We are delighted to welcome Prof. Em. Lina Bolzoni of Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa to give this year’s L’Orange Lecture.

Time and Place: Oct. 10, 2023, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, The Norwegian Institute in Rome.

As an internationally celebrated expert on Italian Renaissance literature and culture, Lina Bolzoni will lecture on the art of reading, presenting the famous late fifteenth-century studiolo or reading-room of the Ducal Palace at Urbino as an eloquent and informative case.

The lecture begins with Marcel Proust’s beautiful definition of reading: “this wonderful miracle of reading which is communication in the heart of solitude” and goes back to the Renaissance, to the idea of reading as an encounter with the author.  Since these authors often belong to the past, our theme may be usefully renamed ‘reading as a dialogue with the dead’, a form of lay resurrection or a necromantic rite, to use an image dear to Thomas Greene. The Studiolo of Federico da Montefeltro in Urbino makes a powerful case for the ways in which books and portraits can interact in the silent dialogue with the viewer and reader.

The lecture will be given in English. DNIR’s Honorary Fellow, Dr. Clara Stella, will introduce Prof. Bolzoni.

The event is open to everyone.

To participate in person, please register before 21 October at 12 hrs   to events@roma.uio.no
To participate by zoom: https://uio.zoom.us/j/65099684474

For more information please follow the link: https://www.hf.uio.no/dnir/english/research/news-and-events/events/2024/the-2024-l-orange-lecture-the-magic-of-reading-and.html