“Bound up with love …” : The extraordinary legacy of Father John Zahm’s Dante Collection

In 2021, the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, we celebrated the legacy of the Zahm Dante Collection and the remarkable accumulation of rare Italian material acquired at the University of Notre Dame over the past century. This digital exhibit augments a physical exhibition held in Rare Books & Special Collections from August 23- December 17, 2021. 

Highlights of the exhibit include rare printings of the three crowns of Italian literature– Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio–  as well as verse anthologies of poetry and other tools such as grammars and dictionaries that would have assisted 16th century readers of vernacular literature.

This exhibit was curated by Tracy Bergstrom (Curator, Italian Studies and Dante Collection), Chiara Sbordoni (Adjunct Professor in Italian, Rome Global Gateway), and Demetrio Yocum (Senior Research Associate, Center for Italian Studies). This and other exhibits within the library are generously supported by the McBrien Special Collections Endowment. The bibliography section of this digital exhibit provides additional information on individual authorship. 

To visit the virtual exhibit, please click here.

This article was written by Tracy C. Bergstrom 

Director, Specialized Collection Services Program
Curator, Zahm Dante and Early Italian Imprints Collection  

Hesburgh Libraries