This book was published to accompany the exhibition at the Bodleian Library from June through October 2007. "Celebrated in Italy as the 'Tre Corone' (the 'Three Crowns'), Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio have exerted an immense influence over Western culture...Dante especially, as author of the Divine Comedy, was conspicuous in all aspects of life, from the university classroom to the pulpit, and from the workshops of book-producers to the street...During the last two hundred years there has been an extraordinary revival of British interest in Dante...Even today, Dante's presence in our culture is far-reaching. The contemporary artist, Tom Phillips, reflects on how his own visual work fits into this centuries-old tradition of Dante illustration and scholarship, bringing us up to modern times." Phillips' essay is titled "Hershey Heaven and Dante's Hell." In it, Phillips traces the story of his work through trial and tragedy to publish his book. The essay is illustrated with several images from his "Inferno." He mentions the Sackners as being early subscribers to his "Dante's Inferno." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.