March 2018
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was notoriously fascinated with Italy and set several of his plays there. Some even claim he lived in Italy and was an Italian himself. Poet Mark O’Connor brings several of these strands together in a rare public address on this topic. Mark O’Connor is a very well known Australian poet, Shakespeare and English poetry scholar, and environmentalist.
Read MoreApril 2018
Literary historian Susannah Fullerton delighted us in August with a talk on why Italy has been such a magnet to writers over the centuries.
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A presentation by a delegation of the city of Foligno of a faithful replica of the first printed edition in 1472 of the Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri. On April 11th 1472, the city of Foligno (Umbria region) saw the first ever printed edition of Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia. The printing was carried out by the master printer Johann Numeister, a pupil of Gutenberg, with the collaboration of the Foligno minter Emiliano Orfini. Why exactly in Foligno? What kind of…
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No appreciation of Italian language and culture could be complete without an understanding of historic Rome and the ways of the ancient Romans. The extremely-rich archaeology of Rome provides extensive information on how the ancient Romans lived, governed, and made community decisions on their civic and private amenities. Richard Mann is a Sydney-based architect with extensive international experience. His practice at Ecosystem Architecture employs principles of design and building that have foundations in Roman times and beyond. Richard has studied…
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Dr. Alice Loda, a Lecturer in Italian Studies at the University of Technology Sydney, talked about immigrants' poetry in Italy. Traditionally a country of emigration, over the past four decades it also increasingly became one of destination and transit. Her talk described the progressive emerging of migrant voices in contemporary Italian literature, and explored their positioning within the relevant literary debate. It then presented and analysed a selection of works produced in Italian by authors born in non-Italophone countries, focusing…
Read MoreMay 2018
Vice-president Concetta Cirigliano Perna spoke about the wonderful city of Matera, 2019 European Capital of Culture, while actress Bianca Bonino read some excerpts from "Cristo si è fermato ad Eboli" and "L'uva Puttanella".
Read MoreNovember 2018
The Dante Alighieri Society Sydney end-of-the-year party 2018! Over 150 guests made this year's party a memorable one, thank you all!
Read MoreDecember 2018
Il Porcellino is the bronze statue that graces Macquarie Street at the entrance of the Old Sydney Hospital. The statue, surprisingly not known to many sydneysiders, was donated to the City of Sydney by the Marchioness Clarissa Fiaschi Torrigiani on 16 December 1968 in memory of her father, Dr. Tommaso Fiaschi. Dr. Fiaschi was an extraordinary gentleman who in 1896 founded the Dante Alighieri Society Sydney, but he is also and maybe better known as a surgeon who introduced sterilisation…
Read MoreAugust 2019
Dear members and friends of the Dante, we invite you to join us on this meaningful occasion! The Dante Alighieri Society Sydney will donate its precious copy of the Divina Commedia - The Divine Comedy - to the University of Sydney, which has organised a special event to celebrate this donation. On 15 August 2019, from 4 to 6:30 pm, come and meet us at the Fisher Library, where Prof. Nerida Newbigin and Dr. Francesco Borghesi will entertain us with…
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Dear friends and members of the Dante, we are pleased to announce that, on Thursday the 22nd of August, a special talk on Leonardo da Vinci will take place. Dr. Katharine Blake, a historian specialised in Renaissance studies, will sort fact from invented legend while trying to answer the question, how did he do so much in lifetime? As the world's most renown polymath, a conference on the genius of Leonardo da Vinci will surely entertain you on many levels.…
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