Dante e il suo tempo nelle biblioteche fiorentine

September 24, 2021 – January 14, 2022

On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, with the patronage of the Committee for the Celebrations of Dante’s Centenary, the Società Dantesca Italiana promoted the creation of the exhibition Dante e il suo tempo nelle biblioteche fiorentine.

In the rich program of initiatives for the Centenary of 2021, the Florentine exhibition constitutes one of the most anticipated appointments and a traditional event that has become, in the history of the Centenaries dedicated to Alighieri, crucial and distinctive for the progress in Dante’s studies. So it was in the last century, on the occasion of the previous centenary of his death (1921), when the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana created an exhibition conceived by the director Guido Biagi and Enrico Rostagno, at the time treasurer and secretary of the Società Italiana Dantesca. Like back then, the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana and the Società Dantesca Italiana return to collaborate together to create a great event, along with the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale and the Biblioteca Riccardiana, by setting up an exhibition in the three main state public libraries of the city.

In the itinerary of this original exhibition, which gathers Dante’s heritage in the three libraries and Dante’s codes not preserved in Florence, you will see manuscripts and ancient editions so as to reconstruct the circulation of Dante’s works in his homeland. For the Commedia, this exhibition represents an opportunity that will lead us on a journey through the history of how poetry spread through the manuscripts produced in Florence after Dante’s death, including the first comments and precious illustrations that marked the birth of a visual imagination, up to the printing process.

In the halls of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana the testimonies of the manuscript tradition of Dante’s works will be exhibited, with particular attention to the forms of production and circulation of the Commedia, which in Florence experienced an extraordinary and sudden success immediately after Dante’s death. Starting from the oldest intact witness in our possession, that is the famous Laurenziano Ashburnham 828 (not surprisingly called the “very ancient”, dated before 1335), it will be possible to admire rare and precious works, such as a fragment of the Detto d’Amore, poem discovered by the philologist Salomone Morpurgo in 1885 and attributed to Dante, and the illustrative drawings of the the Commedia made in 1587 by the Flemish-born painter Giovanni Stradano.

The exhibition is curated by Gabriella Albanese, Sandro Bertelli, Sonia Gentili, Giorgio Inglese and Paolo Pontari.

Exhibition venues
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale
Biblioteca Riccardiana

Duration
September 24, 2021 – January 14, 2022

Hours
Free admission visits.
Monday: 10.30 am and 11.15 am.
Thursday: 10.30 am and 11.15 am.
Friday: 10.30 am and 11.15 am.
The duration of the visit is approximately 30 minutes.

Reservations required by calling + 39 055 2937908, active from 8.30 to 13.30.
Closed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

Access to the exhibition
Visitors must present themselves in front of the entrance to the Laurentian Cloister (Piazza San Lorenzo 9) at least 10 minutes before the booked time, with a Green Pass and an identity document.

During the visit it is mandatory:
– to wear a mask
– to respect a 2 meter social distance.
For information: tel. + 39 055 2937911.

Catalogue
Mandragora

Promoter
Società Dantesca Italiana (President: prof. Marcello Ciccuto)

Organizers
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Director: Dr. Maria Paola Bellini)
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Director: Dr. Luca Bellingeri)
Biblioteca Riccardiana (Director: Dr. Francesca Gallori)

Scientific Committee
Gabriella Albanese, Paola Allegretti, Zygmunt Barański, Luca Bellingeri, Maria Paola Bellini, Sandro Bertelli, Andrea Bozzi, Julie Brumberg, Theodore J. Cachey, Marcello Ciccuto, Anna Rita Fantoni, Gianfranco Fioravanti, Francesca Gallori, Sonia Gentili, Robert Hollander, Giorgio English, Giuseppe Ledda, Costantino Marmo, Anna Pegoretti, Lino Pertile, Sylvain Piron, Paolo Pontari, Piero Scapecchi, Silvia Scipioni, David Speranzi, Franco Suitner, Michelangelo Zaccarello.

For details, timetables and access procedures relating to the exhibition in the other exhibition venues, it is recommended to check the websites of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale and the Biblioteca Riccardiana.