GIOVANNI PAPINI E DANTE ALIGHIERI: UNA PASSIONE INFINITA

Abstract

This paper discusses a number of elements that characterize Giovanni
Papini’s admiring relationship with the work of Dante Alighieri. This admiration
remained a constant for more than half a century and survived all the
numerous “conversions” undergone by this impressive Florentine thinker.
Already in his most important article devoted to the author of the Comedy,
entitled Per Dante e contro i Dantisti (1905), Papini distances himself from
many scholars and critics of Dante’s work giving, as his reason, a “dearth of
geniuses on Dante’s level” able to understand his work in contemporary Italy.
Other fundamental sources in terms of Papini’s interpretation are the article
Le due tradizioni letterarie, published in 1912 in La Voce, the volume Dante
vivo published in 1933 and his final study Il beato Dante, included in his
posthumous work Le felicità dell’infelice.