Professor Annibale Mottana is a Fellow of the Lincean Academy in Rome and is an authority among the scientists in petrology and spectroscopy. He investigated precious stones in all of Dante’s works (they are mentioned 50 times and 10 times in the Divine Comedy).
The aim of his paper is to illustrate the significance for Dante of each individual precious stone: each of them has a literal (or material) significance and an allegorical dimension which can be different but does not go against the dogma of the Thomist philosophy made official by the Church. Since then science, mineralogy in particular, developed in the course of the centuries. The terminology used by Dante to name those gems does not correspond, or only partly, to their meaning attributed today: gemmology, as per all natural sciences, has progressed enormously in the course of the eight centuries that separate us from the Commedia and Dante’s terminology is not the one we use today.
The talk will be in English.
The event is free, but ticketed. Please register below.
