Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
“Within the video game The Binding of Isaac, Satan is located in the 9th level of the game; Hell is described as ‘cold’ if the player dies on this level (both mirroring Inferno).” –Anonymous Contributor
The Binding of Isaac, Rebirth is a 2014 video game published by Nicalis, an American publisher based out of Santa Ana, California.
You can check out more from Nicalis on their website, and you can buy The Binding of Isaac on Steam and on Humble.
Stefano Protino led the team at Passione Playing Cards in their three-part Inferno-based playing card series. The series began with Avernum in 2015, and was followed up by two more decks, called “Inferno Dite” and “Inferno Cocito,” which were funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2017. Both images below are from the Avernum deck.
“Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here… Dante’s Infernal Puzzle Collection is a superb, original book filled with riddles, conundrums and brainteasers inspired by the epic poem the ‘Divine Comedy’. The reader must pit their wits against Satan himself on their quest to make it through all nine circles of Hell to Paradise! More than 100 extremely challenging puzzles are included, all themed and illustrated with superb line art, making this book all you need to get to puzzle Paradise…” —Amazon
In 2014, the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise released a set of trading cards called “Duelist Alliance.” The set featured characters from The Divine Comedy, including Dante (“Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss“), Virgil (“Virgil, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss“), and Malebranche demons like Graff (“Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss“).
Contributed by Ramiro Castillo (University of Texas at Austin, ’17)
“The Inferno is a customized 56 card black and metallic ink playing card deck printed by USPCC and inspired by Dante Alighieri’s literary classic The Divine Comedy.
“Three months in the making, each of the Jacks, Queens, and Kings represents a major figure from The Inferno.
“Each completely original character was designed as a modern interpretation that is true to the text and framed after the most famous ‘Inferno’ Illustrations created by renowned artist Gustave Dore in the 19th Century. Staying true to that vision, we have created images utilizing he original Dore plates for our backgrounds.” —Bicycle Inferno Kickstarter
View images of some of the cards here.
Contributed by Iris McComb (Bowdoin College ’14)
