MONUMENTO PIAZZA SAN LORENZO

GIACOMO ZANELLA

Dante has always been loved in Vicenza especially since 19th Century, when Dante’s citations, suggestions and references are present in all local authors: from Antonio Fogazzaro to Fedele Lampertico, from Guido Piovene to Luigi Meneghello and Fernando Bandini. Numerous studies and insights are carried out by the Olympic Accademy. Further, “Dante Alighieri Society” is active and lively during classical shows season at Olympic Theater with plenty performances and ballets devoted to Dante and his works. It is also possible to find a translated version of Divina Commedia in venetian dialect, edited in 1875 which, according to the translator Giuseppe Cappelli, aims to “make popular an abstruse work”.
Valuable studies of writers and philosophers have kept – and still keep – aroused the love for Dante also through teaching. Above all Giuseppe Zuccante deserves a mention; for years he is professor of philosophy at the Liceo Ginnasio Pigafetta, where he is also remembered in the school’s cloister. Moreover, Giacomo Zanella plays also an important role as a teacher at the same school of Zuccante and subsequentely professor at the University of Padua. He has dedicated numerous studies to the Poet, highlighting his versatility and placing Dante among the prestigious poetic voices of humanity such as Homer and Virgil.

In 1868, Zanella dedicates an ode to the great Poet, in which the universal knowledge of Dante appears capable of crossing history, beyond the decline of time, to rise up, now that Italy is finally united, as an example and a spur for the future generations.