Nel mezzo del cammin…
assembling the descent
the funnel, cut open — drag to tilt · scroll to zoom · tap a tier to travel
Hell is a cone bored to Earth's center, its mouth beneath Jerusalem. When Lucifer fell, the land recoiled from him and fled south — the displaced earth heaped up Mount Purgatory on the far side as a counterweight. Every river is one water, descending to the frozen floor.
Antonio Manetti gave the cone its first published measure (1506); Galileo lectured the Florentine Academy on its dimensions (1588). The shape above is drawn to their obsession.
the poet, the poem, the afterlife — your place in the descent is kept