The Center for Italian Studies is pleased to announce the workshop Crafting the Renaissance Dante: Editions of the Commedia as Artefacts of Early Modern Print, to be held at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut.
Early modern imprints of Dante’s Commedia are unique testaments to the expectations of their readers and buyers as well as the ambitions of their creators and patrons. Produced in an era of accelerated technological and social change when global (and particularly transatlantic) travel underwent unprecedented expansion, these books hold insight into the developing cultural expectations that shaped and reshaped Dante’s medieval poem for a new Renaissance readership. With a primary focus on the early printed book as an artefact and artistic object, this two-day workshop examines: the role of early modern bookmaking in the cultural positioning of Dante and his Commedia between the 1470s and c. 1600; the physical state of surviving copies of early printed editions of Dante’s works; the cultural value ascribed to these books through historical and modern trading practices; and the effect of printed editions of the Commedia on visualizations of Dante and his text in and beyond book culture. The workshop also seeks to explore the noticeable intensification in visual and textual representations that drew the Commedia into a scientific cultural frame, shedding new light on the ways in which Dante and his poem were caught up in the expanding global concerns of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Participants will have the chance to consult items from the Biblioteca Serlupiana, a collection of rare books recently arrived at the KHI after an extended period in private ownership.
Organizers: Rebecca Bowen (KHI/Notre Dame); Gerhard Wolf (KHI); Camilla Musci (KHI); Laura Banella (Notre Dame); Simon Gilson (University of Oxford); Theodore J. Cachey Jr. (Notre Dame); Marcello Ciccuto (Società Dantesca Italiana)
Wednesday, 10th June 2026
Palazzo Grifoni, Piazza SS. Annunziata, 50122, Florence
9.30–10.00 Welcome
Gerhard Wolf, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut
Introduction: Dante at the KHI
Rebecca Bowen, University of Notre Dame/KHI
10–11.30 Session I – The Commedia and the Craft of Early Printing
Chaired by Simon Gilson, University of Oxford
Guyda Armstrong, University of Manchester John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Designing Dante: The Milan 1477–78 Edition of the ‘Commedia’
Cristina Dondi, Sapienza Università di Roma
The copy census of the Florence 1481 Edition of the ‘Commedia’
Neil Harris, Università degli Studi di Udine
The Blank Page in the Parchment Copy of the 1481 ‘Comedia’ (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Vélins 569)
11.30–12.00 Coffee Break
12.00–13.30 Session II – Visualising the Commedia in the Age of Print
Chaired by Theodore J. Cachey Jr., University of Notre Dame
Martyna Grzesiak, La Sapienza & Ilenia Maschietto, Fondazione Cini
The Copy Census of the First Fully Illustrated Venetian Edition of the ‘Commedia’
Lia Markey, Newberry Library, Gloria Moorman, Scaliger Institute Leiden University Libraries & Zoe Langer, University of Virginia Rare Book School
Dante and Stradanus
Wednesday, 10th June 2026 (cont.)
Palazzo Grifoni
13.30–14.30 Light Break
14.30–16.00 Session III – Mapping Dante in the Sixteenth Century
Chaired by Gerhard Wolf, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut
Barbara Stoltz, Philipps-Universität Marburg
Systems of Reading and Interpretation: Images, Text and Typography in ‘La Commedia Esposta da Alessandro Vellutello’ (1544)
Shannon McHugh, Huntington Library
Bringing Beatrice to Life in Vellutello’s ‘Nova espositione’ (1544)
Theodore J. Cachey Jr., University of Notre Dame
The Site, Form, and Measure of Dante’s Cosmos: Fiction, Mapping, and Quattrocento Reception
16.00–16.15 Coffee Break
16.15–17.45 Session IV – Collecting Commedie Past to Present
Chaired by Laura Banella, University of Notre Dame
Eva Del Soldato, University of Pennsylvania
The Wycliffite Comedy: Father Hardouin and Dante
Edoardo Barbieri, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Brescia
Le ‘Commedie’ della collezione Serlupi: qualche nota di esemplare
Natale Vacalebre, Universidad de Alcalá
Dante at Auction: The ‘Divine Comedy’ and the Golden Age of Bibliophilia
19.30 Conference Dinner (Speakers only)
Café 19.26, Via Giovan Battista Niccolini 30R, 50121, Florence
Day II – Thursday, 11th June 2026 (Speakers Only)
10.30–13.00 Collection Viewing – Palazzo Zuccari, Via Giuseppe Giusti, 41
Jan Simane, Camilla Musci & Anette Creutzburg (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut)
Introduction to Rare Books at the KHI
Study of selected editions from the Serlupi Library
13.00–14.00 Light Lunch
14.00–14.45 Final Discussion & General Roundtable, Palazzo Zuccari
Moderated and concluded by Gerhard Wolf
14.45–15.30 Optional Tour of the Library, Via Giuseppe Giusti, 44
Jan Simane (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz–Max-Planck-Institut)
This Workshop and Study Day has been jointly sponsored by the Max-Planck-Institut and the University of Notre Dame through the Center for Italian Studies and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs.
Originally published at italianstudies.nd.edu.