Mito e culto di Dante in Italia fra età liberale e fascismo

This essay proposes to analyse the cult and myth of Dante Alighieri in Italy from the liberal period to the fascism. The cultural and political image of the Sommo Poeta passed through the Italian history, demonstrating how his biography and his literary work have been variously used in public discourse. Starting from the definitive consecration between the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries as the greatest poet that Italy had ever had, Dante became the main symbol of national identity and even something more, the prophet, the one who prophesied in the Commedia the birth of the nation.