A Dante word a day: one of Accademia della Crusca’s initiatives for the year of Dante
Throughout 2021, words taken from the Supreme Poet’s works will be proposed daily, to delve into the roots of the Italian language
A daily appointment with Dante and his world: the Accademia della Crusca has prepared exactly this for the year dedicated to the Supreme Poet with the initiative titled ‘Una parola di Dante fresca di giornata’. Every day on the Academy’s website and social media, a word or phrase taken from Dante’s works can be found, with the relative quotation alongside a brief comment. It’s an interesting way to guide us in our discovery of Dante, also leading us to reflect on the roots of the Italian language. The Academy explains that it’s a way to “underline the creative ability, topicality and extraordinary readability of the great poet”. The project is carried out in media partnership with Rai; the RaiCultura website will share some of Dante’s words, with comments from academics in the form of short videos.
Dante Vocabulary
The Dante Vocabulary project has been active for years at the Academy, created in order to gather together the entire lexical heritage contained in Dante’s works. The Dantesque Vocabulary is an ongoing project that’s freely available online, constantly being updated and expanded. Over the course of 2021, a paper version is also planned. The research group, chaired by Paola Manni, has been working on the creation of this tool for years. The project, that’s still in progress, is already available for free consultation online at www.vocabolariodantesco.it
Dante’s words, a project for schools
Schools are not excluded from the programme organized by the Accademia della Crusca: the initiative is called ‘Le parole di Dante’ (‘Dante’s words’) and is a cycle of five lessons aimed at first and second year secondary school students, but accessible to all via the CruscaScuola website. The first video-recorded lessons are already available, accompanied by educational material relating to the topics covered. The lessons will be led by the president of the Crusca, Claudio Marazzini, by the academics Paola Manni, Giovanna Frosini, Rita Librandi, and by Domenico De Martino, who has been collaborating with the Academy for many years.
