Cosmology

  1. The Divine Comedy
    Dante Alighieri c. 1320 CE

    This poem follows Dante from a dark wood down through Hell, up Mount Purgatory, and into the heavens, guided first by the Roman poet Virgil and then by Beatrice. At the end, he glimpses God as three circles of light.

    8h 18m reading time

  2. On the Nature of Things
    Lucretius c. 55 BCE

    A six-book poem explains nature through atoms, from the stars above to the workings of the human mind. Dust dancing in a sunbeam offers a vivid picture of the unseen motion of atoms.

    5h 19m reading time