Exactly 200 years ago, the first professorship of Italian was established at this university. It was assigned to Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart's brilliant and charismatic libretto writer. The Italian Academy looks back to 1825—in a talk by Barbara Faedda—and reaches back another five centuries—with leading Dante scholar Teodolinda Barolini—to consider the resonance of Dante's language.
In collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, as part of the Worldwide Week of the Italian Language.
Opening Remarks
Elena Aprile
Centennial Professor of Physics;
Director of the Italian Academy, Columbia University
Claudio Pagliara
Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York
Speakers
Teodolinda Barolini
Da Ponte Professor of Italian, Italian Department, Columbia University
Dante's Linguistic Journey: How it Came to Be that Language is a Human Invention
Barbara Faedda
Executive Director of the Italian Academy;
Adjunct Professor, Italian Department, Columbia University
Lorenzo Da Ponte's Legacy: The Early Years of Italian Culture at Columbia
Special exhibition! Handwritten poems and letters by Da Ponte, and books from his library (courtesy of Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Click here to register.
Check-in for registrants begins 30 minutes before the event.
This event is in-person only.
The organizers do not intend to make a video recording for publication.