Dante's descendant seeks to overturn poet's 1302 corruption conviction

The reputation of Dante Alighieri needs little burnishing: his Divine Comedy, tracing the poet’s journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, is widely regarded as one of the greatest works ever written. But more than 700 years after Dante was accused of corruption and condemned to be burned to death, his descendant is looking to clear his name.

Sperello di Serego Alighieri, an astrophysicist, and the law professor Alessandro Traversi are working to see if Dante’s 1302 sentencing for corruption in political office can be reversed.

In the 14th century, Florence was divided between the Black and the White factions, formed after infighting among the Guelphs. Dante, a member of the White party, was accused of corruption when the Blacks took control of the city in 1301. His fine was 5,000 florins and two years’ banishment, with a permanent ban from public office. When he failed to appear in court in March 1302, he was condemned to death in absentia.

“They were political trials and the penalties of exile and death inflicted on Dante, my dear ancestor, are unjust and have never been cancelled as happened with Galileo Galilei,” Alighieri told Corriere Della Sera. “And therefore, if the laws allow it, we will ask for a revision.”

According to the Italian newspaper, any final judgment can be subject to revision if there is new evidence showing the offender’s innocence. There is no time limit to the request, which can be proposed by an heir of the convict.

“There were two sentences inflicted on Dante. The first was exile, the second was death and it will be interesting to understand whether in the light of the Florentine statutes of the time and the current legal principles the two judgments could be subject to revision,” said Traversi.

The plans to clear Dante’s name will begin with a conference in May, with participants including historians, linguists, lawyers – and Antoine de Gabrielli, the descendant of Cante de Gabrielli da Gubbio, the Florentine official who convicted Dante. They will be investigating if Dante’s sentences were just, said Traversi, or “the poisoned fruit of politics that used justice to attack an opponent”.

Not everyone is convinced of the need for rehabilitation. Writing in the same paper, journalist Aldo Cazzullo said that Dante “is the one who invented the word ‘belpaese’ [beautiful country]”. “What could a late acquittal add, however necessary?” he asked.

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‘Regal’ purple dye is found in Israeli artefacts dating 3,000 years to the reigns of kings Solomon and David

Rich in hue and denoting royalty, power and wealth, purple dye has a prized status that is drawn from its exclusivity and the costs that go into producing it.

Now, researchers in Israel have for the first time found evidence of fabric dyed with “royal purple” dating back 3,000 years to the reigns of kings David and Solomon.

Since 2013, a team of archaeologists has been working in the Timna Valley, an ancient copper production district in southern Israel. There they discovered remnants of woven fabric, a tassel and wool fibres dyed with royal purple.

Tests on the artefacts indicated they dated to 1,000 BC – the time of David and Solomon’s biblical monarchies in Jerusalem.

‘Unique glimpse’

True purple – or argaman – was found in tiny quantities in the bodies of three types of mollusc found in the Mediterranean. Temple priests, David and Solomon, and Jesus of Nazareth are all described as having worn clothing dyed with purple, said the report in the PLOS ONE journal.

Professor Erez Ben-Yosef from the archaeology department at Tel Aviv University, who worked on the study, said: “As a result of the region’s extremely dry climate, we are able to recover organic materials such as textile, cords and leather from the Iron Age, from the time of David and Solomon, providing us with a unique glimpse into life in biblical times.

“The colour immediately attracted our attention, but we found it hard to believe that we had found true purple from such an ancient period.”

Dr Naama Sukenik, a curator at the Israel Antiquities Authority said: “Until the current discovery, we had only encountered mollusc-shell waste and potsherds with patches of dye, which provided evidence of the purple industry in the Iron Age.

“Now, for the first time, we have direct evidence of the dyed fabrics themselves.” 

Xi terrified by Christianity surge in China - dictator fears '300 million-strong' uprising

Xi has long instituted a harsh strategy to crack down on the faith and has ramped up surveillance amid the coronavirus pandemic. Amid Xi's pursuit to maintain control in the country, Dr Ron Boyd-MacMillan, director of Strategic Research at Christian charity, Open Doors, claimed China's premier is becoming increasingly concerned by the size of the Church - currently estimated at 97 million people. Speaking to Express.co.uk, Dr Boyd-MacMillan claimed the size of the Church in the country is set to rise rapidly in the coming decades and may reach 300 million people by 2030 - thus creating a group big enough to challenge Xi's government.

He said: "We think the evidence as to why the Chinese Church is so targeted, is that the leaders are scared of the size of the Church, and the growth of the Church.

"And if it grows, at the rate that it has done, since 1980 and that's about between seven and 8 percent a year, then you're looking at a group of people that will be 300 million strong, nearly by 2030.

"And, you know, the Chinese leadership, they really do long term planning, I mean, their economic plan goes to 2049, so this bothers them.

"Because I think if the Church continues to grow like that, then they'll have to share power."

The Communist Party has instituted a policy of Chinafication in the state in order to merge the church into China's cultural identity.

With citizens handing over their personal details due to the pandemic, the Communist Party has been able to increase its surveillance campaign in the state.

This surveillance and crackdown on religion has not just been isolated to Christianity, with many organisations accusing the state of creating forced labour camps for Muslims in Xinjiang.

It is believed up to a million Uighur Muslims have been sent to re-education camps in the state by Xi's government.

Both the UK and US have accused the Chinese government of human rights violations, while the latter has also issued sanctions on Communist Party members over the allegations.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also expressed his concern over the new Hong Kong security law.

Following the creation of the new legislation, China has issued mass arrests of several activists and politicians.

Mr Raab said: "The mass arrest of politicians and activists in Hong Kong is a grievous attack on Hong Kong's rights and freedoms as protected under the joint declaration.

"These arrests demonstrate that the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities deliberately misled the world about the true purpose of the national security law, which is being used to crush dissent and opposing political views.

"The UK will not turn our backs on the people of Hong Kong and will continue to offer British nationals overseas citizens the right to live and work in the UK."

The British National Overseas visa will open on January 31 and allows for nationals overseas and their family members to stay in the UK for a period of 30 months.

Following that, those eligible will be able to apply for settlement after five years and British citizenship 12 months after settlement.

Amid the uncertainty over the spread of coronavirus, many politicians have called for an independent investigation into the state to assess the outbreak of the contagion.

Since the outbreak last March, China has now largely defeated the virus although there have been minor outbreaks in the state.

Any new outbreaks have been blamed on imported variants from abroad.

Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese Centre for Disease and Control and Prevention, has blamed the recent rise in cases on "imported" variants.

He said: "The epidemiological investigations show that these outbreaks were not related to previous infections, but caused by newly imported sources of the virus.

"According to source-tracing investigation, the cluster infections reported in China since the winter are all caused by imported cases, inbound visitors and imported goods, which mainly occurred in cities with airports, land ports and seaports where there are people and good flowing in." 

Reference: Daily Express: Bill McLoughlin  2 hrs ago