[This is a transcription of a manuscript owned by the Indiana Province Archives Center, Priests of Holy Cross, Notre Dame, IN 46556. A PDF scan of the original document is available for download, courtesy of the Indiana Province Archives Center.]

A Great Monument to Dante at Notre Dame University

A propos of the sixth centenary of Dante's death, which is now being celebrated by the civilized world, we take pleasure in calling attention to the great library established in the Poet's honor at Notre Dame University.

Notre Dame has many and great treasures artistic, scientific and literary but among those which specially attract the attention of the visitor is its wonderful Dante Collection. This has long been recognized by competent judges as one of the most valuable and complete in the world. In this collection which owes its existence to the enthusiastic Dantistà, Dr. J. A. Zahm, is the better part of the famous Dante library of Giulio Acquaticci, the distinguished Dantofilo of Italy. Its owner spent many years in accumulating his library and proudly referred to it as one of the largest of its kind in Europe. It was certainly one of the rarest and most important, for it was particularly rich in incunabula. It embraced all the most precious editions of the Divina Commedia from that printed in Venice in 1477, by Vendelin da Spira, to those of our own time. Among them is the highly prized edition published in Florence in 1481 and enriched with the splendid engravings of designs by Botticelli. But the treasures of the Acquaticci library embrace but a small part of the Notre Dame Dante Library. For in it are all the chief translations of the Poet's works in more than thirty languages and dialects. Not the least interesting of these are versions of the Divina Commedia in Japanese. Commenting on the various Japanese translations of Dante's masterpiece, Dr. Zahm has expressed surprise and regret that there is so far no version of it in Irish. I have, he said, tried several times to get Gaelic scholars to undertake this work, but so far without success. At one time I hoped that Douglas Hyde would fill the lacuna, but a Gaelic version of the Divina Commedia still remains a great desideratum in Dante literature. Is it too much to hope the world celebration of the sixth centenary of the great Florentine's death will stimulate some of our enthusiastic Gaelic students to give us the long desired version of the Divina Commedia in Irish? This would be a worthy tribute to the Divine Poet from a son of the Emerald Isle.

Dr. J. A. Zahm, in whose honor the Notre Dame Dante Library has been named, is usually referred to as a man of science but, those who know him best, inform us that his first love was literature. An eloquent proof of this, aside from the numerous books that have come from his pen, is the wonderful Dante Collection at Notre Dame to the securing of which the Doctor has devoted more than a third of a century of enthusiastic book hunting in all parts of the world.

The Zahm Dante Library does not, however, consist only of books. It is also notable for its splendid collection of works of art, all of which illustrate the life and work of the supreme poet. Among these are etching, steel and wood engravings, paintings in oil and watercolors, busts and medallions in marble and bronze and terracotta. The central attraction of these works of art is undoubtedly a reduced replica of the colossal monument of Dante at Trent, pronounced by experts to be the most magnificent statue of heroic size in the Old World. Among the prints, hundreds in number, is the entire collection of a noted Dante lover in Florence.

Not counting the works of art, the books and brochures in this great Dante library, as reported only a month ago, exceeded three thousand in number. But, by an extraordinary windfall, this number has since been nearly doubled. For since then, Dr. Zahm, who is always seeking to enlarge the library whose upbuilding has always been for him a labor of love, has secured the complete library of one of the most enthusiastic Dantophilists in Italy. The exact number of items in this superb collection is 2,171.

But what materially enhances its value is the fact that a large number of the books and pamphlets are autograph copies from their authors. It is safe to say that no Dante library in existence has ever received a single addition that is so large or so important as this, or one in which the Dante lover will find more genuine delight.

Among the numerous projects which for some time past, have engaged the attention of the authorities at Notre Dame is the establishment of a Dante chair for the benefit of those who may desire to make a thorough study of the works of the Florentine poet. It is to be hoped that this project will be realized soon. Dr. Zahm has removed the chief difficulty by bringing together, as if by the wand of Prospero, the countless treasures of his magnificent library, a library, we make bold to say, which is the noblest monument to the sommo poeta of which America can boast.