Dante's ashes found in bag

Florence - Ashes from the corpse of Italy's greatest poet Dante Alighieri were found in a bag on a Florence library shelf yesterday…

Florence - Ashes from the corpse of Italy's greatest poet Dante Alighieri were found in a bag on a Florence library shelf yesterday. Two employees at Florence's National Central Library stumbled across the remains by chance while they were searching in the rare manuscripts department.

"They were sorting a few things out when they came across an envelope on one of the shelves on the second floor," said the library's director, Mr Antonia Ida Fontana. "They opened it and found a bag of ashes along with documents which identify them as those of Dante."

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