700 Years Since Dante - Commemorative Events all Around Italy

This year, 2021 marks 700 years since the death of Dante Alighieri, this wonderful and unforgettable artist, which has an important enduring place in Italian history. 

Italy will celebrate with commemorative events Dante’s work, life, and all other influences he had on humanity and on world culture. There are going to be a large number of programs including online and free resources. 

Contents

• 1 – The Uffizi Gallery, Drawings of the Divine Comedy
• 2 – Museo di Casa di Dante, Florence
• 3 – “Dante del Cinquecento”, the exhibition of Santa Maria Novella
• 4 – Online exhibition by Stibbert Museum
• 5 – The places of Dante, Tuscany
• 6 – Bergamo’s Biblioteca Civica, Dante in Manuscripts
• 7 – Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Foundation Projects
• 8 Conclusion

– The Uffizi Gallery, Drawings of the Divine Comedy

The Uffizi Gallery will make an extraordinary collection of graphic art, a very valuable and wonderful material. Eighty-eight amazing drawings by the famous artist Federico Zuccari, the rarely seen drawings of Dante’s Divine Comedy, there are 88 illustrations which from them 11 are depictions of heaven, 49 of purgatory, and 28 of hell. All these masterpieces are going to be on a virtual display to celebrate the year of Dante. The gallery will be exhibited for free, online. It is said that these wonderful paintings were displayed to the public only two times and are seen only by a few scholars. 

This is a very important day for the Uffizi gallery, the celebration of Dante’s year by showing the extraordinary and wonderful collection of graphic art for all those who are passionate and interested in Dante.

– Museo di Casa di Dante, Florence

Since we still are in a pandemic situation the museum will show a new multimedia display for the celebration of Dante’s year. There will be some wonderful dance projects, fascinating choreography from professionals and citizens performed in Piazza Santa Croce, a musical series where Franz Liszt will perform Dante Symphonie. And of course not forgetting to involve fashion shows of clothes inspired by Dante, etc.

– “Dante del Cinquecento”, the exhibition of Santa Maria Novella

Another exhibition is expected to happen at the end of 2021 in honor of the great artist Dante Alighieri with the title “Dante del Cinquecento”. Academica Della Crusa decided to organize this exhibition in the cloister of Santa Maria Novella because the new Italian Language Museum is still being renovated, this way the show will give a good taste to the new museum to come.

– Online exhibition by Stibbert Museum

At the Stibbert Museum, an online exhibition will be held for one of the most known works of Dante, “The Divine Comedy”. There will be shown some illustrated editions of this amazing masterpiece (The Divine Comedy) which were preserved in Frederick Stibbert’s library. 

Frederick Stibbert has brought a copy of the G. Dore edition of Dante, with every detail it has, especially for this important day.

– The places of Dante, Tuscany

Dante mentioned numerous places in the Divine Comedy, which all of these places will proudly declare this at their entrance with the informational signs. Which some of the locations that were mentioned by Dante were:

• Santa Fiora
• Campagnatico
• Sovana 
• Castell’ Azzara
• Talamone, etc.

Also, these places are going to be the center for the celebrations in Tuscany, which are organized by the “La Maremma per Dante, and Cultura per la Vida” which will offer guided visits, conferences, and school activities.

– Bergamo’s Biblioteca Civica, Dante in Manuscripts

Dante Alighieri, a very famous medieval poet, writer, and philosopher, also known as the Father of the Italian Language. He was best known for the epic masterpiece poem “The Divine Comedy” which represents three levels of the Christian afterlife, heaven, hell, and purgatory. Also known as in the greatest works of world literature. There are a lot of notable works, for example: “La Nuova Vita”, “Literature in the Vernacular”, “The Banquet”, etc.

This year the Dedica Biblioteca will dedicate every Sunday to Dante, in its website they will present a book edition or Dante’s manuscript with informative descriptions. There will be explained and represented his most known works with smaller number editions compared to the original work. Each Sunday everyone who is interested to know about Dante’s works will be able to see the materials posted by the Biblioteca, also one of the oldest editions of the library which is “The Divine Comedy” and also a miniature of the other masterpiece which is known as “Il Dantino”. 

– Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Foundation Projects

There are three projects that the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is preparing for the celebration of Dante’s year. The first is the reading of the amazing artist Dante’s masterpiece “The Divine Comedy” which will be across 20 evenings at Teatro Goldoni, and of course in collaboration with Teatro Della Toscana. A performance which will be held in the three cities of Dante: Florence, Verona, Ravenna, this performance will be conducted by Riccardo Muti. And the last but not least, the commission of a dedicated piece to Dante will be performed during the inauguration of the new auditorium, and it will be conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Conclusion

Dante is one of the best artists where many people were inspired by his works, on countless musical compositions, operas, paintings, sculptures, etc. One of his works “The Divine Comedy” is very well known, let me say a masterpiece, also known as one of the greatest works of world literature. Also, it was played by other artists in theatres around the world. You will find paintings, sculptures, and a lot of other things in his memory. They celebrate every year to remember the great contribution he made to literature and the influence he had on world culture and humanity.