Tomb of Dante

Bernardo Canaccio wrote a poetic Latin epitaph in 1366, which was inscribed on its lid: "Iura monarchiae superos Phlegetonta lacusque lustrando cecini volverunt fata quousque sed quia pars cessit melioribus hospita castris actoremque suum petiit felicior astris hic claudor Dantes patriis extorris ab oris

quem genuit parvi Florentia mater amoris"[5]The sarcophagus was moved to the west side of the cloister by Bernardo Bembo, Venetian podestà of Ravenna, at the end of the 15th century.

The bones were put back in their original sarcophagus in 1781,[1] the same year as the monument was completed, having been commissioned from the local architect Camillo Morigia by Luigi Valenti Gonzaga, the cardinal legate in Romagna.

From the ceiling hangs an 18th century votive lamp, continually kept burning with olive oil from the Tuscan hills donated by Florence every 14 September, the anniversary of Dante's death.

[6] Florence had not given up hope of having the remains removed from Ravenna, however, and in 1829 the city erected a cenotaph in Santa Croce Basilica, showing the poet seated in thought and a personification of Poetry weeping over the sarcophagus.

A young student and later a respected notary, Matteucci Anastasio, noticed the words "OSSA DANTIS" (Dante's bones) on the box and saved it from being thrown into a common grave.

[8][9] In 1921 a bronze garland was added to the foot of the sarcophagus in memory of the dead of World War I, as well as a marble plaque to its right describing the various restorations of the tomb and an iron gate to the neighbouring garden, designed by the Venetian artist Umberto Bellotto.