Abstract

Since the end of the 18th century, the figure and work of Dante Alighieri have been the subject of a process of myth-making that has transformed the Florentine poet into one of the main symbolic references of Italianness. The construction of the myth has been supported by the production of a large number of objects designed to reach different social targets: more or less precious editions of the Divine Comedy, illustrated postcards, gadgets created on the occasion of Dante’s centenaries, patriotic calendars, matchboxes, comic strips, postage stamps, banknotes and coins, advertisements, and commercial products bearing the Dante brand. The essay intends to reconstruct the evolution of this vast production of minor materials linked to the name of Dante, through which the Supreme Poet has become a sort of pop icon: a polysemic symbol of different social and political groupings (liberals, democrats, Catholics, fascists) and a powerful vehicle of advertising from the Belle époque to mass consumer society.