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Dante700 Home / dante700
From 21 to 27 March 2020, CNA-Italian Australian Services Inc. will bring to the community a range of cultural initiatives to celebrate this significant milestone.
Our Sydney Museum to honour Dante's Divine Comedy
To pay homage to Dante Alighieri's literary and philosophical masterpiece 700 years after his death, a temporary museum dedicated to La Divina Commedia will be inaugurated on Friday 26 March 2021 at 6.30pm at the headquarters of CNA-Italian Australian Services located at 1 Coolatai Crescent in Bossley Park.
The exhibition will feature a replica collection of 115 framed miniatures created between 1444 and 1450 in northern Italy found in one of the finest medieval copies of La Divina Commedia commissioned by the King of Naples, Alfonso of Aragon, known as "il Magnanimo." An important highlight of this manuscript consists in its being one of the few that fully illustrate all three parts of the Divine Comedy. Two master illuminators contributed to the manuscript: Lorenzo di Pietro, called “il Vecchietta”, author of all the initials and scenes of Hell and Purgatory, between the years 1442 and 1450, and Giovanni di Paolo, who in the decoration of Paradise translated into fabulous and unreal environments his absorbed spiritual dimension.
The museum will also display a bust of Dante Alighieri, Italian-English versions of the literary work as well as an original 1902 edition of the masterpiece decorated with postcards made at the end of the nineteenth century by the Italian painter Attilio Razzolini with the ancient technique of the miniature on parchment. Each postcard illustrates a cantica and offers a refined transcription in Gothic script. The book also includes three tables painted by Razzolini as preludes to Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.
The museum exhibition will remain open until Tuesday 14 September 2021, the date of Dante's death according to tradition. From Friday 26 March 2020, the first 100 adult visitors will receive a complementary paperback copy of La Divina Commedia.
President of CNA-Italian Australian Services Giovanni Testa acknowledged that the initiative is unique and timely. "2021 needs to be the year of the orgoglio italiano, delight in all things Italian, and this must begin with a love of Italian language and culture." The museum of La Divina Commedia is open to all schools especially those teaching Italian and to the broader community as a resource for students and italophiles of all ages. Booking information for schools will soon be available from the organisation's website www.cnansw.org.au/dante700 or please contact (02) 8786 0888.
After 700 years, Dante has his day and what a day!
What is Dante Alighieri if not synonymous with the Italian language? Well, it took 700 years after his death before it was decided to dedicate an anniversary day to the great poet. The Italian Council of Ministers, on 17 January 2020, approved a decree that establishes a day for Dante, in view of the 700 years since his death which will be celebrated in 2021. For the anniversary, a large Dante exhibition is expected at the Scuderie del Quirinale, in Rome. In addition, about 400 initiatives have reached the National Committee for the celebrations of the 700 years of Dante's death, chaired by the philologist Carlo Ossola.
Dantedì - Italian for ‘Day of Dante’, «Will allow us to revive every year the memory of the poet, whose memory is vital for the survival of our historical memory». But there is something even more interesting: the date chosen is 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation in the Christian tradition. In the Florentine context of the poet, it coincided precisely with the beginning of the calendar year, as if to say that Dante is the beginning of something new and truly extraordinary.
In fact, imagine the fact that "the dark forest" with which his Comedy begins, recalls that distant 25 March 1301. In the Florentine New Year 'ab incarnatione' we find the Florentine par excellence and a return to the roots of the identity of the Italian people . In the words of Minister Dario Franceschini, "Dante is the unity of the country, Dante is the Italian language, Dante is the very idea of Italy". In celebrating Danteddì on the 25th March, we remember that indescribable and ineffable place par excellence: Paradise, imagined by Dante Alighieri in his esoteric journey, which would have been the final destination of the righteous after the Last Judgment and where even the angels of heaven speak a sumbline language - Italian!.
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