Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0934977143, Paperback)

Visions of Heaven & Hell Before Dante offers the first collection of medieval visions of heaven and hell in English translation. It presents original translations of several visions and brings together newly translated versions of previously translated ones.

The introduction describes the place of these works in medieval literature and art. It provides a helpful resource for studying penitential literature, Last Judgment iconography, the development of medieval concepts of purgatory, indulgences and sin, and the mystical and spiritual traditions.

This volume contains the most important and representative visions from the prototypes in the second century to the fully developed visions of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.