Ravenna, Italy — Held every night for the past eight months, Giuliana Turati is a worn-out Dante’s Divine Comedy as the last 13 skins of a church bell that echoes around the tomb of a great Italian poet. I opened the copy.
Italy celebrates Dante Alighieri, who went into exile from Florence on September 13, 1321, in countless ways to commemorate his 700th anniversary of his death. They include new sheet music, gala concerts, exhibitions, and dramatic readings into stunning backgrounds throughout the country.
However, the city of Ravenna, the former capital of Byzantine, has daily dusk, so there is no more intimate compliment than before his tomb, which was restored for the anniversary.
Ravenna’s lifelong resident, Turati, came to hear a volunteer Dante enthusiast reading a volume and was engraved in 1967, the year she learned a poet’s masterpiece at school. Continue copying “Kamikyoku”.
“There is always something new,” Turati said. “Even if you read it and reread it, Dante always tells us something new.”
Daily reading, part of Dante’s year-long celebration that began in September, “divine comedy” to the general public (residents, tourists, scholars, beginners) as a thank-you for the city he adopted during his exile. The purpose is to connect with.
A copy of the 60-language “Kamikyoku” is nearby, and the organizers expect it to be read by foreign tourists as soon as the post-pandemic trip resumes.
“Reading Dante is probably the most true and deepest homage we can offer,” said Franceska Mashi, Executive Director of the Dante 700 Organizing Committee in Ravenna. “Everyone has to work towards Dante, but we often ask Dante to come towards us. Perhaps without understanding him, stretch a little and make him ideological. Instead, this solemn reading without comments pays homage. “
Dante spent many years composing “Divine Comedy” while being exiled from his hometown of Florence. Florence is the home of words that have been promoted to literary language through his poetry.
Dante was accepted as a symbol of Italian unification in 1861, but Florence and Ravenna continue to fight for Dante’s heritage. The controversy over who has the right to claim his body is still erupting in the newspapers seven centuries after his death.
Florence appears to have abandoned the claim by sentenced Dante to asylum, and his return was sentenced to death.
The ruling is written in the 14th-century court ledger, which was on display until August 8, as part of an exhibition on the relationship between Dante and Florence at the Bargello National Museum. The museum is located in a medieval palace that Dante would have known and visited as the seat of the Supreme Judge, and was absent in the same arched room where the famous bronze of David is now exhibited by Renaissance sculptor Donatello. I was tried.
The museum also has Dante frescoes by modern Giotto after the death of the poet, and Lucifer frescoes in the image of Dante himself. Three heads and bat wings.
“It’s very important because it means that the iconography introduced by Dante was immediately received in Florence in figurative art,” said Paola Dagostino, director of the Bargello National Museum.
Another exhibition at the Sandmenico Museum near Ravenna in Forli brings together 300 works from around the world, telling Dante’s timeless stories, from those that influenced Dante to those that influenced him. Has been done.
Held in collaboration with the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the exhibition will feature Dante’s contemporary art, elaborate manuscripts of his work, portraits of poets, Picasso, Giotto, Tintoretto and Michelangelo.
Brunelli said it’s no wonder Dante has been fascinating people for centuries.
“Dante’s theme is the theme of heaven and earth. He talks about salvation and forgiveness, which are very basic to human life,” Brunelli said. “Because of this, art could do nothing but return an infinite number of times to Dante and his theme.”
After being sentenced to asylum in 1302, Dante spent most of his remaining life in Verona and then in Ravenna, arriving in 1318 or 1319. He died of malaria after a diplomatic mission to the Republic of Venice. ) To the north.
In Ravenna, Dante must have visited the city’s ancient Byzantine cathedral and famous mosaics, and it is believed that he was inspired by some verses of his masterpiece. On a recent tour, Mashi showed a “virgin procession” inside the Basilica of Santa Polinale Nuovo. This is reflected in the poem “Purgatory”, the second section of his masterpiece. Never before in this world. “
On the anniversary, another prominent recruitment citizen of Ravenna, Riccardo Muti, wrote “Purgatory” by Armenian composer Tigran Mansrian on September 12 as part of the Ravennal Festival dedicated to Dante. We are planning to carry out a new orchestral sheet music inspired by. After that, performances will be held in Florence and Verona.
The closing ceremony in September includes an annual pilgrimage by Florentine officials. The pilgrim arrives at Ravenna, providing oil to keep the flames lit on the tomb of Dante’s mausoleum for another year.
“Dante found his peace in the city,” Muti told The Associated Press, adding that living just 200 meters (yards) from the last resting place of “this extraordinary soul” is “comfortable.” I did.
“I personally feel this closeness to his bones as a privilege, as if the tomb reveals a sense of honesty, justice and good precursors to the Italians from Ravenna to the world.” Said Muti.
Colleen Barry