Divina Comedia — Dante Alighieri, illustrated by Miquel Barceló — Infierno / Purgatorio / Paraíso — 2003

This is the complete three-volume edition of Divina Comedia by Dante Alighieri, illustrated by Miquel Barceló and published in 2003 by Galaxia Gutenberg, awarded the First Prize for Best Edited Books in Spain the same year, and it belongs in the Darwin archive as one of the most ambitious encounters between a foundational literary monument and contemporary painting. Conceived as three large-format volumes — Infierno, Purgatorio, Paraíso — the edition mirrors the architecture of Dante’s poem while allowing Barceló’s imagery to mutate across states of matter, colour, and intensity. Black dominates Infierno, dense and mineral, the paper absorbing pigment like scorched earth; Purgatorio opens into transitional greys and unstable tones; Paraíso lifts into blues and diluted whites, where form dissolves and the image hovers. Barceló does not illustrate scenes; he responds physically to Dante’s cosmology, working with washes, erosion, and gestural marks that feel closer to excavation than depiction. The bilingual Italian–Spanish text, translated and annotated by poet Ángel Crespo, reinforces the idea of passage — between languages, centuries, and forms of knowledge. Designed with exceptional care, the books use typography, colour, and pacing as structural elements, aligning text and image without subordination. In contrast to canonical illustrated editions that seek clarity or fidelity, this Divina Comedia embraces excess, ambiguity, and contradiction: the grotesque alongside the sublime, matter against spirit. For Darwin, this set stands as a total object — literary, visual, and editorial — where Dante’s medieval vision is not updated, but reactivated for the twenty-first century.

Technical Sheet
Title: Divina Comedia (Infierno / Purgatorio / Paraíso)
Author: Dante Alighieri
Illustrator: Miquel Barceló
Translator / Notes: Ángel Crespo
Editor: Joan Tarrida (with Marisa Abdala)
Design: Winfried Bährle
Date: 2003
Edition: Bilingual (Italian–Spanish), three volumes
Technique / Printing Method: Offset
Medium / Materials: Hardcover, boxed set
Publisher: Galaxia Gutenberg
ISBN (set): 978-84-226-9755-8
ISBN-10: 848109417X
ISBN-13: 9788481094176
Awards: Premio a los Libros Mejor Editados, 2003
Condition: Very good