Saggi – Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Beethoven’s Sonatas Op. 31: Creative Process, Formal Structures and Performance

The Institute for Music continues its online publishing activities on the Open Monograph Press platform of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Beethoven’s Sonatas Op. 31: Creative Process, Formal Structures and Performance

The three piano sonatas Opus 31, which even at the time of their publication and first performances were described as works of “great style”, reveal significant deviations from the formal models that Beethoven himself had helped to consolidate. Carl Czerny regarded them as key evidence of the “new way” that the composer had indicated as necessary for his artistic evolution. The fact that they were composed at the same time as the Third Symphony (Eroica) and the Heiligenstadt Testament further underlines their significance. The peculiar structure of the themes and the ambiguity of the formal functions, which emerge most clearly in the second sonata (The Tempest), reveal a propensity for experimentation that has posed almost insurmountable challenges to generations of performers and theorists. This book is the final outcome of a project that began in 2021 with a workshop where studies by musicologists came to grips with issues of performance practices on both the fortepiano and modern piano. As well as an interview with Andreas Staier, the pianist who coordinated the practical sessions of the workshop, there are essays by Gianmario Borio (on the history of the analyses of these sonatas), Hans Joachim Hinrichsen (on styles of interpretation), Janet Schmalfeldt (on compositional technique) and Martina Sichardt (on the sources of the genesis).

«Illustre Signora Duse». Cento voci dall’archivio dell’attrice

One hundred years after the death of Eleonora Duse (Vigevano, 1858 – Pittsburgh 1924), this volume offers a previously unpublished selection of the many letters preserved in the actress’s archive held at the Giorgio Cini Foundation’s Institute for Theatre and Opera. It includes one hundred of the many voices that had artistic and friendly relations with her, including actresses and actors, intellectuals and men of letters.
From the letters to Duse emerge memories of encounters, exchanges of opinions, shared projects and creative visions. A plurality of voices, often far removed from each other, surprisingly agree in recognising the exceptional nature of the figure of Eleonora Duse, of her vision, of her theatre.

A revolutionary and passionate artist, Eleonora was the most famous Italian actress of our recent past. A successful actress and leading lady, she left an indelible mark on the Italian and European culture of her time. Many pages were written about her, and some of the most significant testimonies are collected in this book: the poet Ada Negri describes her as ‘the most sublime female figure of our time’, Piero Gobetti speaks of her as ‘a religious spirit’ and the Florentine writer Fernando Agnoletti compares those who did not have the good fortune to hear her at the theatre ‘to those who have not read the Odyssey in poetry’.

La “splendida” Venezia di Francesco Morosini 1619-1694: cerimoniali, arti, cultura

Edited by Matteo Casini, Simone Guerriero and Vincenzo Mancini

Fondazione Giorgio Cini / Marsilio, Venice 2022

This book brings together the proceedings of the international conference on Francesco Morosini, known as the Peloponnesian (1619-1694), organ- ised by the Institute of Art History as part of the events promoted by the Committee for the Celebrations of the 400th Anniversary of the Birth of Francesco Morosini and held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. An admiral, diplomat and then doge, Morosini was the last of the illustrious patricians who made the Serenissima Republic great. He restored some of its former political influence on the international stage and revived the Venetians’ dream of possessing a maritime empire.

The book presents the results of the individual papers, arranged ac- cording to the thematic lines addressed during the two days in Venice. Among the topics examined and illustrated by speakers selected from

Lettere artistiche del Settecento veneziano – 6 Anton Maria Zanetti di Girolamo: il carteggio

Edited by Marina Magrini

Verona, Scripta, 2021

The sixth volume in the series “Artistic Letters of 18th-century Venice”, is a book on the correspondence of Anton Maria Zanetti di Girolamo “the Elder”. It has been published after the death of the editor Marina Magrini, who had followed the development of the series, adding, with this volume, a very important work to the large multi-year project promoted by the Fondazione Cini Institute of Art History.

This volume is arguably the most eagerly awaited publication in the series, due to the fascinating character of Zanetti, a refined connoisseur and skilful antiquarian and “amateur” artist in contact with the 18th-century European cultural elite. Until only a few years ago he was confused with his cousin of the same name, Anton Maria Zanetti “the Younger”, son of Alessandro, and an equally remarkable artist.

We owe the rediscovery of Zanetti the Elder to Alessandro Bettagno, to whose memory this volume is dedicated. Zanetti was also remarkable for the breadth of his cultural interests, condensed in the rich correspondence of 337 letters (accompanied by over a thousand critical notes). The correspondence is preceded by introductory essays from a large group

of scholars, who provide a picture of Zanetti’s microcosm from several significant angles, highlighting his relations with his Italian and European correspondents and the various aspects of his intellectual biography.

The result is a vivid portrait of a complex man, at times shy and contradictory, but with superb taste, at the centre of a network of international relations. He can thus be approached as a key to understanding 18th-century art history and collecting.

A Book of the Body Politic

A Book of the Body Politic.
Connecting Biology, Politics and Social Theory
Edited by Bruno Latour, Simon Schaffer, Pasquale Gagliardi
San Giorgio Dialogue 2017

“Do you remember the Aesopian Fable of the Belly and the Members, or the letter of Paul to the Corinthians about the Body and the Church, or The Fable of the Bees by Mandeville, or the somewhat dangerous association of pests and foreigners, or the more recent attempts to think of the Earth as a giant organism? None of these stories stops shifting metaphors between one domain—that of the body—and another—that of politics. The result has been the creation of that most important concept of Western philosophy, corpus politicum, the Body Politic. One interesting aspect of this most famous topic is that every domain borrows from each other the certainty associated with the other’s authority, so that political science ends up borrowing from biology what biologists borrow from political theory.

This constant commerce of concepts and metaphors, unfortunately, has never guaranteed the quality of what has been ceaselessly transported from one domain to another. The result is that we remain deprived of a coherent definition of collective bodies. Hence the idea of attempting to re-open the question in a Dialogue of San Giorgio by bringing the different domains together and examine what each has really to offer to the others that is genuinely proper to the phenomena it studies.

This book is the outcome of three days of intense confrontation among experts of various disciplines (biology, philosophy, ecology, social theory, anthropology, history of science, political science) aimed at finding a new body’s description for the Body Politic.”

Download the volume BODY POLITICS

Aesthetics of Universal Knowledge

Aesthetics of Universal Knowledge

Edited by: Simon Schaffer, John Tresch, Pasquale Gagliardi

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Born out of a major international dialogue held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy, this collection of essays presents innovative and provocative arguments about the claims of universal knowledge schemes and the different aesthetic and material forms in which such claims have been made and executed. Contributors take a close look at everything from religious pilgrimages, museums, and maps of the world, to search engines and automated GPS.
Current obsessions in information technology, communications theory, and digital culture often concern the value and possibility of a grand accumulation of universally accessible forms of knowledge: total libraries, open data bases, ubiquitous computing, and ‘smart’ technologies. These obsessions have important social and philosophical origins, and they raise profound questions about the very nature of knowledge and its organization. This volume’s contributors draw on the histories of maps and of encyclopedias, worldviews and visionary collections, to make sense of the crucial relation between the way the world is known and how it might be displayed and transformed.

It is possible to buy the book online on the publisher’s website

Arte Veneta

Founded in 1947 under the presidency of Giuseppe Fiocco and the scientific direction of Rodolfo Pallucchini, Arte Veneta stands out as one of the most significant specialist journals in the field of Art History. Published by Electa, Arte Veneta serves as a key reference for historical-artistic studies, contributing to research and the dissemination of knowledge in this area.

The journal is directed by Luca Massimo Barbero and coordinated by the Institute of Art History. It is recognised by ANVUR as a Class A scientific journal for Ancient History, Philological-Literary, and Historical-Artistic Studies.
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Arte Veneta 30 (1976)
Arte Veneta 31 (1977)
Arte Veneta 32 (1978)
Arte Veneta 33 (1979)

Arte Veneta 34 (1980)
Arte Veneta 35 (1981)
Arte Veneta 36 (1982)
Arte Veneta 37 (1983)
Arte Veneta 38 (1984)
Arte Veneta 39 (1985)
Arte Veneta 40 (1986)
Arte Veneta 41 (1987)
Arte Veneta 42 (1988)

Arte Veneta 43 (1990)
Arte Veneta 44 (1993)
Arte Veneta 45 (1993)
Arte Veneta 46 (1994)
Arte Veneta 47 (1995)
Arte Veneta 48 (1995)
Arte Veneta 49 (1996)
Arte Veneta 50 (1997)
Arte Veneta 51 (1997)
Arte Veneta 52 (1998)
Arte Veneta 53 (1998)
Arte Veneta 54 (1999)
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Arte Veneta 56 (2000)
Arte Veneta 57 (2003)
Arte Veneta 58 (2003)
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Arte Veneta 60 (2004)
Arte Veneta 61 (2004)
Arte Veneta 62 (2005)
Arte Veneta 63 (2006)
Arte Veneta 64 (2007)
Arte Veneta 65 (2008)
Arte Veneta 66 (2009)

Arte Veneta 67 (2010)
Arte Veneta 68 (2011)
Bibliografia dell’Arte Veneta (2011)
Arte Veneta 69 (2012)
Bibliografia dell’arte veneta (2012)
Arte Veneta 70 (2013)
Arte Veneta 71 (2014)
Arte Veneta 72 (2015)
Arte Veneta 73 (2016)
Arte Veneta 74 (2016)
Arte Veneta 75 (2018)
Arte Veneta 76 (2019)

Arte Veneta 77 (2020)
Arte Veneta 78 (2021)
Arte Veneta 79 (2022)
Arte Veneta 80 (2023)
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Studi in onore di Stefano Tumidei

Studi in onore di Stefano Tumidei

Edited by Andrea Bacchi and Luca Massimo Barbero

Fondazione Giorgio Cini/Fondazione Federico Zeri, 2016

Five years on from the publication of a significant part of the writings of Stefano Tumidei (Forli, 1962 – Bologna, 2008) in his book on painting in Emilia-Romagna (Studi sulla pittura in Emilia e in Romagna. Da Melozzo a Federico Zuccari), the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and the Fondazione Federico Zeri, Bologna, invited the scholar’s colleagues and students to continue an uninterrupted conversation with a friend who had died prematurely.

Fifty-four writers thus provided original essays and unpublished studies for the production of this book. Many of them explored specific issues, starting from Tumidei’s studies or exchanges with him, always open-minded and full of suggestions. The result is a raft of topics that range from Giotto to Capogrossi, from painting and sculpture to engravings, drawings and photography. The many, disparate subjects reflect the range of interests and enquiries that characterised Stefano Tumidei’s career. In all these diverse research fields, he distinguished himself and became a major reference point.

Protecting Nature, Saving Creation

Protecting Nature, Saving Creation

Edited by Pasquale Gagliardi, Anne Marie Reijnen and Philipp Valentini

Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2013

This book is drawn out of a “Dialogue”, held in Venice at the Fondazione Cini in September 2010, aimed at exploring the relationship between ecology and theology. The meeting involved experts from different disciplines (theologians, anthropologists, ecologists, economists, philosophers and historians), sharing the awareness that the gamut of passions mobilised by ecology so far has not reached the level or intensity required for the huge task facing humanity today concerning the fate of the Earth. Can religions help us tackle the ecological crisis we are now facing? Can we redefine our relationship with the Earth, giving spiritual depth to ecological issues? How to mobilise the notions, cosmologies and rituals characterising some religious traditions without overlooking the conflicts underlying the ecological debate and the essential role of politics?

Giovanni Gabrieli

Giovanni Gabrieli

L’Epos, Palermo,2012

At the height of the Venetian musical tradition begun by Adriano Willaert, Giovanni Gabrieli (1554/56-1612) and Claudio Monteverdi were among the leading Italian and European composers in the late 16 th century. Gabrieli composed sacred music for large multiple choirs, mainly for civic and religious ceremonies in the Basilica of San Marco. He was also the initiator of a repertory of ensemble instrumental music whose complexity and standards were equal to the best sacred and secular vocal music of the time. By consulting fresh documentary sources and carefully re-contextualising the musical sources, this book offers a new image of the composer, more closely reflecting the highly varied Venetian musical life at the time. It also provides Greater insight into Gabrieli’s leading role, albeit within the St Mark’s multiple choir tradition, in the rise of a new concertato style and all those technical and expressive models typical of the new music in the 17th-century.