During our Tuesday Loquitur, Teri guided us through Dante’s Hell, Purgatory, and finally to Paradise, explaining Dante’s allegory along the way. Lying at an extreme edge of our historical reach, this medieval literature seemed to present us with an endless fascination; it opened a strange world – hierarchically ordered, comprehensively meaningful – whose ideals at least were shown to be in some respects superior to those of the modern. It was fascinating to see that the medieval mind chose to visualise its beautiful, if complex, understandings of the world by turning to the poetic as its most erudite means of expression.

We are immensely grateful to Teri for her time, her talk, and the patient passion she gave to her subject.