HISTORY LESSONS 2026
Cultural capitals

First encounter
The Athens of Pericles
with Laura Pepe
Saturday, January 10, 2026 at the Donizetti Theater

The Lessons in History at the Donizetti Theater: a now traditional event, conceived by Editori Laterza and produced in co-production with the Donizetti Theater Foundation of Bergamo and with the support of BCC Oglio e Serio, the lecture series is entitled, in its third edition, Cultural Capitals. Five meetings are planned, dedicated to as many cities that over the centuries have made their mark on history, contributing to the birth and development of important cultural movements, whose influence later proved fundamental.

It begins on Saturday, Jan. 10 (11 a.m.) with Laura Pepe, already the protagonist of the first edition of History Lessons, and with The Athens of Pericles, the cradle of democracy and political management of public affairs. To say “Athens of Pericles” is to think of the golden age of democracy, the time when literature, poetry, philosophy, theater, and the figurative arts reached their zenith, the reconstruction of the acropolis. In reality, as is often the case, there are deep cracks behind this image of perfection: internal strife, contestation of power, and a foreign policy marked by much abuse.

Laura Pepe Teaches Institutions of Roman Law and Ancient Greek Law at the University of Milan. In addition to books and academic essays on criminal law and family law in antiquity, he has written several textbooks on ancient history and Latin grammar for upper secondary school.

He has published Athens on trial. Athenian law through judicial orations. (Bologna 2019), The sinews of Zeus. Body, soul and immortality in Greek myth. (Milan 2023), A day with the giants. Ancient Greece in six lessons (Milan, 2023) and edited the series “Life of the Ancients” (35 volumes, 2020) and “Mythical Loves” (20 volumes, 2024) for Corriere della Sera. She collaborates as a science popularizer with the television channel Focus. For Laterza, she is the author of Gli eroi bevono vino. The ancient world in a glass (2018), The Voice of the Sirens. The Greeks and the art of persuasion. (2020), Wonderful Stories of Young Greeks (2022) and Sparta (2024).

History Lessons will continue on Jan. 17 with Alexander March the Great, who will talk about Venice and the dawn of books: it is in fact on the lagoon that everything changes and that the book publisher begins to have that valuable role of cultural mediator preserved to this day. For the third event, scheduled for January 24, Alessandra Bucossi will address the theme. Constantinople, the new Rome, where the first city stands for the emblem of cosmopolitanism, unparalleled witness of those cultural transfers between East and West at the origin of the Byzantine world. Rome, city of the gods will instead be the focus of the Feb. 7 meeting with Maurizio Bettini: a still “pagan” Rome, creator of unprecedented religious suggestions mediated by the customs of the Italic peoples and the Greek tradition. Finally, on Feb. 14, the spotlight will be on. St. Petersburg and the avant-garde, with Paolo Nori who will go back with memory and words to the St. Petersburg of the October Revolution: a hotbed of novelty, an unrepeatable ferment that, in the mingling of the new socialist ideology and the artistic avant-gardes, will radiate throughout Europe.

All meetings will begin at 11 a.m. and will be introduced by journalist Max Pavan, Bergamo TV news director.
At the end of each meeting, the authors will stop with the audience for a signacopie at the Theater’s Ridotto Gavazzeni.