The Dante Plaques

May 2021 update: You can find this post and document reposted on my blog on www.timothyoliver.com/post/dante-plaques 

A year in Florence would have seemed incomplete without reading Dante’s Divine Comedy. I knew I’d read the 14,233 line poem as soon as I was offered a fellowship at the European University Institute, based in Fiesole, just outside Florence.

The poem isn’t exactly an easy read with some translations making it much harder than others. I found Mark Musa’s The Portable Dante (Penguin Classics) to be the clearest, not least thanks to the very helpful introduction. What also helped was discovering the book The Dante Plaques: A Florentine itinerary from the Divine Comedy, which is a guide to the 34 Dante plaques put up by the Commune of Florence in 1907 (after a decision to do so was made in 1900). Written by Foresto Niccolai and translated by Mark Roberts, the book was invaluable as I tracked down the plaques that are scattered around central Florence. The plaques show lines from the poem that refer to real places or Florentines, with the latter being a mix of famous families, men and women that Dante either condemned or saluted. 

I tried to post a picture on my Instagram of each plaque as I reached the part of the poem the plaque displays a quote from. For each plaque I quoted the English translation of the lines as shown in the Niccolai/Roberts book. With each photo I provided a short text giving details of the plaque’s location, and providing some context to explain what was going on in the canto from which the lines shown are taken. While the Niccolai/Roberts book provided invaluable material about who is being referred to in the plaques, I did find myself wanting more information about the cantos from which the lines are taken. I’ve tried to provide a little more context to each quote. I soon gave up trying to post pictures of the plaques as I read the poem because the lines quoted on the plaques are not evenly distributed through the poem. 

I've put the complete set of photos and text into a single document which you can find below. I hope it helps others understand the Divine Comedy, Dante, and his beloved Florence.  

You can find the photos on my Instagram.

Received some advanced copies of my new book which will be out later this month. 'Understanding Brexit: A Concise Introduction' is available from Policy Press or all good book retailers. 

"An indispensable guidebook to the labyrinth of Brexit. Tim Oliver shows not only how Brexit came to happen and how it is unfolding as a series of processes in the UK, Europe and the world. More importantly, he shows how to study and analyse it." Henrik Enderlein, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin

"An excellent introductory text for the generalist reader and for students coming to Brexit as an academic subject for the first time. If you have not read a book on Brexit, this should be the first you read." Michelle Cini, University of Bristol

The Impact of the UK’s Withdrawal on EU Integration

Today the European Parliament's Committee on Citizens' Right and Constitutional Affairs published 'The Impact of the UK's Withdrawal on EU Integration,' a report I put together with Garvan Walshe, Catherine Barnard, Linda Hantrais, Matthias Matthijs, and Steven Peers.

The full report can be found here: 
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/604973/IPOL_STU(2018)604973_EN.pdf

Collapse: Europe After the European Union

I've reviewed Ian Kearns new book 'Collapse: Europe After the European Union.' The review can be found on the LSE's Brexit blog. I've long worried that both pro-Europeans and some Eurosceptics fail to think through what Europe would look like without the EU. This book shares that concern. 

This book is filled with inconvenient truths for pro-Europeans desperate to believe all will be fine and Eurosceptics determined to be rid of the EU but who have given no thought to what Europe would then emerge. 

Review here: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2018/07/03/book-review-collapse-europe-after-the-european-union/