The Italian Embassy in Manama has announced that today, at 10:30 Italian time, an online lecture will be held on the figure of Beatrice, a symbol of spiritual love and poetic inspiration described by Dante, by Leyla Livraghi, a collaborator of the Dante Network Hypermedia Project of the Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics of the University of Pisa, within the framework of the activities programme of the Grazia Deledda Italian Cultural Centre at the Royal University for Women in Bahrain.
Beatrice is the ideal theme for introducing Dante’s work and poetry to the audience. This female figure is not only the object of the Supreme Poet’s spiritual love but also the very symbol of Dante’s poetic inspiration in two of his major works: the “Vita nova“, which he wrote in his youth, and, of course, his masterpiece the “Divine Comedy”. Beatrice will be introduced as a historical character in late-medieval Florence, where Dante himself lived and worked.
She will also be analysed as a literary character in the two works mentioned above, with readings and comments on two of the most beautiful poetic passages Dante dedicated to her: the sonnet “Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare” (My lady looks so gentle and so pure) and the return of Beatrice in Purgatory XXXI, 19-39. The lecture will end with an overview of the fascination in the history of art with the figure of Beatrice, specifically with the 19th century artistic movement known as the “Pre-Raphaelites”.
The lecture (11:30 Bahrain Time; 10:30 in Italy) can be followed online via Zoom at the link: https://ruw-edu-bh.zoom.us/j/95655935679.
Meeting ID: 956 5593 5679
