Illustration of Dante’s Inferno, Canto 19

“The Simonists are those who make profit from religion: that is, who turn religion upside down. Dante has a perfect ironic punishment for these, as they burn eternally in Hell upside down in round holes in the bolgia floor. Dante stresses the comic irony by comparing the burning holes to baptismal fonts.” (Florence, 1481.)

Source: Nassar (1994), Illustrations to Dante’s Inferno, pp. 229, 232.