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Torment of the Simoniacs from BL YT 36, f. 34
Summary
Miniature of Dante and Virgil entering the area devoted to simoniacs and magicians, while Dante speaks to the upside-down figure of Pope Nicholas III, with a figure of the True Church in the centre, as a lady dressed in blue with a gold star on her breast, and a seven-headed monster before her (presumably the false church), in illustration of Canto XIX. Image taken from f. 34 of Divina Commedia (index Divine Comedy). Written in Italian.
Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928) was a British collector and philanthropist who assembled this remarkable collection over his lifetime. The collection is now housed at the British Library in London.
Henry Yates Thompson was born into a wealthy family in 1838. Thompson began collecting manuscripts and other items in the 1870s. His collection quickly gained recognition for its exceptional quality and breadth. He had a keen eye for illuminated manuscripts, which are manuscripts decorated with intricate illustrations and calligraphy. The collection has a particular emphasis on medieval manuscripts.
The Divine Comedy is a poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century.
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