Abstract: As opposed to what is commonly believed, hell had never been located with certainty, and many proposals were advanced before Dante placed it beneath Jerusalem. This article gathers a series of testimonies ranging from the Church Fathers to Dante’s contemporaries and demonstrates that Dante was the first author to place the kingdom of the damned beneath Jerusalem. Therefore, the Comedy not only marked the birth of Purgatory, as Le Goff claims, but also defined hell’s precise localization, providing its geographical coordinates.
Keywords: Hell, Geographical Space, Dante’s Invention, Hellish Punishments, Hellish Fire.
Abstract in English
