Dante was born in Florence in 1265 and was a man of his time, in the Middle Ages. He was a Borghese who dreamed of being part of the world of nobility. He began to walk the dark corridors of politics where ideals and values were shattered in the face of party hatreds and the corruption in which the Roman Church was constantly struggling with temporal power.
He became a knight and then a prior and fought for Florence, his city, which he was forced to leave as a result of political trials. The torment of having to leave it was strong.
In his wandering as an exile, he discovered the incredible human and geographical variety of 14th-century Italy, but in all his wandering, he never forgot Florence.
In 2021, more than thirty Florentine institutions – brought together in an Organizing Committee coordinated by the City of Florence with the support of MUS.E – decided to tell the story of Dante and his Florence through digital and non-digital events: conferences, study days, events, and exhibitions open to the general public in a dense and highly interesting program.
It was an articulated and choral seven-hundredth anniversary, without barriers in artistic disciplines, that told what Dante represented and still represents in all aspects, as stated by the Councillor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi during the press conference presenting the Dante Year in the presence of the Mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, and the Minister for Cultural Heritage, Dario Franceschini, on October 2.
The use of the cover image, “The Divine Comedy Illuminates Florence” by Domenico di Michelino, was kindly granted by the Opera of Santa Maria del Fiore – Duomo of Firenze.
