Before we move forward, it seems appropriate to offer you a moment of reflection on the final destiny of man, which in the Catholic tradition is summed up with the term "Novissimi" - from the Latin novissima, the last things: Death, Judgment, Hell and Heaven.

In the depictions of the Final Judgment, such as the masterpiece by Fra Angelico that you can see in this exhibition, there is a clear dichotomy between Hell and Heaven, the damned and the blessed.

But another possibility will gradually emerge: that before entering into Heaven some, or perhaps the majority of men, those who are "not perfectly good, though not perfectly evil", must be cleansed by pain. Thus was born the idea of ​​Purgatory. When Dante sets about writing the "Comedy", the existence of this otherworldly - but transitory - realm has only been incorporated in the official doctrine of the Catholic Church for around thirty years.

The Divine Comedy, as Carlo Ossola suggests in his essay, is an illustration of the Novissimi, and has contributed significantly to the spread of the idea of ​​a purgatory.