"Strictly speaking, I am not a Dantist ... a Dantist is by definition a scholar, and I am at most a student: a very old student who makes a living by writing, and ultimately by reading strongly what he has written." Vittorio Sermonti has devoted a lifetime to the dissemination of the Comedy, taking its verses to radio, television, and the piazzas: his was the first and has remained the most authoritative and passionate of readings. This book collects for the first time seven lectures and lessons that Sermonti has offered during his dogged and faithful journey of study and insight. From a sonorous journey through Purgatorio to a masterful analysis of the scientist Dante to the 2011 lecture where the poet is joined by Virgil and Verdi in a scintillating analysis of the premises of our ancient language. Thus takes shape before our eyes not the Dante of school or tradition, but the Dante of Sermonti: of the man who - as his wife Ludovica Ripa di Meana says in the brief introductory note - "with writing and voice tried to infect, with at least a little of such greatness and beauty, every single other to flush out, as he used to say, even from the most lazy, the most destitute, the most ridiculous, the most rogue or the most asshole, the measure of greatness that that everyone may have, but does not know he has."