To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first Italian diplomatic mission in Iran, the album “Iran during the Qajar Dynasty from the perspective of Montabone the Italian Photographer” was presented at the Italian School in Tehran. The event took place on 29 February 2012. Speakers at the event described the 1862 mission to Tehran, which included a meeting with Shah Qajar Nasserroddin, by a delegation acting on behalf of Bettino Ricasoli and headed by Marcello Cerruti. They underscored the fruitful relationship between the two countries and the importance of Italy’s contribution to Iran’s development in the political, economic and cultural fields.
The event was preceded, on 15 February, by a similar evening dedicated to Marco Polo and organised in collaboration with the “Bukhara” literary review. The book “’L’impresa di Marco Polo. Cartografia, viaggi, percezione”, edited by Cosimo Palagiano, Cristiano Pesaresi and Miriam Marta, is to be translated into Persian as part of the celebrations of the 750th anniversary of the Venetian explorer’s birth.
Lastly, Giovanni M. D’Erme, who recently passed away, was commemorated on 5 March 2012. D’Erme was a renowned Iranian studies scholar and lecturer at the Istituto Universitario Orientale.
