting Professor of Italian and Co-Director, University of Notre Dame Center for Italian Studies
• Chiara Sbordoni, Adjunct Professor of Italian, University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: go.nd.edu/39c725.

This podcast is a part of the Rome Book Club ThinkND Series titled “A Hell of a City: Dante’s Inferno on the Road to Rome”.

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