Please join us for the following public events and exhibits being hosted in Rare Books and Special Collections:
Drop in to one of this month’s Exhibit Open Houses to meet and speak informally with one of the curators of the fall exhibition, Mapping Global Dante in Translation. Learn how translators, artists, and printers have popularized and reshaped the Divine Comedy over the centuries and across the world and discover the Library’s many Dante editions.
Thursday, October 3, 2:00 – 3:30pm | Exhibit Open House with curator Giulia Maria Gliozzi (Notre Dame, Italian Studies doctoral candidate)
Thursday, October 10, 2:00 – 3:30pm | Exhibit Open House with curator Inha Park (Notre Dame, Italian Studies doctoral candidate)
Thursday, October 17, 2:00 – 3:30pm | Exhibit Open House with curator Salvatore Riolo (Notre Dame, Italian Studies doctoral candidate)
Thursday, October 30 at 5:00pm | Italian Research Seminar: Research presentations by 4th-year students in the Italian PhD program (University of Notre Dame) — this year’s speakers are: Elisa Bisson, Inha Park, and Salvatore Riolo.
The Fall 2025 Exhibition | “What through the universe in leaves is scattered”: Mapping Global Dante in Translation
This exhibit traces the global journey of Dante’s masterpiece through rare and valuable printed editions, highlighting how translators, artists, and printers have popularized and reshaped the Commedia. These volumes reveal a dynamic dialogue between Dante’s poetry and the world. A global literary perspective transforms Dante from a monumental yet isolated figure of the European Middle Ages into a central presence in the ongoing international conversation about humanity, the universe, time, eternity, and the power of literature.
This exhibit is curated by Salvatore Riolo (Notre Dame, Italian Studies doctoral candidate), and co-curators Giulia Maria Gliozzi (Notre Dame, Italian Studies doctoral candidate); Inha Park (Notre Dame, Italian Studies doctoral candidate); and Peter Scharer (Yale, Comparative Literature doctoral candidate). Theodore J. Cachey Jr. (Notre Dame) and Jacob Blakesley (Sapienza Università di Roma) served as consultants on the exhibit.
The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Center for Italian Studies and the Devers Program in Dante Studies. This and other exhibits within the Hesburgh Libraries are generously supported by the McBrien Special Collections Endowment.
The current spotlight exhibits are: Portrait of the Artist as a Dance Fan: Edward Gorey and the New York City Ballet (September-October 2025) curated by Rachel Bohlmann (American History Librarian and Curator)…
…and Bibliomania: The Library of Sir Thomas Phillipps (May-December 2025) curated by Anne Elise Crafton (2024-2025 Rare Books and Special Collections Postdoctoral Research Fellow).
All exhibits are free and open to the public during business hours.