Teglio, Palazzo Besta
11 August – 16 September 2018
“The desire for a special book concerning the sources of Orlando Furioso was born, I believe, first of all in the mind of Giosuè Carducci.
It was he, in the name of the Committee preparing the celebration of Ariosto’s Centenary, who invited me to write it”
Pio Rajna (Sondrio 1847 – Florence 1930) is considered one of the fathers of Romance philology in Italy. Exponent of positivism and of the historical method, the work that made him famous by the time he was thirty is his masterly research “The Sources of Orlando Furioso”, commissioned by Giosuè Carducci, and published in 1876, followed by a new expanded edition in 1900, which remains an essential reference for studies on chivalric literature.
A lucid witness to the history of Italy, from its Unification to the early decades of the 1900s, he was a member of various illustrious institutions, including the Accademia dei Lincei, the Accademia della Crusca and the CAI. The first president of the Valtellinese Historical Society, he was involved in founding the civic library of Sondrio, his home town, to which he donated all his books, amounting to 6,200 volumes and 11,700 pamphlets.
With this exhibition, the National Committee for the fifth centenary of the first edition of Orlando Furioso wished to honour the scholar to whom Ariosto studies owe so much. The episodes of the poem frescoed in the Hall of Honour at Palazzo Besta in Teglio, with the frescoes of the Aeneid and Metamorphoses, the quotations from the verses of Virgil and Ovid, are all ideal examples of Pio Rajna’s innovative researches.
Duration: 11 August – 16 September 2018
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10 am-1pm / 2-5pm | Sunday 8-14
Info – Palazzo Besta +39 0342 781208 – Consorzio Teglio Turismo +39 0342 782000 associazionebradamante.blogspot.it
Initiatives and Events:
Pio Rajna and the Sources of Orlando Furious
Orlando Furioso. The Knight and Angelica
Labyrinth of Love
Messer Ludovico Ariosto QUASI Furious (2)
Messer Ludovico Ariosto QUASI Furioso
The”furious” Ariosto
Useful links:
Pio Rajna and le Fonti dell’Orando furioso – Furioso 2016 – www.furioso16.it
http://associazionebradamante.blogspot.com/2018/08/pio-rajna-e-le-fonti-dellorlando.html