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The cult of Dante |
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"... he who spends his life without renown
leaves such a vestige of himself on earth
as smoke bequeaths to air or foam to water."
(Virgil to Dante, Inferno XXIV, 49–51, trans. Mandelbaum)
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Dante, Virgil, and the leopard, Inferno I, illustrated by
Franz von Bayros (Zurich–Leipzig–Vienna: Casa Editrice
"Amalthea", 1921). LA(118) [this image not on display]
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The sixth centenaries of Dante's birth in 1865 and
death in 1921 generated a huge number of publications, of both academic and popular
appeal. The 1865 celebrations came in the wake of the unification of Italy in 1861,
and Dante had been a key figure for the Risorgimento, the movement for Italian
freedom and unification. Dante was revered as a national figure; in Naples, for example,
a square was renamed Piazza Dante, and a statue of Dante erected there in 1872. |
From the end of the nineteenth century into the beginning of
the twentieth, numerous popular objects were produced to satisfy the appetite created
by the fashionable cult of Dante, including calendars, diaries, almanacs, and prayer
books. Several books retelling Dante for children were also published, under such
titles as Dante's wonderful dream, told for young people or Stories from
Dante, told to the children.
Please see label captions
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Issue no. 22 of the Giornale del centenario di Dante Allighieri. Celebrato
in Firenze nei giorni 14, 15 e 16 maggio 1865 (Florence: M. Cellini, 1865).
LA(112)
[item not on display]
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