Dante and the Construction of the Italian National Identity

Dante's Divine Comedy and Language

Dante’s Divine Comedy is one of the most influential Italian masterworks of all time and is considered to be instrumental in the creation of the Italian vernacular language. Before the Divine Comedy’s completion, the majority of literary works were penned in Latin, as it was the formal written language of the period. However, Dante was an avid supporter of the vernacular, having written the first scholarly treatise titled De Vulgari Eloquentia between 1302 and 1305 in defence of its use and illustrating his search for the perfect vernacular language [2].  In 1318 Dante completed the Divine Comedy in his native Tuscan dialect, which would eventually pave the way to the creation of a standard vernacular language. After his death in 1321, the Divine Comedy became popular with lowborn and highbrow readers alike, as writings in Latin were inaccessible to those unable to read the language [3]. By writing in Italian, Dante’s work became available to a much larger audience, and during the 15th century, printed editions of Divine Comedy were commissioned by city governments as the popularity of the work grew [4]. As a result, the Tuscan dialect became more common across different regions. Dante and his Divine Comedy revolutionized Italian literature by paving the way for the use of the vernacular and spreading it across the peninsula. As humanists began to refine and standardize language during the Renaissance period, the Tuscan dialect became the main language used when writing and printing texts in Italian and eventually evolved into the Italian language spoken today. 

Frontispiece of Dante con l'espositione di M. Bernardino Daniello da Lvcca: sopra la sua Comedia dell' Inferno, del Purgatorio, & del Paradiso, printed by venetian printer Peitro da Fino in 1568. 

Discovering Italy's National Identity Through Dante's Language and Botticelli's Art

The idea of a specifically Italian tradition of art and language was cultivated through the humanist pursuits of the standardization of the Tuscan dialect and the printing and circulation of classical texts. One of the pillars of humanism is the standardization of language and grammar. This allowed the vernacular dialect to be distilled into a functional  Italian language and thus ushered in a new era of printed Italian texts and language. Additionally, the humanist revival movement of classical texts created a flourishing of secular art in Italy. As ancient poems, plays, and texts were printed and integrated into society, artists and their artwork began to take inspiration from Greek and Roman ideals which caused a shift from the Catholic Church's influence on art. This led to the creation of numerous Renaissance masterworks that have since become a part of Italy's vast collection of high art.

da Fino's edition of Divine Comedy is an artifact which combines and draws on the origins of modern-day Italian Identity through its text and woodcuts. The Divine Comedy is credited with being instrumental in the dissemination of the Tuscan dialect, which eventually united the different principalities under a single language and gave rise to the Italian language used today. Additionally, by including woodcuts imitating artwork by Botticelli this book draws on one of Italy's most prominent artists whose masterworks Primavera and the Birth of Venus place him at the beginning of a long lineage of revered Italian artists. These works have become closely related to Italian culture, and are a sense of pride and identity for the nation. By amalgamating the history of language and art this book draws on foundational aspects of Italian culture which from today's perspective created a sense of nationalism almost 200 years before the country’s unification. The works of both Dante and Botticelli represented in this book are deeply entwined with the historical and cultural milieu of the Italian people, and serve as symbols of a national identity.