History of Paradise. The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition.                                Jean Delumeau (professor at the College de France). Translated by Matthew O'Connell

  With erudition and wit, jean Delumeau explores the Medieval conviction that the Paradise existed in a precise although unreachable earthly location. Delving into the writtings of dozen of Medieval and Renaissance thinkers from Augustine to Dante, Delumeau presents a luminous study of the meaning of Original Sin and the human yearning for paradise.

  The finest minds of Middle Ages wrote about where paradise was to be found, what it was like, and who dwelt in it. Explorers into the unknown in search of paradisal gardens of wealth and delight that were thought to be near the Original Garden. Cartographers drew Eden into their maps , often indicating the Wilderness into which Adam and Eve were cast, along with the magical kingdom of Prester John, Jerusalem, Babel, Ophir, and the other places described in biblical narrative or borrowed from other cultures. Later, Renaissance thinkers and writers meticulously reconstructed the details of Eden, providing schedules of the Creation and physical description of Adam and Eve

   Even when the Enlightenment gradually banished the dream of paradise on earth, a nostalgia for Eden shaped elements of culture from literature to gardening. In our own time, Eden's hold on the Western imagination continues to fuel question such as whether a return to innocence is possible. 

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• Jean Delumeau: Diables, Anges et Gardiens.