Venice and Aristotle (c. 1450-c. 1600): From Greek and Latin to the Vernacular

Exhibition in the Sala Sansoviniana, Sale Monumentali della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

Venice (21 April-19 May 2016)

The University of Warwick and the Marciana Library (http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it) are pleased to announce the exhibition Venice and Aristotle (c. 1450-c. 1600): From Greek and Latin to the Vernacular, to be held in the Sale Monumentali of the Marciana Library in Venice, from 21 April to 19 May 2016.

This exhibition, curated by Alessio Cotugno and David A. Lines (University of Warwick), highlights the role played by Venice in the Renaissance interpretation and dissemination of the works of Aristotle, who remained the most intensely studied philosopher of antiquity until at least 1700. Around thirty manuscripts and printed editions show how Venice's engagement with Aristotle expanded from Greek and Latin to Italian, which increasingly became a legitimate language for literary and philosophical studies in the sixteenth century. Greek and Latin manuscripts (some of them extremely old and belonging originally to the humanist, Greek émigré, and cardinal Bessarion, † 1472) and printed editions testify to Venice as a significant centre of learned scholarship on Aristotle and his commentators. But its position as one of the great capitals of the European printing industry made Venice the chief promoter of a lively cultural movement to make Aristotle’s works available to a broader public, which came to include women, princes, participants in Academies, and educated amateurs interested in literature, philosophy, and science.

Dates for your diary:

• Wednesday 20th April, at noon: press conference
• Thursday 21st April, at noon: inauguration ceremony of the exhibition
• Friday 6th May, 5:00 pm: book launch. Francesco Bruni (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) and Pietro B. Rossi (University of Turin) will present the exhibition’s catalogue and the recent volume ‘Aristotele fatto volgare’: Tradizione aristotelica e cultura volgare nel Rinascimento, ed. by David A. Lines and Eugenio Refini. Welcome address by Maurizio Messina (Director of the Marciana Library).

Click here to watch or download an introductory video (in Italian and in English) about the exhibition.

Click here for more information on the history of the Sale monumentali and a 360º overview of the space (in Italian).

To order a copy of the catalogue for your library, contact Marcianum Press.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n. 626495 (Marie Curie IEF 2013 “Sperone Speroni and his Legacy (1500-1588). Literature, Philosophy and the Vernacular”) and n. 335949 (ERC Starting Grant 2013 “Aristotle in the Italian Vernacular: Rethinking Renaissance and Early-Modern Intellectual History (c. 1400–c. 1650)”) and from the Warwick Impact Fund 2015-2016.

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

Co-Funded by the European Union