The first edition of the Dantedì organised by the Orvieto Committee of the Società Dante Alighieri exceeded all expectations, confirming the public’s keen interest in the relationship between Orvieto and the work and historical context of Dante.
Over two hundred people registered for the Dantesque itinerary, created by the young members of the Dante Alighieri Orvieto Committee — Bianca Maria Nevi, Gaia Montesanti, Anna Pascariello, Ilenia Costa and Giovanni Radicchi — who are working on a project to promote the traces of the supreme poet in our city. The itinerary began by opening magnificent spaces such as Signorelli’s Cappella Nuova, thanks to the kind permission of the Opera del Duomo, and the Biblioteca Comunale L. Fumi, offering a live experience to illustrate how Orvieto may rightly be considered a Dantesque city.
The story of the Monaldeschi and Filippeschi families, the evidence of Boniface VIII’s presence in the city and his relationship with Dante, the moving recitation of the verses on the indolent and the magnanimous, the invective against Italy — delivered inside Signorelli’s chapel by Marta Sansevero, Viola Vergaro, Francesco Marocco and Nicola Cimarello — and the visit to the Biblioteca Comunale “L. Fumi”, where director Roberto Sasso expertly presented precious sixteenth-century manuscripts and rare editions of Dante’s works, were the highlights of the tour. It concluded in the euphonic hall with the screening of a short but significant film on Canto XI of the Paradise, “La vita mirabilis” of Saint Francis, explored in its deepest meaning through Dante’s verse.
The theme of Humanism resonated through the verses of the Comedy and also among the pages of the precious sixteenth-century editions, including a 1521 Convivio bearing a fine engraved portrait of Dante. Today, civic humanism means investing in education and giving value to culture — because the truly poor, as Dante teaches us, are those who for various reasons are deprived of it.