Dante di Alighiero degli Alighieri - Resources

This is a 'composite' post to share a few resources on Dante and his Divine Comedy, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradisio.

From Aleteia

Rarely Seen Dante Divine Comedy Drawings Now Online

Uffizi Gallery celebrates 700th anniversary of poet's death by mounting free exhibit.

Drawings depicting Dante’s Divine Comedy that have been displayed only twice since the Renaissance will now be accessible online, as the Uffizi Gallery in Florence celebrates the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death.

The renowned museum is posting 88 drawings by 16th-century Renaissance artist Federico Zuccari, and viewing is free.

“Until now these beautiful drawings have only been seen by a few scholars and displayed to the public only twice, and only in part,” Eike Schmidt, the Uffizi’s director, told the Guardian. “Now they are published in full, alongside a didactic-scientific comment.”

The commentary is in Italian, but the museum promises to eventually have an English version.

Steve Weidenkopf, author of Timeless: A History of the Catholic Church (OSV), called the exhibit “a great gift in a time when traveling to museums is difficult.”

“The Middle Ages were a time of great faith when the Catholic Church, her teachings, her sacraments, and her liturgy imbued all aspects of European society,” Weidenkopf told Aleteia. “A vernacular expression of that inculcated faith is Dante’s Divine Comedy. Dante skillfully and brilliantly illustrated medieval people’s belief in the Church’s teachings on the Last Things (Judgment, Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory). His magnificent work continues to enthrall readers centuries removed from the medieval age of faith.”

Viewing the drawings, whether in person or online, “should motivate the observer to reflect on the Last Things and perhaps spend time in the new year reading the Divine Comedy,” Weidenkopf suggested.

Because Zuccari’s pencil-and-ink drawings are fragile, only a selection of them have been exhibited publicly, and only on two occasions: in Florence in 1865 to mark the 600th anniversary of Dante’s birth as well as the Italian unification, and in 1993 for an exhibition in Abruzzo.

The brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari were “two of the most creative draftsmen of the Renaissance,” the J. Paul Getty Museum said during an earlier exhibit of their work. “They both became highly successful artists, receiving multiple commissions from the Pope and from great Roman families.”

Federico Zuccari completed the Divine Comedy drawings while visiting Spain between 1586 and 1588, the Guardian explained. Of the 88 illustrations on the Uffizi’s website, 28 are depictions of hell, 49 of purgatory and 11 of heaven.

“After Zuccari’s death in 1609, the drawings were held by the noble Orsini family, for whom the artist had worked, and later by the Medici family before becoming part of the Uffizi collection in 1738,” said the British newspaper.

From Digital Dante

Click on the link to access a website full of resources on Dante and the Divine Comedy.

And two online courses on Dante and the Comedy.

First from Aleteia

The great work serves as a window into the medieval understanding of the divine and the afterlife as it was influenced and developed by the Catholic Church.

In 1320, Dante Alighieri finished his work Commedia (The Comedy, later given the adjective Divine), which went on to become widely regarded as the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the most celebrated texts in the world. The 14,233-line work of poetry gives vast insight into the medieval European understanding of the divine and the afterlife as it was influenced and developed by the Catholic Church.

Even today, nearly 700 years after Dante completed his influential work — just one year before his own plunge into the afterlife — recitations of the Divine Comedy can fill a concert hall and scholars devote countless hours of study to its pages for various theses. Now, thanks to the good folks at edX, we can all devote a little time to Dante, with the free online course, The Divine Comedy: Dante’s Journey to Freedom.

The lessons, run by Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, Frank Ambrosio, will take students through all three sections, or cantiche, of the Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Throughout each cantica, students will reflect on Dante’s interpretation of freedom, how it influences personal identity, and how the Divine Comedy can relate to the world today.

Of the class, Ambrosio says:

In this course, you will begin to question for yourself the meaning of human freedom, responsibility and identity by reading and responding to Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. The Comedy, which is richly steeped in the medieval culture of 14th century, still speaks vividly to modern readers struggling with the questions “who am I?” and “what meaning or value can my life have?” Dante struggled with the same questions before coming to a moment of vision that wholly transformed him as a person.

The course is expected to take around eight weeks to complete if students commit 9-10 hours per week to their studies. As with all edX courses, however, the work load is intended to be accomplished at the pace set by each individual student. Registration for the course is free, but there is a $49 fee if participants would like a verified certificate of completion.

For more information on this free online course’s syllabus, or to register for the class, visit the edX website here.

And from Digital Dante

The Dante Course 

This course is for anyone who wishes to read Dante’s Commedia from beginning to end. Over the course of 54 lectures, each cantica (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) is read in its entirety. The course is taught in English and can be followed without knowledge of Italian, though familiarity with the language will be helpful. The text is read and referenced in Italian.

Prof. Teodolinda Barolini is Lorenzo da Ponte Professor of Italian at Columbia University. This iteration of her year-long Dante course was taught in 2-hour, twice-weekly sessions during Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 (Dante’s Divina Commedia, Italian W4091 & W4092). The course was recorded and is presented on Digital Dante with the support and resources of Columbia University Libraries Digital Scholarship.

How to use this course

Since this course spends approximately one hour closely reading each canto, listeners may want to follow along with a copy of the text. The Petrocchi edition of Dante’s Commedia, as well as the English translations of Allen Mandelbaum and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, are available on Digital Dante. Simply click the tab “Text & Translations” on each canto page.

Passages from the Commedia are frequently read aloud by students in the course. Some of these readings are more audible than others. Those seeking a clear, high-quality reading of each canto in its entirety can listen to Prof. Francesco Bausi’s readings of the Commedia.

In past years, students in this course have received short emails prior to each class, highlighting important themes and passages in the upcoming canti. Those emails, greatly expanded and revised, have now become the Commento Baroliniano. These commentaries can serve as a companion to the lectures for those who wish to delve deeper into Dante scholarship. Those who desire a brief written synopsis of important issues in a canto may consult the bullet points before each commentary. Handouts referenced during the lectures can be viewed on the Commento Baroliniano page for each canto.