The Birth of Purgatory,
University of Chicago Press,
ISBN 0226470830
This study of the origins of the idea of Purgatory is one of the greatest works of intellectual and social history ever written. jacques Le Goff was Professor of History in Paris at the Sorbonne and he was the master of medieval history. This work is breathtaking in its originality and in its clarity. Le Goff was a master and we mourn his passing just this past year, 2014. This book was originally published in French in 1984 in Paris and is here translated by Arthur Goldhammer for University of Chicago Press.