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italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies

CALL FOR PAPERS
L’amore, le armi, le stelle. Basinio da Parma and the Humanists at
Sigismondo Malatesta’s Court



By the middle of the fifteenth century Rimini had become a major center of
Italian humanism. The cultural patronage of the famous *condottiere*
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417–1468), attracted numerous artists,
writers, and scholars, who came to the city and created works for which
Rimini is still widely known today. In spite of recently intensified
research on this topic, various questions about the philosophical, literary
and artistic output of this circle remain open. In particular, the
historiography of Rimini itself leaves considerable room for new
exploration, and this despite recent work on the architecture and pictural
arts of the *quattrocento *city. In the philosophical and literary sphere,
for example, the Aristotelian-Platonic milieu around Sigismondo has not yet
received in depth study, and Valturio’s imaginative tract *De Re Militari*
still awaits a modern edition or commentary.

One of the authors who has received attention, and whose profile underlines
the importance of the Renaissance in Rimini is the poet Basinio da Parma.
Basinio was a prolific author in many literary genres: His mythological
poem *Meleagris* provides a modernised version of the Calydonian
pigsticking; his didactic poem *Astronomica* studies the stars and the
zodiac; while the *Liber Isottaeus* is an epistolary novel in elegiac
couplets about the love between Sigismondo and Isotta degli Atti.

An ongoing project at the *Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Neo-Latin Studies*
in Innsbruck (Austria), funded by the *Austrian Science Fund* (FWF), is
currently working towards a digital edition of his epic poem *Hesperis, *along
with with a commentary and English translation. This poem was Basinio’s
masterpiece and can only be understood against the wider backdrop of
humanism in fifteenth century Northern Italy, and Rimini in particular. Not
only do considerable historical and biographical details appear in the
poem, the piece also reflects and discusses the most important cultural and
literary debates of its time: philosophy, philology and education, art
history and architecture etc.

The conference *L’amore, le armi, le stelle *intends to contextualize
Basinio’s works and those of other humanists and artists within a broader
framework. We invite interested speakers to propose conference papers of
approx. 30 minutes with a focus on one of the following suggested (by no
means exclusive) topics:

   - The historiography of the Malatestian court and its interaction with
   contemporary cultural dynamics, more specifically with Basinio;
   - The literary culture of Rimini: inter- and intratextuality in
   Basinio’s *oeuvre*, its narrative strategies and links with the
   vernacular tradition;
   - The sculptural and pictorial arts, architecture of the Renaissance
   city, and manuscript illuminations within the wider context of northern
   Italian *scriptoria*;
   - Philosophical trends in Rimini and northern Italy;
   - Greek influences and the reflection of knowledge of this language,
   especially in Basinio’s *Hesperis*;
   - Intermediality in Basinio’s *Hesperis* as a reflection of Rimini’s
   artistic and architectural culture;
   - The reception of Basinio in his time and later periods.

Proposals (max. 250 words) are welcome before *4th November 2019*

Rimini (Museo della Città, Sala del Giudizio and Palazzo Buonadrata)

*Date*: 14–16 May 2020
*Languages*: English, Italian

 For any questions contact:

   - Anna Chisena: [log in to unmask]
   - Simon Smets: [log in to unmask]
   - Florian Schaffenrath: [log in to unmask]

______
Anna G. Chisena, Ph.D,

L. Boltzmann Institute,
Langer Weg 11
6020 Innsbruck
Austria
https://neolatin.lbg.ac.at/research/basinio-da-parma-hesperis

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