Dante at Notre Dame


With the purchase of the Renaissance editions from Acquaticci in 1902 and the hundreds of other volumes from European booksellers catalogues during the first half of the decade, Zahm's Dante collection achieved substantial size and worth ( Zahm's bookplate). In fact, Zahm's single-handed efforts now rivaled the Fiske Collection at Cornell and the collection at Harvard's Widener library. Nevertheless, an important question remained unresolved: where and how should Notre Dame house its own prestigious Dante collection?

It seems that initially Zahm kept the books, at least the most valuable ones, in his office. In a photograph from the period, showing Zahm in his study at Notre Dame, some of the early Dante editions can be clearly identified on his bookshelves.

During his term as Provincial, Zahm appointed an architect named Von Herbulis to draw up plans for a library building. The sketches indicate a special room on the first floor to house the Dante collection. The decor would be appropriately elaborate: Italian Renaissance furnishings and walls of richly veined wood capped with an elliptical vaulted ceiling and a frieze portraying scenes from the Comedy. Unfortunately, fires on campus consumed the necessary building funds in repairs, and the project had to be abandoned.

When Zahm left Notre Dame in 1906, despite bitterness about not having been retained as Provincial, he did not take the Dante Collection with him. He had purchased the books for his alma mater and there they would remain. After Zahm's departure, the books were likely housed in the university library, located in the Main Building. The collection may have been placed in a separate alcove, as had the personal library of Professor J. A. Lyons.

The situation would change, however, when Paul Foik, C.S.C., came to Notre Dame in 1911 to serve as librarian. Six years later in 1917, using a new design by the architect Edward Tilton, Father Foik opened the doors of the new two-story library building, appointed with marble throughout and a Greek-revival facade. The concept of a special Dante room was kept, but the revised plans placed it in the northwest corner of the second floor. A separate room was also included to house books and artifacts that Zahm had donated from his South American travels. The completed Dante room was not so extravagant as first envisioned, but was tasteful nonetheless. An inventory taken shortly after the library opened listed the contents of the room as follows: 2 radiators, 1 light fixture, 1 4' x 7' table, 1 bronze statue, 4 chairs, 6 marble busts, 2 pedestals, 5 bronze busts, 2 large pictures, 17 cameos, 25 small pictures, 55 feet of foot high shelving with folio cases, 2 easels, 1 curio case full of cameos, 1,800 volumes of Dante's works and 6 shades. Around this same time the value of the collection was appraised at $25,000. Zahm's sister added a bust of her brother to the room after his death.

Most of the artworks were dispersed when the collection moved in 1963 to its present home in the Department of Special Collections Rare Book Room in the Hesburgh Library.