The Dante Connection

Despite Mozzie's alias of Dante Haversham, in canon he wasn't linked to the fourteenth-century Italian poet. The alias appeared to be a spur-of-the-moment decision when he was surprised by Peter's unexpected presence in Neal's loft. I much prefer Penna's account. In Caffrey Conversation, Peter dubs Mozzie with the nickname because he worries Neal's unknown comrade will lead him astray. Mozzie approved of the nickname, pointing out that Dante could lead Neal to paradise, and adopted it as one of his aliases.

As a connoisseur of all types of rarities, including manuscripts, Mozzie is bound to have a particular fascination for Dante. There are no known examples of Dante's handwriting, and the Divine Comedy exists only in later copies. Beginning in Raphael's Dragon, Mozzie is vocal in his desire for an original manuscript of Dante. He's convinced that somewhere in the world it lies hidden like the elusive unicorn, waiting to be discovered.

Dante has a second more sinister significance in my stories, namely a connection to Rolf Mansfeld. Although the villain is most closely tied to H.P. Lovecraft, Mozzie suspects that the cybercriminal is also fascinated by Dante's opus. The first hints came in The Woman in Blue when Mozzie deciphered an esoteric coded message Rolf had planted in a forgery of a Galileo manuscript. Part of the code could be interpreted to refer to Dante's seventh circle of Hell—the realm of those who committed violent acts or attempted suicide. Later in that story when Peter and Neal are subjected to horrors inside a mansion, it appears that Mozzie could be onto something.

Rolf makes an overt reference to Dante by creating a variant of an esoteric programming language known as Malbolge which was named after Dante's eighth circle of Hell. I didn't invent the language. It was created by Ben Olmstead in 1998. Is it merely a coincidence that Olmstead is also the name of the main character in one of Lovecraft's most famous stories, "The Shadow over Innsmouth"?

Mozzie's fascination with Dante continues. In Nocturne in Black and Gold, he offered to be Neal's guide through Purgatory as Neal struggled with mounting guilt over his concealing key evidence from Peter. Now, in Italian Masquerade he believes at long last the original Dante manuscript will soon be found.

Italian Masquerade on Archive of Our Own
Italian Masquerade on FanFiction