Marco Martinelli. 
Nel nome di Dante: Diventare grandi con la “Divina Commedia.”
Milan: Ponte alle Grazie, 2019. 155 pp. €14. 

In his latest book, the Italian playwright Marco Martinelli (1956) examines Dante’s Commedia with a view to discussing his own life and that of mankind, assuming that Dante wrote his book for each one of us.

In the first chapter, called “Il racconto che apre al giorno”, Marco Martinelli recounts that his father, Vincenzo, had a particular habit of sitting next to his bed while telling him stories, including the ones in the Divina commedia. In the second chapter, titled “Dante adolescente”, the author rebuilds the history of Dante when the poet was a teenager. Dante likely saw destructions in his city, caused by the battles between Guelphs and Ghibellines. However, from his days nothing changed, and after seven centuries, we can still see the same destruction around the world: “il pianeta è ancora arrossato del sangue dei fratelli” (17). At the end of the chapter, Martinelli maintains that he wrote this book so that his young Italian readers may be fascinated by the Commedia, as he was in his teenage years, a credit he owed to his father. In chapter three (“I maiali e la grammatica”) Martinelli tells the story of his father Vincenzo and of his many success as a young student of classics. He later met his future wife, Luciana Gherpelli, whom he married in 1954. In the following chapter (“Bianchi, rossi e neri”), Martinelli recounts how Vincenzo, who worked in Ravenna for the local section of the Democrazia Cristiana, used to describe to him the politics at the time of Dante, when Florence was divided into Guelphs and Ghibellines. After the battle of Campaldino (1289), the winning Guelphs split into the Bianchi and the Neri. For Vincenzo, in his times, the democristiani were the Guelphs and the comunisti (or, the Rossi) the Ghibellines. The fifth chapter (“Il poeta in politica”) deals with Dante as a politician and with the topic of the exile, while in chapter six (“Il corpo nella Renault rossa”) Martinelli tells us about the 1970s, characterized by violence and extremism. In 1977, Marco married Ermanna, and they began to work in theater. In the spring of 1978 Aldo Moro, president of the Democrazia Cristiana, was kidnapped and murdered. For Martinelli’s father, this event symbolized the end of politics. Chapter seven (“Il profugo”) deals with the first years of Dante’s exile and Martinelli comments on two works that Dante composed during these years: the De vulgari eloquentia and the Convivio, while chapter eight (“L’ultimo rifugio”) deals with Dante in Ravenna and the end of the poet’s life.

From chapter nine (“E cielo e terra”) Martinelli deals specifically with Dante as the author of the Commedia, a poem that he describes as a “grande teatro” (98), in which more than 500 characters appear. In the final chapters, the author concludes his father’s “Dantean” biography, recounting the episodes concerning Vincenzo’s commitment to Ravenna’s cultural politics and his son’s first attempts at theatrical writing. In the chapter titled “Epilogo. La selva oscura”, Martinelli wonders why Dante’s Commedia continues to move us. According to him, it is because this work is a great, sincere and real protest against injustice. At the end of the chapter, Martinelli tells us about the death of Vincenzo, which occurred on January 21, 2009, as a result of heart failure. The last chapter, called “Theatrum mundi”, describes Martinelli’s recent projects with the Commedia, a work which he and his wife are currently playing around the world.

With a fluid style that keeps the reader keen to know more about the topic of the book, Martinelli is able to highlight that the Sommo Poeta’s existence and the content of the Divine Comedy can refer to any human life, through his exploration and comparison of his own life and Dante’s. Because of its basic but accurate information about Dante’s life and works, Martinelli’s book also turns out to be a precious tool for both the beginner and the scholar.

Massimiliano Lorenzon, University of Pennsylvania