Between Ulysses and Saint Francis: Models of Leadership in Dante

Please join us on October 16th, 2026 for our Day of Dante!

Marking the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis, this year's lecture - Between Ulysses and Saint Francis: Models of Leadership in Dante - traces how Dante's Divine Comedy offers a powerful vision of charismatic leadership through the contrasting figures of Ulysses and Saint Francis of Assisi. This year's Dante Lecture will be presented by Heather Webb, Professor of Italian Studies at Yale University.

2026 Dante celebrations will begin with The Dante Garden Tour from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm, followed by the annual Dante Lecture from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm and a Reception from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm at the John M. Kelly Library featuring a new exhibit of the collection: Dante Sings the Praises of St. Francis.

The Annual Dante Lecture is a cornerstone event celebrating the enduring importance of Dante’s work within literature, theology, philosophy, and cultural history. The lecture was established through the generosity of Alberto and Caroline Di Giovanni.

We expect this free event to be popular so book your ticket early!

DANTE GARDEN TOUR

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

NE corner of St. Joseph St. and Queen’s Park Cres. E. Toronto

This exclusive tour of The Dante Garden is led by Assistant Professor Stephen Tardif

DANTE LECTURE PRESENTED BY HEATHER WEBB

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Alumni Hall 400

121 St. Joseph St.

Toronto

Heather Webb is a professor of Italian Studies at Yale University and specializes in medieval literature, natural philosophy, and devotional cultures, focusing on histories of embodiment and readerly engagement. She obtained her Ph.D. at Stanford University in 2004 and, before coming to Yale, taught at The Ohio State University and the University of Cambridge, where she was Head of Italian at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and a Fellow of Selwyn College.

Webb’s current work seeks to conceptualize the creation of affective spaces and shifting atmospheres in literary and devotional texts by authors such as Dante, Clare of Assisi, Cavalcanti, Boccaccio, Catherine of Siena, Petrarch and their contiguous visual cultures. Webb is the author of The Medieval Heart (Yale, 2010), Dante’s Persons: An Ethics of the Transhuman (Oxford University Press, 2016), (translated into Italian as L’idea di persona in Dante. Corpo e identità. Tab edizioni, 2023) and Dante, Artist of Gesture (Oxford University Press, September 2022). With George Corbett, she edited Vertical Readings in Dante’s Comedy, 3 vols (Open Book Publishers, 2015, 2016, 2017). With Pierpaolo Antonello, she edited Mimesis, Desire, and the Novel: René Girard and Literary Criticism (Michigan State Press, 2015). With Zygmunt Baranski, she edited Dante’s Vita nova: A Collaborative Reading (University of Notre Dame Press, 2023). Her current project is a monograph provisionally entitled Medieval Atmospheres.

RECEPTION FEATURING A NEW EXHIBIT OF THE DANTE COLLECTION

7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

John M. Kelly Library

113 St. Joseph St.

Toronto

Following the lecture, please join us for a reception where we are pleased to feature a display of books from The Dante Collection at the John M. Kelly Library. The Dante Collection was established in the Kelly Library in 2013 based on a gift of books and works of art by Alberto Di Giovanni and Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni. From the beginning it has emphasized illustrated editions of La Divina Commedia, particularly facsimiles of early manuscripts. The subject of the current exhibit is the life of Saint Francis of Assisi as Dante describes it in canto IX of Paradiso. Included are images dating from the 14th to the 20th centuries, show the enduring interest in Saint Francis.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Please contact us at [email protected].

Event venue & nearby stays

Alumni Hall, Room 400, University of St. Michael's College, 121 St. Joseph's Street, Toronto, Canada

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.

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