Epicure aux Enfers: Hérésie, athéisme et hédonisme au Moyen Âge. Aurélien Robert. Fayard Histoire. Paris: Fayard, 2021. 368 pp. €24

With this metaphor taken from the Divina Commedia, Robert begins a magnificent book dedicated to the analysis of the reception of Epicurus's figure and doctrines from antiquity to the Renaissance. Particularly, Robert analyzes the preaching of the mendicant orders of the thirteenth century, in which the laity were warned that Epicurus incited debauchery, abandonment to sensuality, and the seduction of the worldly, and that he drew the faithful away from the real goal of their lives: to walk toward salvation under the directives of the church. [...]Robert's monograph stands out not only for its up-to-date approach to the subject matter, but above all for the broad chronological scope it covers, the inclusion of Jewish and Muslim traditions in addition to Christianity, and the interpretative analysis of the main texts on the subject.