RAVENNA, Italy — As she has each evening for the last eight months, Giuliana Turati opened her well-worn copy of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” as the last of 13 peels of a church bell reverberated around the tomb of the great Italian poet.
Italy is honoring Dante Alighieri — who died in exile from Florence on Sept. 13, 1321 — in myriad ways on the 700th anniversary of his death. Those include new musical scores and gala concerts, exhibits and dramatic readings against stunning backgrounds in every corner of the country. Pope Francis has written an Apostolic letter, the latest by a pope examining Dante’s relationship with the Roman Catholic Church.
But nowhere is the tribute more intimate than before his tomb, which was restored for the anniversary, as dusk falls each day in the city of Ravenna, a former Byzantine capital.
Turati, a lifelong Ravenna resident, comes to listen as volunteers read a single canton, following along in the copy of the “Divine Comedy” inscribed with the year she studied the poet’s masterwork in school: 1967.
“There is always something new,’’ Turati said. “Even if you have read and reread it, Dante always has something new to tell us.”
The daily reading, part of a yearlong celebration of Dante that started in September, is intended to connect ordinary people — residents and tourists, scholars and the uninitiated — with the “Divine Comedy” as an appreciation by the city he adopted while in exile.
Copies of the “Divine Comedy” in 60 languages are housed nearby, and organizers envision they also will be read by foreign tourists as soon as post-pandemic travel resumes.
“Reading Dante is perhaps the truest and most profound homage that we can offer,’’ said Francesca Masi, secretary general for Ravenna’s Dante 700 organizing committee. “It requires everyone to make an effort to go toward Dante, while too often we ask Dante to come toward us, perhaps stretching a little without understanding him, ideologizing him. Instead, this solemn way of reading, without comment, is respectful.”
Dante spent years composing “Divine Comedy” during his banishment from his native Florence, the home of the vernacular he elevated to a literary language through his poetry.
While Dante was embraced as a symbol of Italy’s unification in 1861, Florence and Ravenna continue to battle for his legacy. Disputes over who has the right to claim his remains still erupt in newspapers.
