Paolo Barbieri illustra Dante. Ibridismo e tessere ovidiane in “Inferno” XXIV-XXV

This article deals with the illustrated edition of Dante Alighieri's Inferno made by Paolo Barbieri (2021). In particular, we will consider the images relating to a couple of canti (XXIV-XXV), where the poet describes fraudulent thieves' metamorphosis into serpents. Hence, the topic of hybridism plays a fundamental role. In this bolgia of Hell, all the sinners alternate between their original human shape and the shapes of many different kinds of serpents. The analysis of Barbieri's book will shed light on the close relationship between the poetic text and the images devoted to the seventh bolgia and on Dante's recovery and rewriting of ancient sources, especially Ovid's Metamorphoses, to understand his particular use of the concept of metamorphosis as a symbol of divine punishment.