The Secret History of Dante

Book excerpt: Mark Booth, author of the international bestseller The Secret History of the World, uncovers the real-life stories of Dante and The Inferno. Why does Dante describe the Inferno as a real place? What secret society did Dante belong to? What was Dante’s connection with the Knights Templar? What was his secret connection to militant Islamic sects? Here you will find hidden codes, passageways under the streets of Florence, mad monks, mind-bending drugs and terrifying underground rituals. Together they contain all the elements of a great thriller–greed, murder, obsessive love, betrayal–and they reveal a 2,000-year-old conspiracy: to rule the world. Perfect if you want to understand the mysteries that inspired Dan Brown's novel Inferno, or as a standalone initiation to one of the great turning points in occult history.