Il potere della parola. Gli Inferni di Anton Francesco Doni

Abstract

The unhappy conscience of the human condition and the desire for revenge from the injustices suffered feed the Inferni, published by Anton Francesco Doni in 1553. The work, therefore, has a polemical aim, a transfigured representation of human vices and a ‘foreshadowing’ of the punishments reserved for those who have lost ethics. The Inferni is also characterized by its dual and contradictory identity, as demonstrated by the wheel of eternal torture: while conveying images of fierce cruelty, this ambivalent symbol shows its similarity to the circle, emblem of perfection, moving between becoming and eternal return and between raising and lowering, comparable to the motion of justice. The author, in response to the impossible utopia of I Mondi (1552), images an opposite utopia to concretize those ideals of equality and righteousness otherwise unattainable.