Il ministro frugale e «il culto interno di Dante». Croce e il sesto centenario dantesco

The article recovers from the "Pagine sparse" some evidence relating to the role played by Croce, as Minister of Education, at the celebrations of the seicentenary of Dante's death. Alongside interviews and articles published in Italian and foreign newspapers, in which we learn that he refused to allocate a large sum of money to the celebrations for reasons of economic frugality required by the post-war period, while he tried to clarify to the American public the non-utilitarian and non-instrumental value of Poetry, Croce gave the inaugural speech of the celebrations in Ravenna: here he provided some conceptual anticipations of the monograph "La poesia di Dante" (1921) and dispensed advice for better celebrating the Poet, inviting people to practice the internal cult of Dante at all times.