ABSTRACT
The 1865 celebrations gave fresh impetus to the Dantean cult, which remained strong during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In Italy, paradoxically, despite the success of the centenary celebrations it took longer to establish a Dante Society as such. The Society’s founding members included many of the most illustrious figures from the world of Italian culture and politics, including Ruggero Bonghi, Cesare Cantù, Giosue Carducci, Alessandro D’Ancona, Angelo De Gubernatis and Pasquale Villari. Despite Carducci’s refusal to accept the position on personal grounds, Bovio refused to give up, and he subsequently invited various friends and well-known figures close to the poet to advocate the operation in question. In 1890 the cult of Dante was associated with that of Beatrice Portinari, the sixth centenary of whose death occurred in that year.
