Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

“Tolmin to remember Dante’s 14th century visit”

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“Tolmin [Slovenia], 25 April – Tolmin, a north-western town near the border with Italy, will join this year’s events marking the 700th anniversary of Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s death by remembering his alleged visit to the area in 1319 upon invitation of Aquileia patriarch Pagano della Torre.

“Dante (1265-1321) will get a memorial board with the legend about the visit while also being remembered as part of an exhibition at the Tolmin Museum which opens in June.”   —STA, 2021
Read the full article here.

Dante as Science Writer

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The Radio branch of Italian Rai 3, offers a podcast exploration of Dante’s knowledge of science (called “natural philosophy” in his time) and how excellent a science writer he was, and how effectively he communicated scientific ideas in his works.  (In Italian)

“Conosciamo Dante Alighieri come raffinato poeta, teorico della politica, esperto di linguistica, scrittore e filosofo. Ma forse molti si sorprenderebbero se lo definissimo anche come un grande divulgatore scientifico. In effetti le sue opere trattano molte questioni di filosofia naturale, che spaziano dalla cosmologia alla geografia, dall’ottica alla geometria. Ma Dante, da assertore di un’idea di accesso universale al sapere, tratta questi temi rivolgendosi non solo ai dotti del suo tempo, ma anche ad una platea più ampia. Lo sottolineava Pietro Greco in uno dei suoi ultimi libri, Homo. Arte e scienza (Di Renzo, 2020), e ce lo ricorda oggi lo storico della scienza Gaspare Polizzi, dell’università di Pisa. Non solo: le sue concezioni cosmologiche sono di una sorprendente modernità, come ritiene Marco Bersanelli, astrofisico all’università statale di Milano, e autore di Il grande spettacolo del cielo (Sperling e Kupfer, 2016).”    —Rai Play Radio, Radio 3 scienza, March 25, 2021

Contributed by Carmelo Giunta

“New Jersey: License Endorsement in the 10th circle of Hell”

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“Since covid, the DMV has been a nightmare experience especially in New Jersey. It wasn’t until November that the MVC decided that appointments might be better than waiting in line for 3 hours at 5 AM

“I’ve been to the DMV 6 times since May to get my permit / license. I’ve done everything including a BRC to slip the road test so that I could expedite getting my endorsement.

“After making an appointment in November (for my sixth trip) I showed up with all of my documentation this Saturday to finally get it done. I double checked all my paperwork. I brought extra paperwork so I could also get my REAL ID (my license is expiring in a month and my moto permit expires this month).

“I go in at my appointment I ACE the test (I actually already took it before but they literally LOST my score) and I flash my BRC cert from the summer to get my endorsement but despite showing this multiple times before to DMV folks, this woman today told me the small credit card sizes cert was it enough, I needed a larger form (examiners verification) to get my endorsement. I called my BRC office and they had no idea what the form is and have never issued one.

“Does god hate me? Am I am idiot? Should I just sell my bike?”   –u/universal_ubiquity, Reddit, 2021

Read the full thread here.

My Phone Demon Made Me Buy…

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adult baby blanket
“I’m not sure at what point I said ‘I’d love to be swaddled in an adult baby blanket’ loud enough for the ad-targeting demon in my iPhone to hear me, but like Virgil leading me through the nine rings of Amazon hell, I was ultimately guided down to adult baby blanket Paradiso. Now that I own this organic cotton muslin gauzy piece of heaven, I need to pass on its cozy ways.”   –Marissa Rosenblum, Refinery29, April 8, 2021

Contributed by Kate McKee (Bowdoin, ’22)

Dante for Children and for Curious Parents (2021)

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Purgatorio Bambini

Pia de’ Tolomei speaking with Dante and Virgil in Purg. 5

“This is a tweet from Federico Corradini, illustrator, on his new children’s adaptation of Purgatorio in the series Dante per bambini e per genitori curiosi, illustrated for Silvia Baroncelli, author. The first book in the series, Inferno, was published earlier this year. The series is for sale on Amazon (I imagine Paradiso is forthcoming!).”  –Kate McKee (Bowdoin, ’22)

 

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How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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