The Fourth Circle Of Hell

An amazing secret disguised in the Mona Lisa for 500 years, finally revealed. While working at Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian Castle, forensic linguist Joe Richmond is interrupted by an unexpected early morning visitor, cyber-security expert Gina Bocelli. She brings tragic news that her ex-husband, the Italian Ambassador, was murdered in his Embassy at midnight. Before he died, he sent her hidden clues in a cryptic email. Joe and Gina decipher the Ambassador's clues as they race through Washington D.C. landmarks, a monastery, and a New York City cathedral. Their quest draws them toward an amazing secret involving the biggest struggle of all time. They must find the key before the nameless pathological figure of insatiable greed, can destroy it forever.Joe and Gina realize they are up against a powerful force that will stop at nothing. It committed murders over the centuries to suppress an earth-shattering discovery by Machiavelli and da Vinci. And the only way to defeat that force is da Vinci's 'saper vedere' or 'knowing how to see'.

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One of the greatest works of world literature, Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy has, despite its enormous popularity and importance, often stymied readers with its multitudinous characters, references, and themes. But until now, students of the Inferno have lacked a suitable resource to guide their reading. Welcome to Danteworlds, the first substantial guide to the Inferno in English. Guy P. Raffa takes readers on a geographic journey through Dante’s underworld circle by circle—from the Dark Wood down to the ninth circle of Hell—in much the same way Dante and Virgil proceed in their infernal descent. Each chapter—or “region”—of the book begins with a summary of the action, followed by detailed entries, significant verses, and useful study questions. The entries, based on a close examination of the poet’s biblical, classical, and medieval sources, help locate the characters and creatures Dante encounters and assist in decoding the poem’s vast array of references to religion, philosophy, history, politics, and other works of literature. Written by an established Dante scholar and tested in the fire of extensive classroom experience, Danteworlds will be heralded by readers at all levels of expertise, from students and general readers to teachers and scholars.

In the middle of the journey of our life Dante finds himself lost in a dark wood but then he founds a whole lot of literary movements and arguably modernity itself with his Divine Comedy that, nonetheless, inexplicably, didn't make God laugh. This serious absence caused God's non-divine counterparts, humans, to wonder: "Why are we in hell?" "Why is it so funny?" "And why can't I laugh?"

Dante Alighieri was early in recognizing that our age has a problem. His hometown, Florence, was at the epicenter of the move from the medieval world to the modern. He realized that awareness of divine reality was shifting, and that if it were lost, dire consequences would follow. The Divine Comedy was born in a time of troubling transition, which is why it still speaks today. Dante's masterpiece presents a cosmic vision of reality, which he invites his readers to traverse with him. In this narrative retelling and guide, from the gates of hell, up the mountain of purgatory, to the empyrean of paradise, Mark Vernon offers a vivid introduction and interpretation of a book that, 700 years on, continues to open minds and change lives.

A survey of how, over the past 4,000 years, religious leaders, poets, painters, and ordinary people have visualized Hell--its location, architecture, furnishings, purpose, and inhabitants.