Student Projects

Sante Matteo, “Escape from Paradise,” Twelve Writers

January 9, 2022 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“Before Beatrice fled from Florence to Venice and beyond in my story, she migrated from the classroom to the written page, then set sail and found a welcome dock at Twelve Winters Journal.

“A course I taught on the Divine Comedy drew students with a wide spectrum of academic interests. I encouraged them to undertake a term project related to their field of studies, as long as it included an account of their research and how their secondary sources contributed to the creation of their final product (a bit like this commentary). Art students handed in paintings and sculptures; music students composed, performed, and recorded musical pieces; writing majors wrote poetry and stories; theater majors wrote and staged plays; film students scripted, shot, and showed movies; philosophy majors wrote Platonic dialogues. My office became a museum of intriguing works of art.

“Beatrice often figured in the students’ projects, which gave me the idea for a piece that showed how things might have looked through her eyes. After I retired and began to dabble in ‘creative writing,’ I emulated my students and took on the project of drafting a story presented from her perspective. [. . .]” –Sante Matteo, “Commentary on ‘Escape from Paradise’,” Twelve Winters

Read Sante Matteo’s story “Escape from Paradise” at Twelve Winters‘ website here.

See also Sante Matteo’s poem “Assignation” (here) and his essay on Dante and baseball (here).

Contributed by Sante Matteo

“Abito in poliestere dipinto a mano per i 700 anni dalla morte di Dante”

November 14, 2021 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

“Vercelli, Istituto professionale Lombardi: un abito realizzato in occasione dei 700 anni dalla morte di Dante Alighieri un abito. Il modello è stato esposto in occasione della conferenza promossa dagli Amici dei Musei di Vercelli, nella cornice del Piccolo Studio, nel Chiostro di Sant’Andrea, in cui dottor Claudio Martignon ha trattato il Canto X dell’Inferno, quello in cui il sommo poeta incontra il suo concittadino Farinata degli Uberti. L’abito è stato realizzato per omaggiare il padre della lingua italiana: è statoconfezionato nell’anno scolastico 2020/21, mentre le scuole affrontavano la sfida della didattica a distanza. I laboratori, tuttavia, sono rimasti aperti il più possibile e così la classe 5^a Progettazioni tessili sartoriali, guidata dalla professoressa Bestetti con il sempre prezioso aiuto di Angela Dragna, ha lavorato al vestito in poliestere bianco dalla linea leggermente svasata. La gonna presenta delle profonde pieghe baciate sia davanti che dietro. La sua caratteristica principale sta nell’essere interamente dipinto a mano con immagini ispirate alle illustrazioni della Divina Commedia fatte dall’artista inglese John Flaxman che ritraggono Dante e Beatrice. Le maniche dell’abito sono a campana rettangolare, con strisce in tessuto dipinte recanti scritte tratte da alcuni versi della Commedia. Il collo è ispirato alle gorgere ma realizzato in tulle pieghettato. Il bellissimo lavoro ad opera delle studentesse del Lombardi ha potuto essere ammirato anche dai vercellesi.” —La Sesia, November 8, 2021

Contributed by Lorenzo Coveri

Student-Led “In via Dante Network”

October 31, 2021 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

The “In Via Dante Network” is “a student-led initiative for Post-Graduate Students and Early-Career Researchers with an interest in Dante Studies.” —In Via Dante Network

The group organizes events, creates opportunities for networking, and maintains a mailing list through which members can initiate collaborations, advertise events, and provide support. Sign up for the listserv here.

Learn more on their website here.

Dante’s Purgatorio, video game by Charlie McKinney

October 18, 2021 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

Charlie McKinney of DeMatha Catholic High School (Hyattsville, Maryland) built a text-based video game based on Dante’s Purgatorio. The game was created as a project for ethics and theology teacher Homer Twigg’s unit on Dante’s Purgatorio in 2021. Check out the game here.

Scenes From the Mountain, a score for Purgatorio by Zachary Cheng (2020)

November 24, 2020 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

Scenes From the Mountain is a musical score for Purgatorio by Zachary Cheng (DeMatha Catholic High School ’21).

Of his composition, Cheng writes: “This small movement, which is only around six-and-a-half minutes long, was incredibly difficult to complete despite its length. I returned to it many times over quarantine though I could not seem to find any musical ideas that would stick with me. That changed for the better when I returned to the work in late August and decided to shift my approach. Instead of specifically cataloguing the tale of Dante, I decided to use music to describe the general environment of the Mountain of Purgatory. This ended up giving me more musical freedom. I also shifted the orchestration from a traditional orchestra towards something I am much more familiar with, that being the wind ensemble. The specific movement here encapsulates the base of the mountain (Canto I) up to just before the Valley of Princes (Canto VII).”

The score, with Cheng’s interlinear notes, are available to view here. Listen to it on Soundcloud.

The DeMatha Wind Ensemble (pictured) recorded a performance of Scenes from the Mountain in April 2021.

Many thanks to Zachary Cheng and his teacher, Mr. Homer Twigg of the Department of Theology at DeMatha Catholic High School, for permission to share the composition.

How to Cite