CULTURAL CAPITALS

Over the centuries, some cities have become bearers of cultural demands containing elements of novelty that would prove fundamental for the future. Thus, Athens is inextricably linked to the birth of democracy and the highest political management of public affairs; a still “pagan” Rome would create new religious inspirations mediated by the customs of Italic peoples and Greek tradition. Constantinople would become the emblem of cosmopolitanism, an unparalleled witness to those cultural transfers between East and West at the origin of the Byzantine world. Centuries later, Venice would lead the way in intellectual development: it is indeed in the lagoon that everything changes and the publisher begins to have that precious role of cultural mediator preserved to this day. Saint Petersburg of the October Revolution, finally, is in turn a forge of novelty, an unrepeatable ferment that, in the mixture between the new socialist ideology and artistic avant-gardes, would soon radiate throughout Europe.