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The Museum set up according to modern criteria, reconstructs the political, economic, and cultural environment of Dante’s time. The museum itinerary traces his life through his works, the events affecting his family, his exile and the Florence of his time.

After the death of Dante Alighieri, his brother Francis sells (1332) to Mardolli part of the house, while the remainder continues to be for a few years still owned by the children of Dante that with the vicissitudes of the family have long abandoned Florence. To increase the value of the various owners who follow start extension works, adaptation and renovation that transformed not just a good part of the residential original. At the dismemberment of houses Alighieri adapted to different uses functional (warehouses, stores, houses) follows soon a state of deterioration. The memory of the birthplace of the poet, however, is guarded by popular tradition that continues to indicate, near the Tower of Castagna, that group of houses and humble are "home of Dante."

In 1865, during the sixth centenary of the birth of Dante, the Municipal Board of Florence establishing a commission composed by historians Frullani and Gargani to locate precisely the Houses of Alighieri.

After a thorough search and on the basis of archived documents, the Commission identifies the homes of Alighieri in the place indicated by tradition. It is then given the task to the architect Falcini to conduct all necessary investigations to establish the architecture "as" those buildings were present at the time of Dante. With numerous essays on walls and after detailed analysis in order to establish the continuity and aggregations original a space, Falcini wrote a detailed report and performs some drawings to clarify what are the rose and extension of the original buildings.

Only in 1911 the Town begins work of recovery and reconstruction "of the House of Dante, entrusting the work the architect Castellucci: demolishing houses corner to give rise to a square, breaking down all those elements that already Falcini considered extraneous the house of Alighieri. After the demolition it was necessary to "re-architecture" based on a series of hypothetical reconstruction projects. If, in some ways, the intervention can be considered questionable for the many licenses and the majesty of an "excellent place”, it certainly has the advantage of fit, as one of the best examples in the vein of Revival architecture.

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