In his 1984 book The Birth of Purgatory, he argued that the conception of purgatory as a physical place, rather than merely as a state, dates to the 12th century, the heyday of medieval otherworld-journey narratives such as the Irish Visio Tnugdali, and of pilgrims' tales about St Patrick's Purgatory, a cavelike entrance to purgatory on a remote island in Ireland.
He built the Museums of Europe Network, founding the review of comparatist history "Comparare" with Jacques Le Goff, Eric Hobsbawm, Carlo Ginzburg, Rudolf von Thadden, Bronislaw Geremek.
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