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CONFERENCES AND LECTURES
– Prof. Anatole Tchikine participated in the Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, held in Washington, DC, March 22-24, 2012. He presented a paper entitled “Gardens of Mistaken Identity: the Giardino delle Stalle in Florence and the Giardino dell’Arsenale in Pisa”. Employing new archival documentation, Anatole offered a reconstruction of the history of these two largely forgotten Medici gardens, whose nature and purpose have been misinterpreted in traditional Italian historiography.
– On May 15, Prof. Nicoletta Baldini (Università Bocconi, Milan) gave a lecture at Palazzo Rucellai on Piero Perugino. Prof. Baldini focused, in fact, on the Florentine years of this Renaissance painter and the many paintings he worked on while in the city. In keeping with her well-known studies, Prof. Baldini has culled information from archival sources, most of which was previously unknown. She also offered some stimulating tips on how to spot the work of Piero Perugino or his assistants in a painting. The lecture was entitled “La stanza di Via San Gilio. La bottega fiorentina di Pietro Perugino”. (“The Room in San Gilio Street. Pietro Perugino’s Florentine Workshop”).
PUBLICATIONS
– One of the first humanists of the literary Renaissance, Giannozzo Manetti wrote his history of Pistoia, Historia Pistoriensis (1446-1447), while serving as captain of this Tuscan city.The very first critical edition of this work has just been published by the prestigious SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo. ISI’s Academic Director and Dean of Students, Prof. Stefano U. Baldassarri contributed the introduction, the philological section, part of the paleographical description, and identified the literary sources. The historical commentary is by William Connell, whereas Benedetta Aldi has described some of the manuscripts and prepared the indexes to the volume. To purchase the text please contact the following email address: [email protected]
– Italian humanists have long been portrayed – very questionably – as atheists and epicureans bent on undermining the Catholic Church. Though repeatedly challenged, this myth is still a reality in modern studies. And it is this myth that Prof. Marco Pellegrini (Università di Bergamo) counters in Religione e umanesimo nel primo Rinascimento da Petrarca ad Alberti (Religion and Humanism in the Early Renaissance: from Petrarch to Alberti), published by Le Lettere. The volume was presented at Palazzo Rucellai, on June 5, by the following Renaissance specialists: Stefano U. Baldassarri (Academic Director and Dean of Students, ISI Florence), Francesco Bausi, Elena Giannarelli, Maria Pia Paoli, and Timothy Verdon.
– Emanuela Agostini, one of our literature professors, has just published a volume, Il Bergamasco in commedia. La tradizione dello Zanni nel teatro d’Antico regime (The Bergamasque in Comedy: the Zanni Tradition in Old Regime Theater). The monograph is dedicated to Zanni, the buffoonish servant in Italy’s traditional Commedia dell’Arte theater. The volume traces Zanni’s origins in the early fifteen hundreds, and then includes actors who took on the role of the “bergamasque” in centuries gone by. The book was financed by the “Provincia di Bergamo” and Bergamo’s Chamber of Commerce. Its introduction was written by alderman Giovanni Milesi, while a premise was penned by renowned Commedia dell’Arte scholar Siro Ferrone.
EXHIBITIONS
– Fingerprints are the state’s preferred form of ID. But what about the body? Is that not the most reliable and unique ‘fingerprint’ there is? ISI’s photography professor Gloria Marco-Munuera explores this concept in works she exhibited at the Contemporary Art Gallery La Lisa in Albacete, Spain (June 1-29). She displayed there a collection of large-scale images that represent the imprint of the full skin of human bodies. And to do so, she employed only photograms, using no camera or machinery: unlike photographs, which fake depth with false perspective, photograms force the reality of two-dimensional representation. The exhibition, entitled “4por4 más 1”, displays the works of five international artists (including Gloria). She is a far-travelled photographer: she has exhibited her work from Australia to Spain, while teaching in Italy.