Medieval illustrations to Divine Comedy: the scene

The article is dedicated to the medieval conceptions of space and its mystical experience reflected in the first Italian illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy. Where does the action take place? The review of the manuscripts shows the increase of interest to this question. Relying on the observations about the folding tradition of the manuscript illumination the author notes a gradual division of conceptions of "terrestrial" and "celestial" in the late Middle Ages, which becomes apparent in the division of particular and abstract details. Botticelli's drawings were the apotheosis of this process because of reflecting the transformation of concepts preserving earlier tradition.