In 1938, Mussolini's Fascist government commissioned the team of Giuseppe Terragni and Pietro Lingeri to design the Danteum, a "temple to the greatest of Italian poets." In this acclaimed book, Thomas Shumacher traces Terragni's fanatical, often mystical, pursuit of the poet and explains how this unbuilt project succeeds as an architectural translation of the Divine Comedy -- one that mirrors the poem in structure, theme, and rhythm. Original sketches and renderings complement Schumacher's analysis and provide a complete record of the Danteum. "The Danteum [is a] beautifully presented book [that] invites us to study the Danteum in its entirety....The book demonstrates that architecture can transcend the realm of the physical; Schumacher's Danteum brings together different moments of history into one timeless and universal whole." -Progressive Architecture "The most penetrating study of Terragni's architecture to appear in English to date....The fact that the Danteum was conceived as both a monument to the Divine Comedy and a transformation of a literary work into architectural form makes it a particularly appropriate vehicle for investigating structural parallels in different media...and excellent presentation of a provocative project." JSAH

Author Biography

Thomas L. Schumacher is an architect and professor of architecture at the University of Maryland.