The Dante Alighieri Society was founded in 1889 by Giacomo Venezian an expatriate in America from Trieste, with the aim of promoting Italian culture and patriotism. From its very beginning the Dante Alighieri Society received an enthusiastic welcome particularly among the many Italian communities that had established themselves throughout the world. It was not until 1926 that the headquarters of the Society were set up in the Firenze Palace in Roma. From the start the Society has looked after the interests of Italian emigrants through the establishment of schools and libraries. Article one of the Society`s constitution state that the aim of "the Dante Alighieri" is to safeguard and defend Italian language and culture, to promote the the Italian identity in the world, to revive the spiritual ties between expatriates and the mother country, and to develop among non-Italians a love and appreciation of Italian civilisation.
The Society was given its name
in Honour of Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest writers and poets in
Italian history who was born in Florence in 1265. It was only in Dante`s
time that the language of Italy began to differentiate itself from Latin.
In fact this new language was a mixture of French, Florentine dialect
and Latin.
It was only much later that the new Italian language came to resemble
the Italian of today.
Among Dante`s great works mention must be made of his masterpiece -The Divine Comedy- universally recognised and appreciated for its originality and grandeur. The Divine Comedy is split into three parts: Hell, Paradise and Purgatory.
Many are the arguments
that have surrounded this work and even today it remains the subject of
debate and varyng interpretation.
There are currently 450 "Dante Societies" around the world with
the number continuing to grow. In Canberra the Society has been established
for 35 years. From its inception the principal objective has been to promote
Italian language and culture among the wider community. Membership is
now up and increasing. This clearly owes much to the keen interest that
Canberrans have in Italy andthings Italian .
