Gustave Dorè - Inferno 21

Paul Gustave Doré

Paul Gustave Doré was a prolific French engraver, artist, illustrator, sculptor, and primarily, wood and steel carver.

Robert Langdon, the main character in Dan Brown’s Inferno, being a renown Dante scholar, exhibited a Gustave Doré lithograph depicting a dark entrance to a tunnel carved into the face of an austere cliff during a conference hosted by one of the world’s oldest Dante societies—the Società Dante Alighieri Vienna. Moreover, during one of his adventures, Langdon refers to Doré’s work Dandolo Preaching the Crusade.

A sketch from Brioni Archives, Italy

The Italian Fashion House Brioni

Brioni is an Italian fashion house founded in 1945 that specializes in the sale of handmade suits. Robert Langdon, the main character from Dan Brown’s Inferno, wears a Brioni jacket throughout the course of his adventure.

Seeing Langdon in a Brioni suit, Marta Alvarez, the director of the Museum of Palazzo Vecchio in the novel, aptly comments on his attire as follows: “Very fashionable. You look almost Italian.”

Tiana kai Madera looking over Florence from the Duomo

Interview: Tiana Kai Madera

After analyzing Dan Brown’s novel Inferno, we at Florence Inferno have asked ourselves how the city of Florence is perceived by tourists and expats from abroad. How much do they know about the city? How do they perceive it?

To try to answer these questions, we have decided to interview some of the expats more active in the community of Florence, to discover what they do and how they live in the city.

Tomb of the Antipope Giovanni XXIII, Florence, Italy

The Antipope Giovanni XXIII and his Tomb in the Baptistry of Florence

Robert Langdon, the main character in Dan Brown’s Inferno, in describing the Baptistry of Florence was attracted to the suspended tomb of Antipope Giovanni XXIII (John XXIII). To Langdon, it seems that the antipope’s body lies in repose high up on the wall like a cave dweller or a subject in a magician’s levitation trick.

The real name of this tomb made of marble and bronze is Baldassare Coscia. It was created, according to the art historians, by the Italian sculptors Donatello and Michelozzo for the Florence Baptistry.

Santa Maria Novella Church, Florence, Italy

The Renaissance

The Renaissance is a term that refers to the historical, cultural, and artistic movement that developed first in Italy and then quickly spread throughout the rest of Europe, from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. The various disciplines differed considerably from area to area. This movement was characterized by the emergence of a new way of looking at life and the revival of studies and the arts.

There is a consensus that the Renaissance began in Florence, Italy, in the 14th century. Robert Langdon, the main character in Dan Brown’s Inferno agrees.