Visio Karoli Grossi

[1] It was composed at Reims and depicts a vision of his ancestors warning the Emperor Charles the Fat of the coming downfall of his family, the Carolingians.

Versions were inserted into the Gesta Regum Anglorum of William of Malmesbury, the Chronicon Centulense of Hariulf of Oudenbourg, and the anonymous Annals of Saint Neots as pieces of historical information.

From Wiliam and Hariulf the story was extracted and placed in the universal Chronicon of Helinand of Froidmont under the year 888 and in the Speculum historiale of Vincent of Beauvais.

In his Divine Comedy (Inferno, XII, 100–126), in the first ring of the seventh circle of Hell, Dante, guided by Virgil and Nessus, visits those sinners, tiranni / che dier nel sangue e ne l' aver di piglio ("tyrants / who dealt in bloodshed and in pillaging"), who are immersed to varying depths in boiling water.

This punishment was not typically ascribed in Dante's age to such sinners, but the Visio attaches it to those who facere praelia et homicidia et rapinas pro cupiditate terrena ("make battle and murder and rapine because of worldly cupidity").