A talk presented by Prof. Rodney Lokaj, Associate Professor of Italian Philology, Università degli Studi di Enna, “Kore” (Sicily, Italy).
Prof Lokaj will be looking at the position of absolute privilege Dante affords certain female figures in the Divine Comedy. It will be based on Paradiso III, a canto featuring Piccarda, a noblewoman of Florence, but with direct references to both Francesca, an adulteress condemned to Hell yet teaching us still today about Love, and Clare of Assisi, who played a vital role at Francis’ side.
In English
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Rodney Lokaj graduated in Italian studies in Melbourne, Australia, in classical Latin literature at Perugia, Italy, and received a doctorate in medieval Latin literature from Edinburgh. He taught medieval Latin literature for some fifteen years at Rome “La Sapienza” and is now associate professor of Italian philology at Enna “Kore”, Sicily. As a philologist, he primarily works with medieval Latin manuscripts transmitting the wealth of his first-hand knowledge through his many books and articles appearing in leading journals throughout the world. He has mainly dealt with the Franciscan tradition, Dante and Petrarch, but has more recently turned his attentions to the early modern age, namely Castiglione, author of The Book of the Courtier, Mantuan Humanism, and the birth of Italian academies. Often commissioned by the Vatican Library to work on and publish newly-discovered manuscripts, the Italian Ministry of Cultural Affairs too has recently employed his services now appointing him director of the Dante Fragment Project following the discovery of excerpts of the Divine Comedy after the 2016 earthquake in central Italy. Lokaj sits, furthermore, on the board of many international journals, not to mention the executive council of the American Association of Neo-Latin Studies, is a member of many learned societies and academies, and has been honoured by being invited to enter not only the Deputazione di Storia Patria per l’Umbria but also the Italian Dante Society in Florence.
Free event. RSVP essential: E iicmelbourne@esteri.it; T 9866 5931
Light refreshments will be served with Regional wine and specialities from Umbria Region.
- Event organized by the “Associazione Umbria ed Amici del Victoria” in collaboration with the IIC Melbourne as part of the cultural project funded by Regione Umbria.
Reservation no longer available