Lecture by Prof. Rodney Lokaj, Università degli Studi di Enna “Kore”
19th Week of the Italian Language in the World: Italian Language on the Stage
On the occasion of the 19th Week of the Italian Language in the World, whose 2019 theme is the Italian Language on the Stage, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the Dante Alighieri Society are pleased to host a lecture by Prof. Rodney Lokaj, Associate Professor of Italian philology at Enna “Kore” (Sicily).
Prof. Rodney Lokaj will examine two very different aspects of the origins of Italian theatre from the points of view of setting, aims 
and language, the Canticle of the Creatures by Saint Francis of Assisi and the Contrasto, Rosa fresca aulentissima, by Cielo d’Alcamo. In such a way, between Umbrian asceticism, the sacred, and southern irreverent, playful verse, the profane, the talk will compare the contribution of central Italy towards the beginning of theatre with that of the Sicilian School under Frederick II in the first part of the 13th century. Thanks to the analysis that Lokaj intends to carry out on the two texts, the audience will appreciate not only how rich the cultural ferment was in Italy at the time, but also how polemical and poetic Francis was and how iconoclastic and irreverent the imperial court was regarding the cultural traditions north of the Alps, all for the greater learning and entertainment of their respective audiences.
Prof. Rodney Lokaj graduated in Italian Studies in Melbourne, and subsequently in Classical Latin Literature at Perugia, Italy, and received a doctorate in Medieval Latin Literature from Edinburgh. He taught Medieval Latin literature for some 15 years at Rome “La Sapienza” University and is currently Associate Professor of Italian Philology at Enna “Kore” University, 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 published 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.
The lecture will be in English.
Free entry. Limited seats.
Booking essential: www.eventbrite.com.au