Lezioni di Storia

Program being finalized

Program being finalized.

All meetings will be held at the Donizetti Theater.

MEETINGS: CULTURAL CAPITALS

Laura Pepe
Saying “Athens of Pericles” Means Thinking of the Golden Age of Democracy, the Time when Literature, Poetry, Philosophy, Theater, and Visual Arts Reached Their Peak, and the Reconstruction of the Acropolis. In Reality, as Often Happens, behind this Image of Perfection there are Deep Cracks: Internal Conflicts, Challenges to Power, and a Foreign Policy Marked by many Abuses.
Laura Pepe Teaches Institutions of Roman Law and Ancient Greek Law at the University of Milan.
DURATION DATE PLACE COST PARTICIPANTS
1 hour January 10, 2026, at 11:00 AM Teatro Donizetti €8 subject to theater availability

Alessandro Marzo Magno
Movable Type Printing Was Invented in Germany, but it Developed in Italy, Particularly in Venice, the City that in the Sixteenth Century Became the Undisputed Capital of Publishing. In Venice, Half of the European Editions and Three-Quarters of the Italian Ones Were Published. In Venice, the First Greek Book in History, the First Armenian Book, the First Bible in Italian Vernacular, the First Talmud, the First Quran in Arabic, the First Illustrated Medical Book, and the First Pornographic Book Were Printed.
Alessandro Marzo Magno is a Journalist, Historian, and Writer.
DURATION DATE PLACE COST PARTICIPANTS
1 hour January 17, 2026, at 11:00 AM Teatro Donizetti €8 subject to theater availability

Alessandra Bucossi
Founded as the “New Rome,” Constantinople Inherited Models and Symbols from the Urbe, but Profoundly Reworked Them in a Confrontation that Unfolded over Centuries between Imitation and Conflict. In the Byzantine View, Rome is both Mother and Adversary: a Tension between Loyalty and Rejection that Marked the Cultural and Political History of Europe throughout the Middle Ages and beyond.
Alessandra Bucossi Teaches Byzantine Civilization at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
DURATION DATE PLACE COST PARTICIPANTS
1 hour January 24, 2026, at 11:00 AM Teatro Donizetti €8 subject to theater availability

Maurizio Bettini
We Have Forgotten Roman Religion. Surpassed, Erased by the Triumph of Christianity, the Gods of Rome Have been Reduced to Mere Interpreters of Ovid’s Metamorphoses or much Renaissance, Eighteenth-Century, and Romantic Poetry. Certainly, Jupiter, Juno, Venus We Can Still “See” in the Splendid Forms of the Statues that Adorn our Museums; but They are Now Only Works of Art, not Living Objects of Worship. Yet, these Literary and Figurative Figures Were once Powerful Deities, Honored in Rome with Solemn Rituals. Above all, However, the Conception that the Romans Had of Religion Still Has much to Teach our Modern Culture.
Maurizio Bettini Teaches Classical Philology at the University of Siena.
DURATION DATE PLACE COST PARTICIPANTS
1 hour February 7, 2026, at 11:00 AM Teatro Donizetti €8 subject to theater availability

Paolo Nori
“the Girls, those who Walk with Black-Eyed Boots on the Flowers of My Heart. The Clouds. The KGB Headquarters. A Brick Building, across the River: the Largest Prison in the Soviet Union. The Light Even at Night. A Jazz Band Playing with Gloves without Fingertips. Cigarettes with Long Cardboard Filters. The Stray Dog. The Winter Palace. The Russian Museum. The ‘when You Buy a Bird, See if there are Teeth or not. If there are Teeth, It’s not a Bird’.”a Narrative of the Artistic and Cultural Renewal Ferment During the Revolution Period.
Paolo Nori is a Writer and Translator.
DURATION DATE PLACE COST PARTICIPANTS
1 hour February 14, 2026, at 11:00 AM Teatro Donizetti €8 subject to theater availability

The initiative is part of

Promoted by