I am very proud to present here the the initiative of my colleague Giulio Vaccaro for the Dantedì, the day dedicated to Dante Alighieri that is actually the 25th of March. This day has been chosen because scholars have identified on that date the beginning of the journey into the afterlife of the Divine Comedy.
The Dantedì 2021 must be celebrated in a special way, precisely in the year of the seven hundredth anniversary of the death of Alighieri. In homage to Dante and the Commedia, Gulio Vaccaro (https://www.isem.cnr.it/team/giulio-vaccaro/), researcher at ISEM and expert of the manuscript tradition of medieval texts, had the idea of a video.
We asked Giulio why this day is so important:
“Dante is the father of the language we speak – he told us- he is one of Italy’s pater patriae. He is an example for everyone and even our President of Republic Mattarella has indicated him as an example of virtue and righteousness. Moreover, he is the only authentically popular poet in Italy and elsewhere, and he is probably one of the very few men of all time to have shaped the vision and imagination of those who came after him. He is a δημιουργός, a creator. Just think, for example, that even today our image of the Afterlife is shaped according to the image that Dante created of it.”
And what about the role of Dante in research?
“Dante is at the very core f researches in every field of study – says Giulio – from philological and literary ones to those of computational and cognitive linguistics, fro medieval history to medicine, geology, geography. In the video we realised for the Dantedì 2021 we have tried precisely to show this plurality of possible approaches, which only in a research institution such as the CNR can find a common home”
Thank you Giulio, and buon Dantedì 2021 to everyone!