The PhD thesis 'INCIPIT: The search for a multidisciplinary language at the crossroads of Antiquity and Contemporaneity' focusses on the influence of the methodology of Historically Informed Performance practice on the creation of a Contemporary Music Theatre performance. It was to her that the faithful often turned for protection against Satan’s wiles, and as Mediatrix, it was she who provided a certain route for sinners to return to her Son. She was the inimica diaboli, the one who had defeated Satan, brought the Saviour on earth and reversed the curse of Eve. After all, for a Medieval Christian it was natural to turn to the Mother of Mercy whenever one found oneself in need of forgiveness and the grace to overcome evil. It should not surprise us that Dante assigns to Mary the role of principal mediatrix of grace and ultimate recourse against diabolical resistance in his poem.

And as Dante descends into the infernal realm, it is Mary’s authority that Virgil invokes when he meets the opposition of the demons (Inf. 1.65), even before it is uttered, by sending Beatrice to enlist Virgil’s aid in rescuing him from his plight (Inf. 1.2), it is Mary who responds to Dante’s cry for mercy (Inf. When the pilgrim poet is struggling to find his way out of the “dark wood” (Inf. Although the name of the Virgin Mary is never uttered in Dante’s Inferno, from the very outset of the poem she is an active, though veiled presence.

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