Naming the Underworld: Inferos and the Harrowing of Hell in Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica

The Historia Scholastica Project consists of the transcription and translation of Peter Comestor’s twelfth-century Historia Scholastica. The Tobit project contributes to the broader goal of producing a comprehensible and accurate translation of Boise State’s fifteenth-century incunabulum copy of the work housed in the Albertsons Library, making it both accessible and informative to the larger Boise State community. To date, this Latin cohort has translated 622 lines out of 755 total lines. We anticipate completion of the Book of Tobit by May 2026. Our translation process utilizes Jacques-Paul Migne’s Patrologia Latina, volume 198, as a tool for textual criticism and comparison. In addition to transcription, textual comparison, and translation, our cohort has continued directing its research toward a historiographical analysis of Comestor’s treatment of Tobit. Because of the cultural weight given to words like ‘hell’ and ‘sheol,’ particular attention has been given to the phrase deducis ad inferos et reducis, with the aim of determining the most accurate translation while preserving Comestor’s intended meaning. To accomplish this, our methodology includes examining the historical and cultural contexts of the term inferos, analyzing Comestor’s sources and their influence on his writing, and surveying the works of his contemporaries to better understand the academic, Christological, and theological perspectives present in twelfth-century Europe. Through this approach, we aim to produce both an accurate translation of the chapter and an informed analysis of its historiography that will serve as a foundation for current and future Boise State members conducting research into late twelfth-century ecclesiastics and medieval cosmology.