You are warmly invited to a season of public events, entitled Discovering Dante, organised by the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies in the Department of Italian at the University of Leeds. The programme appears below. Please do not hesitate to be in touch if you need any further information.

Full details of the programme of the LCDS for 2009-10 are available at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/italian/cdsprogramme.htm. In addition to these public events, this year our programme includes:

· an international conference on "Dante in France", to be held at Leeds on 25-26 March 2010 (co-organised with Prof. Russell Goulbourne of the Department of French at the University of Leeds);

· a British Academy Visiting Fellowship from Dr Tamara Pollack (DePauw University), who will work on a project on “Dante and the Beatific Vision” (September-December 2009);

· a continuing programme of work with undergraduates, including national study days on Dante and Politics, held in Leeds and at University College Cork .

For more information on the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies, see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/italian/centrefordantestudies.htm.

Best wishes,

Claire Honess
Matthew Treherne

Discovering Dante: An Evening of Music, Poetry and Art
7.30 p.m., Wednesday 7^th October 2009; bar open from 6.30 p.m.
The Howard Assembly Room, Leeds Grand Theatre
In the magnificent surroundings of the recently restored Howard Assembly Room at Leeds Grand Theatre, the Comedy is brought to life in this evening of music, art and poetry.
Short readings from the poem (with surtitled translations) reveal the power and drama of Dante’s Italian, while lavish projected illustrations show how the poem has inspired artists from Botticelli to Dalì. Bringing a musical dimension to our experience of the poem, members of Leeds Cathedral Choir will perform settings of the hymns and prayers described in Dante’s poem.
Tickets cost £4 (£3 concessions), and will be available shortly from the Leeds Grand Theatre (0844 848 2706). If you would like us to let you know when these tickets are available, please do so by sending a reply to Matthew Treherne ([log in to unmask]) (and not to the whole mailing list). For directions to the theatre, please visit http://www.leedsgrandtheatre.com/your_visit_unid51fd_page.aspx.

Public lectures: Art and Literature in Dante's Tuscany
This series of public lectures offers an accessible introduction to aspects of Tuscan art and literature in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century. Illustrated with images and music, and requiring no knowledge of Italian, the lectures explore Dante’s Divine Comedy, and the art of Duccio di Buoninsegna and of Giotto di Bondone. A map of the University campus showing the venue is a http://www.leeds.ac.uk/timetable/assets/map/confaud.htm. The lectures will be given by Claire Honess and Matthew Treherne.

Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Public Lecture (i): Introduction to Dante
Conference Auditorium, University of Leeds
6-7 p.m.

Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Public Lecture (ii): Duccio and the Flowering of Sienese Art
Conference Auditorium, University of Leeds
6-7 p.m.

Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Public Lecture (iii): Giotto di Bondone and Florentine Narrative Painting
Conference Auditorium, University of Leeds
6-7 p.m.

Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Public Lecture (iv): Dante and the Vision of Paradise
Conference Auditorium, University of Leeds
6-7 p.m.

Discovering Dante: Translating, Editing and Illustrating the Divine Comedy from the Renaissance to Today
Display of works in the Special Collections of the Brotherton Library
12 October-20 November, 2009
The Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds includes a rich collection of editions of Dante’s Divine Comedy dating back to 1481. This display shows some of the many ways in which Dante’s vivid imagination has been presented in print since the Renaissance.

Public Workshop: Translations, Editions and Illustrations of the Divine Comedy from the Renaissance to Today
A Public Workshop; Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
Saturday, 21 November 2009, 10.30 am-12 pm
This workshop provides the opportunity to examine closely examples of the editions, illustrations and translations of Dante held in the Brotherton Library. The workshop will be led by Prof. Brian Richardson. Numbers are limited; please register for this event by contacting Matthew Treherne ([log in to unmask]; 0113 3437846).

This season of events is supported by a University of Leeds Faculty of Arts Enterprise Knowledge Transfer Grant. The use of the Howard Assembly Room for the event on 7 October is made possible through the DARE collaboration between the University of Leeds and Opera North (http://www.dareyou.org.uk/).

Those attending this season of public events might also be interested in the following event, organised by the School of English in association with the Diocese of Wakefield:

Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Goldsmith Lecture, 2009
A.N. Wilson: Dante in Love
Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre, University of Leeds
5.15 p.m.
For more details, please contact Francis O'Gorman ([log in to unmask])

Matthew Treherne

Lecturer in Italian

Acting SMLC Director of Learning and Teaching; Co-Director of the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies

Department of Italian, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 113 343 7846; Fax: +44 (0) 113 343 3634

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/italian

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/italian/centrefordantestudies.htm

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/italian/analysingpaintings.htm