In the context of the rich program of activities planned this year by the Italian Embassy and the Italian Institute of Culture for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo, we are pleased to announce the “Leonardo da Vinci Week”, which will be held from April 15th to April 19th in Beijing and Tianjin. The events are co-organized by the Italian Institute of Culture of the Italian Embassy in cooperation with the Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. In addition, Tianjin University and Casa Italia co-organize the events in Tianjin.
Leonardo: innovator and symbol of scientific and technological renaissance
Five hundred years after his death, Leonardo Da Vinci is still the representative of the ideal of talent, and therefore the common wealth of world culture. He wanted to know everything. He was an artist, an engineer and a scientist, who left behind a rich legacy of manuscripts not limited to hundreds of pages. Leonardo is also a famous representative of a special historical period, which witnessed not only the revival of architecture and art, but also the regeneration of science and technology. In that extraordinary period, a generation of innovators left atrack of development, which can greatly help us imagine and dream about the future.
Words of an “omo sanza lettere”: A study of Leonardo da Vinci’s manuscripts from a literary perspective
As a representative figure of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) had left to later generations not only immortal masterpieces of art, but also numerous manuscripts presenting his extraordinary accomplishments in painting, architecture, military, engineering, music, mathematics and astronomy, etc. Meanwhile, these manuscripts had also faithfully recorded the life experience and the thoughts of this “universal genius” representing the High Renaissance. From a literary perspective, we can probe into Da Vinci’s inner world as an “author” by analyzing the text of his manuscripts, and to explore the humanistic values behind his art and scientific explorations.
Relatore: Plinio Innocenzi
Plinio Innocenzi is full professor of Materials Science at the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy of the University of Sassari and director of the Laboratory of Materials Science and Nano technology (LMNT). He has studied Physics at the University of Padova and spent his post-doc time as foreign associate researcher from 1992 to 1996 at Kyoto University in Japan. From 1998 to 2000 has joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Padova as researcher.
He has been visiting professor at the University of Paris VI, Osaka Prefecture University, Kyoto University and Beijing University of Chemical Technology, he is Honorary professor at the Normal University of Luoyang and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
He has served as Science and Technology Councilor at the Embassy of Italy to the People Republic of China from 2010 to 2018.
He has devoted great attention to science popularization publishing several books and organizing events and conferences for the general public. In 2018 has published The Innovators behind Leonardo (Springer) to illustrate the scientific and technological Renaissance and in 2019 the Secrets of Leonardo’s women (Hunan Publishing). He is collaborating as consultant for the realization of documentaries on Leonardo da Vinci.
Co-speaker: Prof. Li Jingjing
Associate Professor of Italian Language, European College of Languageand Culture, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Doctor of Italian Language and Literature, and Doctor of Italian Studies, Oriental University, Naples, Italy.
Her main research directions include Italian literature and Italian Renaissance. Some of her pubblications: “La Bustina di Minerva (Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2009) and “Leonardo” (Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, 2015, which won the second prize in the translation category of the third Chinese Non-Common Language Outstanding Achievement Award in March 2016, the translator award of the “Premi Nazionali per la Traduzione” of Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities in 2018, and “Costruire il nemico (Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2016). “De Voluptate” (People’s Publishing House, 2017, supported by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in literary translation and publication in 2017), and “Pape Satàn Aleppe: Cronache di una società liquida” (Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2019) . She has published more than 10 papers in academic journals at home and abroad.
Among the numerous awards received the Translator Award of the 2018 National Translation Award of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities in 2019.