ART

The National Library in Florence may have lost its relics of “Divine Comedy” author Dante Alighieri, but the library of the Italian Senate has preserved ashes from the poet’s sarcophagus in a small, round, golden box, officials said Wednesday. Librarians displayed the box on which were etched the words, “Polvere di Dante,” or Dante’s ashes, after a report in the Tuscan Historical Review that two manila envelopes containing scrapings and fragments of fabric from Dante’s sarcophagus disappeared at some point over the years from the National Library.