Dante’s Bones: How a Poet Invented Italy

Like a saint’s relics, Dante’s bones have been stolen, exhumed, and worshiped. Guy Raffa narrates the Florentine poet’s hereafter—the physical afterlife of the writer who vividly imagined the spiritual afterlife. In the story of the bones lies the tale of Dante’s evolution from Renaissance to Italian to nationalist hero, and finally global icon.

Table of Contents:
Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Author’s Note Prologue: A Discovery of Bones Introduction: Dante’s Ghost I. Bones of Contention and Nationhood 1. Death and Burial in Ravenna 2. A Marked Grave 3. Florentine Remorse 4. Holy Grave Robbers 5. An Empty Tomb 6. Prophet of Italy 7. Saint Dante II. Fragments of Redemption and Warfare 8. The Redeemer 9. Tomb of the Poet-Soldier 10. Ill-Gotten Remains 11. Manly Mediterranean Bones 12. Dante’s Duce, Mussolini’s Dante 13. Dante’s Roman Temple 14. Wartime Perils III. Relics of Return and Renewal 15. Dante Dust 16. Lost Treasure 17. Saved by Love 18. Dante’s Global Face Note on Texts and Translations Notes Acknowledgments Index

Review :
Dante Alighieri changed literature forever by reimagining the afterlife, and Dante's Bones now captures Dante's afterlife in a way that has never been done. Adeptly guiding us through medieval politics as well as modern science, Guy Raffa achieves the elusive accomplishment of vividly bringing Dante to life through his death. -- Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club Dante's Bones is at once a vivid retelling of Dante's fortunes in the centuries following his death and an important work of historical scholarship. Guy Raffa's deft prose illuminates the enduring contest over the great poet's mortal remains, providing a remarkable instance--by turns comical, deadly serious, and always captivating--of the appropriation of literary genius for political and cultural purposes. -- Albert Ascoli, author of Dante and the Making of a Modern Author Dante's Bones is an enormous gift to readers and scholars of the poet and Italian history. With intensive scholarship in a wide variety of fields as his loom, Raffa has woven a fascinating tapestry out of 700 years of guarding, stealing, hiding, maintaining, studying, celebrating, debating, and claiming the material form and symbolic meaning of Dante's remains. -- Arielle Saiber, author of Measured Words Raffa tells the remarkable story of Dante's afterlife, by turns grotesque, lively and farcical, as the loss and recovery of his bones intertwines with the tempestuous fate of Italy. -- Barbara Newman London Review of Books In fiction and in fact, Dante Alighieri has been influencing the world order for centuries. Just how he's achieved global-icon stature is the subject of Guy P. Raffa's fascinating, comprehensive new book. -- Jenny McPhee Air Mail Fascinating...In tracing the history of Dante's bones, Raffa also provides an illuminating exploration of Italian nationalism and political thought. -- Publishers Weekly Pulling together many threads of Dante's story, Raffa offers an engaging, informative, and original account of the material culture of the poet's epic body of work. Highly recommended. -- Library Journal Learned, literate, and quite entertaining...Raffa's tale touches on art and architecture, forensic science, war, public spectacle, political machination, literary trends, body snatching, air raids, and more...An excellent book for anyone with an interest in Dante, the arc of Italian history, or merely an historical adventure well told. -- StrategyPage An intensively researched, gripping story of Dante's lively bones that also tells a brisk history of modern Italy. Raffa keeps a detached historian's eye on how Italian political figures used Dante to justify their own vision of the nation, the race, and the culture...Fascinating. -- Kelly Scott Franklin Law and Liberty Details the path that Dante's remains trod in his physical afterlife, from the time of his death to the present, and of the people who wanted a piece of him for themselves...Has the marks of a detective story. -- John M. DeJak Chronicles Meeting the challenge of invigorating historical events with whodunit tones of intrigue, Guy P. Raffa's Dante's Bones delivers a fairly adventurous tale. -- Patrick James Dunagan Rain Taxi As Guy Raffa charts in his beautiful book Dante's Bones, Dante's corporeal afterlife is its own story. -- Candida Moss Daily Beast A fascinating narrative of translation (literal), cultural appropriation, and myth making. Dante becomes a humanist ideal, a nineteenth-century prophet, and hence father for Italy, and abstraction to which all political persuasions have sought to harness themselves. The actual travails of Dante's remains also make for fascinating reading. -- Daragh O'Connell Annali d'Italianistica