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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThis scene illustrates the infernal regions organized into horizontal registers of fire and torment. Sinners are shown being boiled in cauldrons, hung by their limbs, and harassed by demons, while the entire composition is framed by the jagged 'Mouth of Hell.' In the bottom right corner, a monstrous Lucifer sits enthroned, clutching a soul and surrounded by multi-headed beasts.
As part of a 12th-century pedagogical encyclopedia, this image represents the medieval effort to systematically map the spiritual and moral universe. It serves as a precursor to the complex cosmological and mnemonic systems later developed by Renaissance Neoplatonists and Hermeticists.
Vermis impiorū nō morietur. et ignis isto[rum] nō extinguetur Judei Lucifer
Translation
The worm of the wicked shall not die. and their fire shall not be extinguished Jews Lucifer
Hildegard of Bingen
A contemporary of Herrad whose visionary texts also utilized detailed visual mappings of the divine and infernal realms.
Dante Alighieri
The tiered structure of the afterlife seen here precedes the formal categorization of Hell in the Divine Comedy.
Object
Engraving
religious
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artworkwga QS:P11807,"zgothic/miniatur/1151-200/3german/05g_1150"
Public domain
800 × 1059 px
cdcd46e61eaaf734cf3090cf2c142c44a92cb369
June 6, 2011
March 24, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.