Dante Alighieri and the construction of the Italian nation, 1800-1945.

312 Pages·2014·3.6 MB·English

by  Soni Bailey

European Languages and Studies (Italian Studies)
History
School of Humanities
University of Western Australia
2009

‘Padre della nazione italiana’: Dante Alighieri and the construction of the Italian
nation, 1800-1945.

Sarah Finn B.A. (Hons.)

This thesis is presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
of the University of Western Australia
This thesis explores the instrumentalisation of Dante Alighieri in the construction of the Italian
nation by various groups of Italians from the Risorgimento to the Fascist period. It analyses
why Dante was chosen for the role of supreme national symbol, and to what purpose. It
elaborates how the poet was used to render more tangible the idea of the Italian nation, which
only a minority of ‘Italians’ shared. Since the creation of the Italian nation state was unpopular,
Dante was used to make it seem a desirable end. He was also made to convey several
abstract ideas regarding the new nation in an attempt to win over to the cause a larger number
of people. This study examines the part he was made to play in encouraging enthusiasm for
the prospect of national unity and independence, and in justifying the political unification of
Italy. After unification he was called upon to promote the vision of a new Italy as a secular
nation state, but also to support a Catholic version of italianità, and to bolster the irredentist
cause. At the end of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century he was also
deployed to legitimise Italian imperialism, and to endorse the Fascist conception of the Italian
nation. As I shall demonstrate, there was little agreement about what he was held to represent,
and these various views were propagated at one and the same time. Although these objectives
were frequently contradictory, the groups which pursued them were usually united, despite
themselves, in their estimation of Dante as a vital and effective advocate. In the course of this
analysis it will become clear that much of the poet’s life and works were misappropriated for
party and nation with but little protest from Italian intellectuals. The diverse utilisations of the
poet reveal his importance in the nationalist project of shaping the past according to the needs
and circumstances of the present.

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Figure 1. Illustration produced for the 1921 sixth centenary of Dante’s death, by Adolfo De
Carolis.

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For my parents

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Contents
List of illustrations vi
Introduction 1
1. ‘Padre Dante’: The Risorgimento and the origins of the myth of Dante 11
2. Celebration of the Italian nation: The sixth centenary of Dante’s birth in 1865 62
3. The ‘Ghibelline’ Dante in Liberal Italy 86

4. The irredentist Dante in Liberal Italy 141

5. The battle for the soul of the Italian nation: The sixth centenary of Dante’s 194
death in 1921

6. The Fascist Dante 247

Conclusion 288
Bibliography 291

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List of illustrations

1. Portrait of Dante by Adolfo De Carolis (from Rassegna d’arte antica e moderna, 9,
September 1921, 295.)

2. Dante’s cenotaph, Church of Santa Croce, Florence, inaugurated 1830 (accessed
http://commons.wikimedia.org, 22/7/09.)

3. Portrait of Dante in exile by Domenico Peterlini, c. 1860, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti,
Florence (accessed http://commons.wikimedia.org, 22/7/09.)

4. Monument to Dante in Piazza Santa Croce, Florence, erected 1865 (accessed
http://commons.wikimedia.org, 22/7/09.)

5. Monument to Dante in Trento, erected 1896 (accessed http://commons.wikimedia.org,
22/7/09.)

6. First level of pedestal of monument to Dante in Trento, depicting Minos (accessed
http://commons.wikimedia.org, 22/7/09. Image by ‘Jaqen’.)

7. Second level of pedestal of monument to Dante in Trento, depicting Dante, Virgil, and
Sordello (accessed http://commons.wikimedia.org, 22/7/09. Image by ‘Jaqen’.)

8. Third level of pedestal to monument of Dante in Trento, depicting Beatrice (accessed
http://commons.wikimedia.org, 22/7/09. Image by ‘Jaqen’.)

9. Postcard issued by Trento branch of Società Dante Alighieri commemorating 1918 and
Dante’s role in victory.

10. Dante’s mausoleum, Ravenna (accessed http://commons.wikimedia.org, 22/7/09. Image by
Hay Kranen.)

11. Inside Dante’s mausoleum, Ravenna (accessed http://commons.wikipedia.org, 22/7/09.)

12. Front page illustration from Avanti!, 2 October 1921.

13. Front page illustration from Avanti!, 3 August 1921.

14. Danteum, view to the Colosseum (from T. L. Schumacher, The Danteum: A Study in the
Architecture of Literature, Princeton, Princeton UP, 1985, 99.)

15. Danteum, front view (from T. L. Schumacher, The Danteum: A Study in the Architecture of
Literature, Princeton, Princeton UP, 1985, 99.)

16. Danteum, view of courtyard (from T. L. Schumacher, The Danteum: A Study in the
Architecture of Literature, Princeton, Princeton UP, 1985, 115.)

17. Danteum, room of the Inferno (from T. L. Schumacher, The Danteum: A Study in the
Architecture of Literature, Princeton, Princeton UP, 1985, 117.)

18. Danteum, room of the Purgatorio (from T. L. Schumacher, The Danteum: A Study in the
Architecture of Literature, Princeton, Princeton UP, 1985, 121.)

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19. Danteum, room of the Paradiso (from T. L. Schumacher, The Danteum: A Study in the
Architecture of Literature, Princeton, Princeton UP, 1985, 123.)

20. Danteum, room of the Impero (from T. L. Schumacher, The Danteum: A Study in the
Architecture of Literature, Princeton, Princeton UP, 1985, 127.)

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Introduction

Dante … un altro e più fiero modo di dire Italia.1

Dante Alighieri is, undoubtedly, an enduring feature of the cultural memory of generations
of Italians. His influence is such that the mere mention of a ‘dark wood’ or ‘life’s journey’
recalls the poet and his most celebrated work, the Divina Commedia. This study,
however, seeks to examine the construction of the medieval Florentine poet, exemplified
by the above assertion, as a potent symbol of the Italian nation. From the creation of the
idea of the Italian nation during the Risorgimento, to the Liberal ruling elite’s efforts after
1861 to legitimise the new Italian nation state, and more importantly to ‘make Italians’, to
the rise of a more imperialist conception of nationalism in the early twentieth century and
its most extreme expression under the Fascist regime, Dante was made to play a
significant role in defining, justifying and glorifying the Italian nation. Such an exploration
of the utilisation of Dante in the construction of Italian national identity during the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries aids considerably in an understanding of the
conceptualisation of the Italian nation, of the issues engendered by the establishment of
the Italian nation state, and the evolution of these processes throughout the period in
question.
The various images of Dante revealed by this investigation of his instrumentalisation in
the Italian process of nation-building bear only a fleeting resemblance to what is known of
the poet in his medieval reality. Dante was born in 1265 to a family of modest means and
standing in Florence, at that time the economic centre of Europe, and one of the most
important cities of the Italian peninsula.2 His writings disclosed, however, that he was little

1 Extract from Ettore Janni, In piccioletta barca, Milan, Alpes, 1921, published in ‘Dante’, Popolo d’Italia, 4
Aug 1921, 3.
2 Charles T. Davis, Dante’s Italy and Other Essays, Philadelphia, University of Philadelphia Press 1984, 1.
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impressed by his city’s prestige and wealth, being instead greatly disturbed by its political
discord and instability, of which he became an unfortunate victim.3 The violent partisan
conflict in Florence and the turbulent political condition of the Italian peninsula in the late
thirteenth century had a decisive influence on Dante’s life and literary endeavours. This
strife suffered by Dante’s patria had its origin in the struggle for power that had been
played out between the Ghibellines, traditionally allied to Frederick II of Sicily, emperor of
the Hohenstaufen dynasty, and the Guelphs, papal loyalists desirous of the creation of a
league of independent Italian cities in northern and central Italy, throughout much of the
thirteenth century. The strength of the Ghibelline movement, however, was essentially
exhausted by the time Dante had joined the political fray in 1295, as the Guelphs had
regained control of Florence in 1267, under the aegis of the papacy, in collaboration with
the Angevins of France led by Charles of Anjou.4
Despite this resolution, Florence continued to be plagued by internal discord, as a result,
primarily, of the schism which had formed within the Guelph movement. Two factions
emerged among elite Florentine families, one known as the Neri, led by the Donati family,
and the other as the Bianchi, led by the Cerchi. Dante was affiliated with the latter
coalition, on the evidence that he held government posts during the years of Bianchi
dominance 1300-1301.5 By the end of 1301, however, the Neri had returned to power,
with the aid of Charles of Valois and Pope Boniface VIII, who had ascended to the papal
throne in 1294, and who distinguished his career by continued attempts to establish papal
control over the Italian states.6 While this change of government was a relatively ordinary
turn of events in the internecine Florentine power play, it was a revolutionary experience
for Dante, who, while on a diplomatic mission to the papal court in Rome in 1302 in an

3 Ibid.
4 John M. Najemy, ‘Dante and Florence’, in R. Jacoff (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Dante, Cambridge,
Cambridge UP, 1993, 83-84.
5 Ibid., 81.
6 G. Mazzotta, ‘Life of Dante’, in R. Jacoff (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Dante, Cambridge,
Cambridge UP, 1993, 7.
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attempt to persuade Boniface VIII to prevent Charles of Valois from entering Tuscany, was
sentenced to death by the vengeful Neri, and remained in exile until his death in 1321.7
Dante’s bitter exile prompted his criticism of the particularism which plagued Florence
and much of the Italian peninsula. Yet despite his ultimately unhappy relationship with the
beleaguered city, which became the model for the corrupt society condemned in his
Inferno, Dante was essentially a Florentine patriot whose devotion to his estranged patria
never waned. Dante’s alienation from his beloved city also fundamentally shaped his
political philosophy, conditioning his advocacy of empire. In short, Dante proposed that to
restore and maintain earthly peace and happiness, the rebirth of a universal empire,
specifically under the supreme jurisdiction of Rome, was essential. It must be noted that
Dante’s imperial ideal became fully formed from 1310 to 1313 when the Holy Roman
Emperor, Henry VII of Luxembourg, made his expedition to the Italian peninsula to claim
his throne. Prior to Henry’s election in 1308, the imperial seat had been vacant since
1250, during which period the Church, especially under the aegis of Pope Boniface VIII,
initiated its own brand of imperialism.8 Dante’s hopes for the restoration of imperial
authority and the curtailing of the Church’s wealth and political power were placed in the
rising fortunes of the emperor Henry VII, until his untimely death in 1313. Accordingly,
Dante’s Monarchia, which most fully elaborates the poet’s theory of empire, can be seen
as an exercise in diplomacy and propaganda promoting Henry VII’s imperial claims in the
Italian peninsula.9
Perhaps the most significant aspect of Dante’s imperial vision for the Italian nationalist
cause was the primacy he accorded Rome as the ‘giardin dello ‘mperio’.10 Dante
contended that God had called Rome to dominion of the world, as capital of Roman and all
Christian peoples, and claimed that the ‘gente latina’ had been endowed with an imperial

7 Ibid., 8.
8 D. Mancusi-Ungaro, Dante and the Empire, New York, P. Lang, 1987, 41.
9 Charles T. Davis, Dante and the Idea of Rome, Oxford, Clarendon, 1957, 144.
10 The reference is to Purgatorio VI: 105.
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