Should it ever happen that the sacred poem
to which heaven and earth have set their hand,
such that I am made lean after all these years,

with another voice and another fleece
I shall then return a poet…
            —Dante, Par­adiso XV.1-8

The Tele­graph reports that the city coun­cil of Flo­rence has voted to revoke the sen­tence that sent the Ital­ian poet into exile for the remain­der of his life. The March 1302 con­dem­na­tion promised death by fire were Dante ever to set foot in the city.

This is not the first time that Flo­ren­tines have tried to achieve formal rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with the man they would later honor as “the high­est poet.” Wikipedia gives this account of an early effort:

In 1315, Flo­rence was forced by Uguc­cione della Fag­giuola (the mil­i­tary offi­cer con­trol­ling the town) to grant an amnesty to people in exile, includ­ing Dante. But Flo­rence required that as well as paying a sum of money, these exiles would do public penance. Dante refused, pre­fer­ring to remain in exile. When Uguc­cione defeated Flo­rence, Dante’s death sen­tence was com­muted to house arrest, on con­di­tion that he go to Flo­rence to swear that he would never enter the town again. Dante refused to go. His death sen­tence was con­firmed and extended to his sons. Dante still hoped late in life that he might be invited back to Flo­rence on hon­ourable terms.

The Flo­ren­tine res­o­lu­tion, which passed 19-5, restores Dante’s full cit­i­zen­ship in the city. The five naysay­ers not unjustly called the process “a stunt,” and Vit­to­rio Ser­monti, one of the most famous read­ers and com­men­ta­tors on Dante in Italy today, was like­wise skep­ti­cal. “Well,” he told La Repub­blica, “now they can start the reha­bil­i­ta­tion process for Brutus and Cas­sius as well.”