La ricezione della Commedia dai manoscritti ai media.
Atti dei Convegni Lincei.
Rome: Bardi, 2023. 730 pp. €30.00.

The 2021 centenary yielded an incredibly large volume of publications focusing on Dante’s reception. A journal like Bibliotheca Dantesca, with its mission to advance the study of the Florentine poet’s worldwide legacy, naturally took interest in the proceedings from the major conference held by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome in 2022. This event marked the culmination of the previous year’s extensive and diverse celebrations. The book, true to its promising title, presents a collection of essays exploring a wide array of topics related to the varied and intricate material reception of the Divine Comedy from its origins up to the advent of new technologies. The collection is organized into six thematic sections, mirroring the conference’s sessions from 2022. Adopting a chronological and thematic framework, the essays navigate through the Comedy’s journey across its global influence, covering topics like its reception in the manuscript era, its prominence through the early modern centuries, its intersections with visual arts and music, and its widespread European and global influence. Generally, the essays offer substantial contributions that aptly reflect the current scholarly discourse on the subject. Predominantly written by some of the foremost contemporary Italian Dante scholars, the chapters delve into various aspects of Dante’s fortunes. The first section (La prima ricezione) includes articles on the Comedy’s initial dissemination, its intricate manuscript tradition between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the history of its commentaries, as well as an analysis of the current scholarly projects devoted to this complex field of study. The second section (La Commedia nella storia) traces the poem’s fortune from Boccaccio’s time to the present, through its print history, Petrarchism, and the resurgence of Dante Studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The third part (La Commedia e le arti visive) examines the relationship between Dante’s magnum opus and the visual arts, following a chronological trajectory from the fourteenth century to modern art. The fourth section (Dante, la musica e i media) focuses on contemporary forms of communication and art, such as film, comics, radio, and television. The final two sections are arguably the most fascinating. The first (L’Europa e Dante) investigates Dante’s impact on modern and contemporary European literature. Beyond the well-documented cases of the UK, France, Spain, and Germany, the studies on Dante’s reception in Eastern European countries, especially Russia, Poland, and Romania, stand out for their significance and relative obscurity even among seasoned experts. These contributions provide invaluable insights for anyone seeking a broader understanding of contemporary Dante Studies. Similarly, the last section (Il mondo e Dante) includes articles on Dante’s reception and legacy beyond Europe, in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Notably, the comprehensive study by Jane Wilkinson (Dante in Africa: abissi infernali, purgatori perenni, barlumi di paradiso) reviews the Comedy’s influence on several African writers who portray their societies’ everyday tragedies and hopes. Ultimately, this essay collection serves as a crucial starting point for a comprehensive overview of the Comedy’s global reception history. However, it is regrettable that the significant scholarly merit of these contributions is not matched by equivalent editorial quality. Technically, the book suffers from numerous shortcomings. There’s no uniform style across articles, with citation styles and footnotes varying significantly. Some articles include bibliographies at their end, but others lack footnotes altogether, appearing as mere revisions of conference talks. The absence of a consistent editorial standard for such a complex and multifaceted book is particularly evident from the omission of an index of names, an essential tool for navigating the dense web of names, places, and works mentioned throughout the book. Although this does not detract from the academic value of the contributions, it represents a significant oversight by the publisher, which should aim to better manage such potentially complex and sophisticated projects in the future.

Natale Vacalebre, Københavns Universitet