Dante's library

The exhibition, curated by Roberto Antonelli, Ebe Antetomaso, Marco Guardo and Lorenzo Mainini, is part of the celebrations of the 700th anniversary of Dante's death and investigates what his library may have been based on the works read and known by the Supreme Poet.

The exhibition therefore addresses the interesting question of the cultural bases on which Dante was able to count in the composition of the poem and other important works. The exhibition is divided into: The Bible and the Christian tradition; The classical tradition: the Auctores in the new life; The Romance tradition; The classical tradition of the new life; Medieval rhetoric and treatises; Philosophy, science and theology. There are about 76 volumes on display, including codes from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, coming from the major Italian and international collections: we point out in particular the manuscript of the National Library of Rome Vittorio Emanuele which collects, richly illustrated, the prophetic texts of Gioacchino da Fiore; the manuscript of Boethius' Consolatio philosophiae, glossed in vernacular at the beginning of the fourteenth century and remembered by Alighieri as one of his fundamental readings after Beatrice's death; the Canzoniere of the troubadour lyric, collected in the Laurentian Code; the Corsinian manuscript of the Roman de la rose kept in Rome in the Library of the National Academy of the Lincei and Corsiniana and many others.The exhibition is enriched by a digital staging entitled Landscapes and characters of the Comedy. Produced in collaboration with the Central Institute for Intangible Heritage, it intends to illustrate some aspects of Dante's iconographic fortune of places, landscapes and characters of the Divine Comedy, up to the contemporary era.

Photo credits: courtesy of the National Academy of Lincei