2011 Programme
Evento n.39
Alessandro Barbero
How did Middle Ages men think? The knight
Jean de Joinville was a French knight and a gentleman, not only a vassal of King Louis IX, but one of his friends. He never needed to conceal what he thought, for a man of such a lineage was afraid of no-one. When he left on a crusade he admitted that he did not feel like it, and as he rode away he kept turning around to see his castle, where he had left his young bride. His honor demanded that he leave—and honor was all-important. Jean loved his King, but the idea that he was a saint seemed funny to him. When the whole expedition fell into Saracen hands, one of its members suggested that instead of surrendering they should accept to be martyred: ‘But we,’ Jean de Joinville candidly said, ‘did not listen.’ Through his work Vita di San Luigi we discover that the Middle Ages of the chivalry were a time of far greater disenchantment than the chansons de geste would have us believe.
Alessandro Barbero is a historian and a writer and a tenured professor of Medieval History at Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale e Vercelli. He writes for La Stampa and Tuttolibri. He is a contributor on the television program Superquark and the shows Il tempo e la storia and a.C.d.C., broadcast by Rai Storia. His publications include: Benedette guerre. Crociate e jihad («i Libri del Festival della Mente», 2009), Lepanto. La battaglia dei tre imperi («i Libri del Festival della Mente», 2010), Donne, madonne, mercanti e cavalieri. Sei storie medievali («i Libri del Festival della Mente», 2013), published by Laterza; Gli occhi di Venezia (Mondadori, 2011); Il divano di Istanbul (Sellerio, 2011); Dietro le quinte della Storia. La vita quotidiana attraverso il tempo, written with P. Angela (Rizzoli, 2012); Le Ateniesi (Mondadori, 2015); Costantino il vincitore (Salerno Editrice, 2016); Le parole del papa (2016) and Caporetto (2017), published by Laterza. Il divano di Istanbul (2011), Alabama (2021) and Poeta al comando (2022) and Brick for stone (2023), published by Sellerio.
Evento n.6
Zygmunt Bauman
Reflections on the notions of community and network, on social networks and Facebook
Evento n.14
Gian Carlo Calza
Different, eccentric, extraordinary: aesthetics and creativity between Asia and the West
Evento n.26
Franco Borgogno
In other people’s hearts and minds. A psychoanalyst between tradition and creativity
Evento n.37
Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni
A quiet sunny day. Attilio Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini, a friendship in verse
