April 13 | Lectura Dantis Mediterranea - Masterclass by Rino Caputo
"Between Love and Justice, Peace at the Center of the Divine Comedy" is the theme of the speech by the director of "Dante. International Journal of Studies on Dante Alighieri."
As part of the University's cultural policies, the Lectura Dantis Mediterranea will be inaugurated on Monday, April 13, 2026, in the Aula Magna "Antonio Quistelli" of the Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, with a Lectio Magistralis by the distinguished Professor Rino Caputo (Editor of "Dante", International Journal of Studies on Dante Alighieri) entitled: "Between Love and Justice, Peace at the Center of the Divine Comedy ."
The Lectura Dantis Mediterranea , drawing on the ancient tradition of the Lectura , enters the prestigious examination of the Text and the interdisciplinary Contexts that Dante's work embraces. And, at the same time, it develops, within the solid "poieo" (the making of poetry: the construction of a solid ethical-aesthetic path), through which Dante "generated" the Italian language, the critical awareness of the individual and the community.
The Lectura Dantis Mediterranea , our University's first comprehensive project on the work and figure of the Supreme Poet, was established at the suggestion of the DiGiES Chair of Italian Literature and with the contribution of the Research Center for the Aesthetics of Law. We hope it will mark a turning point in Dante studies along the route that leads from the Mediterranean Sea to various fields of knowledge. The Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria encourages students to explore Dante's poems, through the scientific study of various disciplinary fields, the enabling pathways of humanity as it builds "togetherness." With the first Lectura Dantis Mediterranea , involving the entire academic team, especially its students, the University opens itself to further dialogue with the "poetic-cognitive" Territory, within and beyond the Mare Nostrum .
The theme that will be addressed in Professor Rino Caputo's Lectio Magistralis will focus on the founding moments of the Comedy . Dante, a staunch believer who never diverged from orthodoxy, knows that the Creator, with a unilateral act of Love, has given earthly creatures free will, or the freedom to choose between good and evil. Choosing Good means realizing Divine Justice. But humanity cannot achieve fruitful results without Peace, which is inherent in the earthly experience of the human race. Peace is, therefore, at the center, even arithmetically, of the "Comedy," and the "peaceful," that is, the active and energetic builders of Peace, are, at the same time, good citizens and good Christians.
