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Heaven & Hell in Dante’s Italy - the Divine Comedy on the page and in art, from Florence to Ravenna
8
days
from
US$6,220
Book today with a deposit from
US$933
18th - 25th April 2027
Tour highlights
- Private viewings in historic libraries of manuscripts and early printed editions of Dante Alighieri’s 'Divine Comedy'.
- Explore representations of Heaven and Hell in medieval and Renaissance Italy; how the poet was inspired by the art he saw, and how he went on to have an enduring influence on later depictions by artists who came after him.
- Spend time in some of the most beautiful cities in Italy, including Dante’s hometown of Florence, and Ravenna, where he spent the final years of his life.
- Accompanied by two expert lecturers: a British Library curator and an art historian specialising in the Italian Renaissance.
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is inarguably the pre-eminent work of Italian literature, and one of the cornerstones of the whole western canon. Dante created and codified a structure of the afterlife that endures in the Christian and popular imagination today and, by writing it in his native Tuscan rather than Latin, it acted as the cradle of the standardised Italian language itself. Begun c.1308, it was completed in 1321, shortly before the poet’s death in Ravenna, one of the many places he lived once exiled from his native Florence as part of the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, symptomatic of the turbulent 13th and 14th centuries.
In the 800 years since, the Commedia has lost none of power and has left an indelible mark on the world. Still now Italian schoolchildren can recite swathes of it, and yet no original manuscript in Dante’s hand exists; the earliest surviving fragments date to the second half of the 1300s. With the arrival and development of printing in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries, the text became more unified and standardised. Both manuscripts and early printed books are full of treasures and delights, they are carefully and beautifully illustrated, and bear signs of individuality of the maker’s hand. In the centuries that followed, artists have returned to the poem again and again, and some of the most celebrated and interesting illustrations for the poem were published in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as those by Gustave Doré and William Blake.
At a time when the visual was the primary and most effective method of communication to the masses, the vivid descriptions in the Commedia, especially of hell and the very specific punishments awaiting those who strayed from the righteous path, provided a fertile source material for artists commissioned to decorate churches and chapels throughuot Italy. Earlier edifices are also significant, as several contain depictions Dante saw during his own lifetime which are known to have influenced his vision of heaven, hell, and purgatory.
The twin foci of this tour are always the art and the text: visit several of the most significant libraries of Italy, where the group will have the opportunity to view some of the early manuscripts, books and the illuminations and illustrations that adorn them; and while travelling from Orvieto to Ravenna –via Florence, Pisa and Bologna– see some of the most celebrated depictions of heaven and hell in Italian art, always while keeping Dante’s work – as the most famous expression of Western ideas about the afterlife - as a constant point of reference.
Itinerary
Fly at c. 10.45am from London Rome Fiumicino (British Airways). Drive to Tuscania, where the church of Santa Maria Maggiore contains a 14th fresco of the last Judgement, attributed to Gregorio & Donato d’Arezzo. Overnight in Orvieto, an entrancing hilltop town.
Spend the morning at the glistening marble Gothic cathedral. Among its treasures are the low relief sculptures by Maitani and the apocalyptic Last Judgement frescoes by Signorelli (1505). Drive to Florence, where the following four nights are spent.
The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze is the largest public library in Italy, and one of the country’s two centrale libraries. It holds one of the most interesting copies of the great 1481 Florence printed edition of the Divine Comedy, and a wide range of manuscripts and other editions. The afternoon is devoted to S. Maria Novella, the Dominican church with many works of art, including Nardo di Cione’s frescoes of Hell, the Last Judgement, and Paradise, in the Cappella Strozzi di Mantova, and Andrea di Bonaiuto’s Descent into Limbo as part of his cycle of frescoes in the Spanish Chapel.
All day excursion to Pisa. The ‘Campo dei Miracoli’ is a magnificent Romanesque ensemble of cathedral, monumental burial ground, campanile (‘Leaning Tower’) and baptistery, all of gleaming white marble. Among the artworks here is Buonamico Buffalmacco’s 14th-century fresco cycle in the Monumental Camposanto, which includes The Last Judgement & Hell.
The cluster of cathedral buildings occupies the morning. In the polychromatic marble Duomo itself, capped by Brunelleschi’s massive dome, Domenico di Michelino’s painting Dante Alighieri with Florence and the Realms of the Divine Comedy was commissioned in 1465, for the bicentenary of Dante’s birth. The baptistry’s 13th-century mosaic of the Last Judgement heavily influenced Dante’s vivid depiction of the afterlife. In the afternoon, visit Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library, whose architectural components would herald the onset of Mannerism, and which holds several of the most important early illuminated manuscripts of the poem.
In Bologna, the Archiginnasio was once the main building of the University of Bologna (the oldest university in continuous operation in the world), and houses a perfectly restored 17th-century anatomical theatre, and a library, which has a wide collection of Dante manuscripts and printed books. The Basilica di San Petronio has a cycle of frescoes depicting Heaven and Hell by Giovanni da Modena. Drive to Ravenna, where the final two nights of the tour are spent.
The morning is spent at the Biblioteca Classense, in the former Camaldolese Monastery, and which holds a large collection of editions of the works related to Dante. The afternoon is free. In the evening there is a private visit to the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, lined with 5th-century mosaics, and the splendid centrally planned church of S. Vitale with 6th-century mosaics of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora.
The Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Theodoric’s great Palatine church, includes mosaics depicting scenes ssuch as Christ enthroned in splendour, and has a small permanent exhibition exploring the inspiration Dante took from the mosaics throughout Ravenna. See also Dante’s Tomb, where after a tumultous history, the poet’s remains now rest where he died, in Ravenna and still in exile. En-route to the airport stop at Classe, to see the great Basilica of S. Apollinare before flying from Bologna to London Heathrow, arriving c.9.15pm.
Expert speakers
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott mixes scholarship with accessible discourse, with reasoned opinion, and is highly sought-after as an art history lecturer. He has lectured for New York University (London campus) and Birkbeck College, University of London, specialising primarily in 16th-century Italian art and architecture. He studied at the Courtauld and Birkbeck College and lived in Rome for several years. He has written articles for Arte Veneta, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes.
More tours led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
Mr Stephen Parkin
Curator of the British Library’s Printed Heritage Collections 1450–1600, and specialist in early printing in Italy. He studied at Cambridge University and University College London, has a qualification in librarianship from the Vatican Library School in Rome, and taught in Italian universities for many years. He has a particular interest in the history of bibliography and collecting and has published in these fields; he also works as a literary translator. He most recently curated the exhibition Aldo Manuzio. Il Rinascimento di Venezia at the Accademia in Venice.
More tours led by Mr Stephen Parkin
Practicalities
Price, per person. Two sharing: US$6,520 or US$6,220 without flights. Single occupancy: US$7,530 or US$7,230 without flights.
Travel by private coach; hotel accommodation; breakfasts, 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all taxes; all tips; the services of two lecturers and a tour manager.
Emme Palace Hotel, Orvieto: A smart and modern newly renovated 4-star hotel, situated in the historic centre of Orvieto. Hotel Santa Maria Novella: a delightful, renovated 4-star hotel in a very central location. Palazzo Bezzi, Ravenna: a 4-star superior hotel, located on the edge of the historic centre of town. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use.
There is inevitably quite a lot of walking and standing on this tour. Some of the walking is uphill or over cobbles. The coach cannot be used within the town centres, the tour would not be suitable for anyone who has any difficulties with everyday walking or stair-climbing, or standing for long periods of time in the libraries and churches. Some days have a lot of driving, and while the days based entirely in Florence and Ravenna have none, there is more walking on these days. Average distance by coach per day on driving days: 96 miles.
Between 10 and 22 participants
Before booking, please refer to Travel.State.Gov to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting. As a British company we follow the advice of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
Dates & prices
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2027
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
18th - 25th April 2027
Speaker:
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott & Mr Stephen Parkin
Price:
from US$6,220
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