Budget cuts and a lack of qualified faculty have forced the University of Florence to remove its course on Dantean philology and criticism from the offerings for the upcoming academic year.
Since the last titled professor left in 2007, a researcher has taught the course, but extreme government funding cuts leave no more means of hiring external lecturers. The Dante professorship post has been dissolved along with the course. Beginning this fall, students looking to follow the Dantean philology course must instead take the more general "Italian Renaissance Literature".
Francesco Mazzoni, the former president of the Italian Dante Society considered "the prince of Danteists" by his peers, retired in 2001 after reaching the retirement age limit. One of his pupils, Leonella Coglievina, occupied his former post at the University of Florence until 2007, but a suitable replacement could not be found after her departure, even though the university courted candidates at many other institutions.
According to Riccardo Bruscagli, head of the university's Faculty of Humanities, "there is a crisis in Dante studies; there aren't many professors who specialise in this area. There are of course Italianists who teach courses on Dante and can occasionally write books on his works, but to dedicate oneself entirely to Dantean philology is quite a different thing".
Only a few Italian universities, including the Universities of Bologna, Perugia, Rome III, Udine, and Venice, will be offering this course in the fall.
