1 If we attribute the distinction between the Orient and the Occident to Herodotus, the father of Greek historiography (5th century b.C.), it is important to note that he identified the former as Asie and the latter as Eyrope, locating the border between these two “worlds” in the Hellespont, a strip of sea linking the Thracian Sea and the Mediterranean side of the Aegean. With the … Continue reading “From the Hellespont: The Mediterranean Experience of Limit” by Romano Gasparotti

1 Se la distinzione tra Oriente ed Occidente sorge con la nascita della storiografia greca ad opera di Erodoto (V sec. a.C.), quest’ultimo identificava il secondo ad Eyrope e il primo ad Asie e collocava il confine tra i due “mondi” nell’Ellesponto, quella lingua di mare che collega il Mar di Tracia con l’Egeo mediterraneo. Con l’eponimo Asie, Erodoto e i greci designavano, in particolare, … Continue reading “Dall’Ellesponto. L’esperienza mediterranea del senso del limite” di Romano Gasparotti

If in architecture and in the history of figurative arts, the relationship between Venice and the East is unambiguous, in music it is not so. Rather, it almost seems that the city sought to reaffirm its Western and “Flemish” character in contrast to the “other” music that rang out in the Mediterranean and beyond, along the Silk Roads: a comparable and deliberate deafness that calls … Continue reading “Venice gateway to the music of the East?” by Giovanni De Zorzi

Se nell’architettura e nella storia dell’arte figurativa i rapporti di Venezia con l’Oriente sono espliciti, in musica essi non lo sono affatto. Anzi, sembra quasi che la città abbia voluto ribadire tutta la sua natura occidentale e “fiamminga” in antitesi alle musiche “altre” che risuonavano nel bacino del Mediterraneo e più oltre, lungo le Vie della Seta: una simile e voluta sordità ricorda quel leone … Continue reading “Venezia porta dell’Oriente musicale?” di Giovanni De Zorzi

Notes on the architecture of Venice from its origins to the Renaissance “The Doge’s Palace in Venice contains three elements, in exactly equal proportions: Roman, Lombard, and Arabic. It is the central building of the world” John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, 1851-18531 In the ancient city of Hatra, in Arabic al – Hadr, a border town between the Eastern and Western worlds, stood a temple dedicated … Continue reading “The “eye” that looks to the East” by Alberto Giorgio Cassani

G.B. Donà’s volume Della Letteratura de’ Turchi (The Literature of the Turks, Venice 16881)is currently regarded as the first comprehensive study published in Europe about Turkish culture, science, and art. Across the centuries and the various stages of the fickle relationship between La Serenissima (the Republic of Venice) and the ‘despotic’ Ottomans, Turkish culture was either dismissed as lacking originality and significance, or utterly denied … Continue reading “The Reception of Turkish and Persian Culture in Venice” by Giampiero Bellingeri