Divina Comèdia, catalan translation by Andreu Febrer (1429). Imatge rights: Patrimonio Nacional, Biblioteca del Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial
Presenting 'Il miglior fabbro del parlar materno': Dante in translation, a virtual bibliographic exhibition featuring works from the Pompeu Fabra University Library’s Dante collection.
«O frate,» disse, «questi ch’io ti cerno
col dito,» e additò un spirto innanzi,
«fu miglior fabbro del parlar materno».
(Purgatorio, Canto XXVI, lines 115-117)
In the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote that the Provençal troubadour Arnaut Daniel was ‘il miglior fabbro’ (the best smith) of his mother tongue. In choosing this line as the title for the exhibition, we wish to pay tribute to Dante, the greatest poet of the Italian language, as well as to his translators, for the noble task of having translated him into so many other mother tongues. The exhibition commemorates the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death with a tour of several translations of his work through the figure of Ramon d’Alòs-Moner (1885-1939), key to understanding the Florentine poet’s influence in Catalonia.