Walter Nobile and Mimi VanDeusen, Potsdam Museum Curator.

POTSDAM -- Walter Nobile will present Dante's Canto One, the Beginning of Hell, from The Divine Comedy, on Wednesday, July 8, at 7 p.m. at the Potsdam Museum, 2 Park St.

Nobile holds a Doctorate in humanities from the University of Salerno, Italy. He has taught Italian language and literature at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Oregon, and the University of Chicago.

He is translating into English some of his favorite cantos.

The 1st canto of The Divine Comedy is the introduction to the entire work. In it, Dante, as a fictitious character, shows his intention to undertake the arduous voyage required for purification from sinfulness. Great obstacles block his going forward when the Latin poet Virgil, who will guide him through the world of sin, appears and later entrusts him to Beatrice, the blessed soul who will lead him into the realm of beatitude.