Il "cantore della rettitudine evangelica e cattolica" : gesuiti interpreti di Dante nel Risorgimento

The Risorgimental movement considered Dante not only one of the founding figures of the Italian nation, but the archetypal Italian itself. Dante studies began in the first decades of the nineteenth century, particularly thanks to the political exiles, who projected on Dante - an exile himself - their own condition. Subsequently the debate on Dante's political thought spread across Italy, promoting a sort of "Dante-mania", which, from the intellectual elite spread to the popular culture. The reactionary political forces - and in particular the Jesuits -, however, criticized the Risorgimental interpretation of the Florentine writer. The members of the Company of Jesus offered instead an image of Dante who was respectful of the Catholic dogmas and of ecclesiastical authority. [Publisher's text].