Dante 1865: The politics and limits of aesthetic education

A number of recent curatorial, editorial, and scholarly works addressing the revival and reception of Dante Alighieri during the 19th century have established the medieval Florentine poet’s status as unique among the three crowns of the Italian literary canon: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Over the course of the 19th century Dante eclipses the latter two, emerging as Italy’s national poet. Collectively, the studies narrate the tale of a Dante who, after two centuries of neglect, is discovered first by Giambattista Vico as a force which created an Italian language, and who is then transformed by the Italian poet-in-exile Ugo Foscolo, the German Romantic philosophers, and the English Victorians into the figure of a neo-Ghibelline liberal who prophesied the unification of Italy.