San Miniato

Although this church is discussed more fully in regard to its Dante plaque, it merits another mention due to the Cimitero delle Porte Sante (The Holy Gates Cemetery), which wraps around it. The cemetery opened in 1848, so you won’t find any medieval tombs out here (although there are some inside), but there are other things to see as admirers of Dante. First, the tombstone of Michele Barbi (above), who died in 1941 at the age of 74.

Barbi studied with Alessandro D’Ancona (who gave the Kirkup mask to Florence) and held several university positions until becoming professor of Italian literature at the University of Florence in 1923. He held the position of secretary of the Società Dantesca Italiana (the Italian Dante Society) in 1894 and then that of vice president in 1936. He was the director of the National Editions of Dante’s works beginning in 1930.

To him we owe the 1891 edition of the Vita nova and the Rime, but one of his greatest contributions to Dante Studies was his philological work on the Comedy. He chose 399 critical loci in the text and based the collation of its extant witnesses upon them.

At the fresh age of 26, he used his position at the Società Dantesca to call for a new, scientific stage in the study of Dante, beginning with a complete bibliography of related materials, a diplomatic edition of the Comedy, a definitive critical edition (which is still lacking according to many) and reliable editions of the principal ancient commentaries. Barbi will remain famous among scholars and students for his immense amount of scholarship and the significant role he played in how all readers of the last 75 years think of Italy’s greatest poet.

Below: the grave of Felice Le Monnier. Born in Verdun in France in 1806, Le Monnier became a printer and moved to Florence where he worked for the Borghi brothers, whose business he took over in 1840. The very first book he published under with his name on the cover was a small-size edition of the Divine Comedy in 1837. Another larger edition with a commentary appeared in 1849. In 1859, the Le Monnier publishing house passed to his descendants. Of special importance is their Lectura Dantis Scaligera, a 100-volume set of readings of the Comedy, canto by canto, which was finished in 1965.

Below, the family sepulchers of the Lorenzini, where Carlo Lorenzini (better known by his pen name Collodi), the creator of Pinocchio, is buried. Since you’re nearby.