The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University

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Annual Report 2006–2007 it la cdm o ad for academy alian

italian academy for advanced studies in america

1161 Amsterdam Avenue v New York, NY 10027 americ in studies anced tel: (212) 854-2306 fax: (212) 854-8479 e-mail: [email protected] www.italianacademy.columbia.edu a nulRepor Annual t 2006–2007 The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University

Annual Report 2006–2007

new york 2007

Contents

Board of Guarantors 9

Senior Fellows 11

Staff 12

Director’s Report 13

Fellows’ Reports 23

Winners of the Premio New York 81

Description of Programs 91 fellowship program premio new york

Activities of the Academy 95 fellows’ seminar s film series concert s e r i e s “italy at columbia” lecture series exhibitions

the mission of the italian academy

ounded in 1991 on the basis of an and society; presents distinguished exam- agreement between the Republic of ples of Italian culture and art; and pro- FItaly and Columbia University, the motes academic, cultural and scientiﬁc Academy sponsors advanced research in exchange at the highest level. all areas relating to Italian history, science

about the academy

t the core of the Italian Academy’s prestige and its location in New York, the work lies its Fellowship Program. Academy has also become a critical site AFellowships are open to senior for meetings between distinguished mem- scholars at the post-doctoral level and bers of the Italian and American business above who wish to devote a semester or a and political communities. Its theater, full academic year to genuinely innovative library, and other public spaces offer work in any field relating to culture, cul- important locations for a variety of con- tural memory, and the relations between certs, exhibitions and films reflecting the culture, the sciences, and the social sci- finest aspects of cultural relations ences. The most advanced part of the Fel- between the Republic of Italy and the lowship Program is the Academy’s ongo- artistic and academic communities of ing Project in Art and the Neurosciences, New York and the United States. in which scholars in both the humanities McKim, Mead and White’s 1927 Casa and the sciences work together in assess- Italiana, beautifully reconstructed in ing the significance of the latest develop- 1993, is the home of the Academy. It pro- ments in genetics and the neurosciences vides exceptional offices for the Acade- for the humanities—and vice-versa. my’s Fellows, as well as housing a library The Academy also serves as the chief and a magnificent theater in Neo-Renais- reference point in the United States for all sance style, in which major academic, links between the worlds of higher educa- theatrical and musical events regularly tion in Italy and the U.S. Thanks to its take place.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 5

Annual Report 2006–2007

Board of Guarantors 2006–2007 appointed by appointed by the ministry columbia university of foreign affairs of Barbara Aronstein Black the republic of italy George Welwood Murray Professor of Law, Claudio Angelini Columbia University Direttore, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, New York Daniele Bodini Livio Caputo Chairman, American Continental Properties, New Presidente della Casa Editrice Greentime S.p.A. York Roberto de Mattei Jonathan R. Cole Vice Presidente del Consiglio Nazionale delle John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University, Ricerche Provost and Dean of the Faculties Emeritus, Columbia University Stefano Parisi Zvi Galil Amministratore Delegato, Fastweb S.p.A. Dean of the School of Engineering; Schapiro Giovanni Puglisi Professor, School of Engineering; Julian Clarence Rettore, Libera Università di Lingue e Levi Professor, Computer Science, Columbia Comunicazione IULM Milano, Presidente della University Commissione Italiana Nazionale UNESCO Jeffrey T. Schnapp Salvatore Rebecchini Rosina Pierotti Chair in Italian and Professor of Presidente F2i Fondi italiani per le infrastrutture French at Stanford University; Director, Stanford S.g.r. Humanities Lab, Stanford University Fritz Stern honorary president of the University Professor Emeritus, Columbia University a c a d e m y Giorgio Napolitano chairman Presidente della Repubblica Italiana Alan Brinkley Provost, Columbia University president of the academy Lee C. Bollinger President, Columbia University report on the academic year 2006–2007 9 10 italian academy for advanced studies in america Senior Fellows 2006–2007

Qais al-Awqati Francesco Perfetti Robert F. Loeb Professor of Medicine and Ordinario di Storia Contemporanea Professor of Physiology and Cellular all’Università “Luiss Guido Carli” di Roma Biophysics at Columbia University Angelo Maria Petroni Victoria de Grazia Ordinario di Logica e Filosofia della Scienza Professor of History at Columbia University all’Università di Bologna Bruno dalla Piccola Gustavo Piga Ordinario di Genetica presso l’Università “La Ordinario di Economia Politica e Sapienza” di Roma e Direttore Scientifico Macroeconomia, Università “Tor Vergata” di dell’Istituto C.S.S. Mendel di Roma Roma Giorgio Einaudi Rodolfo Zich Addetto Scientifico presso l’Ambasciata già Rettore del Politecnico di Torino ed Italiana a Washington attuale Presidente dell’Istituto Superiore “Mario Boella” Anthony Grafton Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University Denis Hollier Professor of French at New York University Eric Kandel Nobel Laureate and University Professor at Columbia University Francesco Pellizzi Editor of “Res” and Research Associate in Middle American Ethnology at the Peabody Museum at Harvard University

report on the academic year 2006–2007 11 Staff

David Freedberg, Director work study staff Abigail Asher, Special Projects 2006–7 Ellen Baird, Administrative Coordinator Massimo Alpian Robert Brooks, Business Manager Alessandra Bravi Will Buford, Logistics Coordinator Austin Carr Charles Desselle, Technical Projects Gerrard Carter Barbara Faedda, Assistant Director Katie Hathaway Allison Jeffrey, Assistant Director Fan Kong Jenny McPhee, Film Series Curator Yasmine Koukaz Rick Whitaker, Theater Manager Francesca Procaccini Justin Reardon Adrienne Reitano Stephan Stewart Amy Tang Jenny Tillman

12 italian academy for advanced studies in america Director’s Report

nce more our Fellowship Pro- remarkable group of top-level scholars, gram, the central component of scientists, and artists engage in common Oall our activities, was graced by and constructive discourse is to become an exceptional group of Fellows. As I have optimistic about the possibilities of gen- noted in past reports, the strongly inter- uinely constructive—and sometimes very disciplinary aspect of our Fellowship pro- practical—engagement across the disci- gram is unique amongst institutes for plinary boundaries. advanced study in the world. No other In 2006–7 we had an extraordinary program has a comparable mix of scien- mix of different kinds of historians, tists, humanists, and artists. While it has philosophers, and scientists and a higher now become customary in academic cir- percentage of scientists than ever before. cles to approve of interdisciplinarity, few The exchanges among our nanotechnolo- institutions actually range so widely or gist, our three neuroscientists, and our make it work as successfully as I believe philosophers and historians made clear we do. Scientists often grow impatient the fruitfulness of serious cross-discipli- with what is perceived as the imprecision nary dialogue. Not only did our Fellows of scholars in the humanities, while the demonstrate the possibilities of forging dominant social constructionist and rela- fresh languages of discourse, they brought tivist approaches of the humanities to light new ways in which philosophy and remain deeply sceptical about what is history can inform experiments, and sci- regarded as the overly positivist and ence might illuminate the understanding reductionist approaches of the sciences. of historical and creative intelligence. Both I like to think that any visit to our weekly Columbia and Italy can be proud of hav- luncheon seminars, attended by all Fel- ing enabled the creation of an institution lows in residence, would confound such that so exempliﬁes true interdisciplinarity, scepticisms and impatience. To hear our while never forgetting the importance of

report on the academic year 2006–2007 13 closely focused research and scholarship. year—we need to expand our financial We have shown that intellectual rigor need resources at a much faster rate than we not be shortchanged in the pursuit of dis- ever anticipated. I thus begin my report— course across the two cultures, as C.P. to move straight to a crucial point—with Snow put it just fifty years ago. an appeal for contributions to the Acade- Not surprisingly, every year our Pro- my from all who wish us well, or who gram grows more prestigious, and the believe in our ideals of scholarship and of competition for places fiercer. Given the enhancing the cultural, educational, and overall quality of the pool of candidates, scientific exchange between our two coun- we can now be relatively sure of the level tries. In order to facilitate contributions, a of excellence of the Fellows we choose, detachable form will be found in the but increasingly we find that we cannot pages of this report. All donations, accept more than a fraction of the large whether large or small, will help us bring number of exceptionally able and quali- the Academy to new levels of excellence, fied candidates. We are inevitably con- and enable us to enhance our Fellowship strained by the limited funds available Program and our ever more distinguished from our endowment, as well as by the program of cultural events. usual Columbia problem of lack of space. Let me turn to the latter. This year we To some extent, we are lucky in being received very many compliments on our able to provide some of the most generous events program. I select some high points: office facilities at Columbia, but even so As always our film series, directed by we are pressed for space; particularly this Jenny McPhee, flourished. The first year, when we had a record number of semester was devoted to films from and twenty Fellows in residence. In order to about the anni di piombo and focused on address this issue, we are creating two terrorism on film; the second to its polar small new offices on our fourth floor, by opposite, Classic Italian Comedy. Also carving out extra square footage from the during the second semester we had a expansive corridor there. packed house for the showing of the RAI The constraints on the endowment, of Fiction-Palomar film about Giovanni Fal- course, are less easily remedied. The pres- cone, the great anti-Mafia magistrate of tige of the Academy has grown out of all Palermo. His close friend and colleague proportion to the size of our endowment. on the bench, Liliana Ferraro, was pres- In order to maintain our rate of growth in ent for the discussion afterwards, along the last five years—and to be able to offer with the directors and actors involved in a larger number of Fellowships to the the film. remarkable pool of candidates each Rick Whitaker, our Theater Manager,

14 italian academy for advanced studies in america continued his series of concerts devoted to the Columbia Music Department and the remarkably high-level performances, con- Office of the Provost, without whom this firming the reputation the Academy has event would not have been possible. built up in the last few years as an impor- Increasingly the Academy acts as a cata- tant venue for outstanding contemporary lyst for conferences and other cultural and Classical music in New York City. For events that we would not be able to pres- example, the Grand TourOrchestra, which ent without the combined forces of other performed during the autumn semester, departments in the University. won exceptional plaudits for its excel- The second event I wish to mention in lence. The second semester of the year connection with our musical programs was devoted to an adventurous program this semester was entirely without prece- of music of the twenty-first century. Our dent. Our two Fellows in neuroscience regular series was augmented by a stun- from Catania, Luigi Mazzone and Daniela ning and well-attended concert by the Puzzo, joined forces to produce a remark- famous Italian pianist Stefano Bollani. able evening of fencing and music. Dr. One notable aspect of our concert series Mazzone, a specialist in autism, is also an this year has been the regularity with Italian fencing champion, while Dr. Puz- which we have received glowing reviews zo, working on Alzheimer’s disease, is an in The New York Times, at the best of accomplished musician and composer. Dr. times a rarity. Mazzone organized the fencing competi- Our musical offerings this term were tion between European and US champi- supplemented by two notable events: first ons, which was interspersed by extracts of all, the successful international confer- from Dr. Puzzo’s new opera, Selenal, per- ence devoted to Technologies of the Diva, formed by a group of talented young New organized by Karen Henson of Columbia’s York musicians and singers. We had a full Music Department. (Prof. Henson also house, and in every respect it was a mem- spoke on Rigoletto and romantic irony as orable and exciting evening. The theater part of our “Italy at Columbia” lecture was especially adapted to cater for the series.) As has become typical of some of combination of a sporting and musical our more ambitious conferences, this was performance, and we thus exemplified the a joint venture, enabling us to invite old Roman motto—altogether appropri- scholars from many countries to partici- ate for the Academy and for our motto- pate in an event at the Academy. We are studded theater—mens sana in corpore enormously grateful for the co-sponsor- sano. Even those sceptical of such a com- ship provided by the Heyman Center for bination were won over. the Humanities, the Maison Française, For a second year, Mr. Whitaker also

report on the academic year 2006–2007 15 organized the series “Italy at Columbia,” the interests of the promotion of the best devoted to lectures given by Columbia and most advanced aspects of Italian cul- professors on Italian subjects related to ture this year. the courses they teach. These too are well- A second notable literary event was attended events, enabling outsiders to brought to us by the Foundation for Ital- have a sense of the kinds of offerings ian Art and Culture or FIAC, headed by available at University on the history, art, our guarantor Daniele Bodini and directed literature, and culture of Italy. We are by this year’s Fellow and great expert on grateful to all our colleagues who are so Federico da Montefeltro (inter alia et ready to open up their best classes at the alios), Marcello Simonetta, who was Academy. This year the subjects ranged appointed Cultural Director of FIAC after from Pirandello to Dante, from Montever- being awarded his Fellowship. This was di to Verdi, from the architect Francesco the presentation of Italy’s prestigious Pre- di Giorgio Martini to the futurist Marinet- mio Grinzane to Philip Roth, in the con- ti, in the agreeable space of our theater. text of a celebration of Primo Levi. Once Our literary events in 2006-7 included more we had a full house, this time for an an evening in the Library with noted elegant, interesting, and witty literary writer Andrea De Carlo, who spoke not occasion, followed by a fine dinner. We only about his own writing, but also were honored that Professor Giuliano about his work with film directors Federi- Soria, founder and head of the Fondazione co Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni. Grinzane Cavour, chose to hold the award The library was full, and the discussion ceremony at the Academy, bringing with vibrant and challenging. I am grateful to him a distinguished group from Turin, Abigail Asher, last year’s acting Assistant including his own colleagues at the Fon- Director, who stayed on with us this year dazione Grinzane Cavour and the director and guided the Academy in many differ- and other representatives of the publishing ent ways, from the organization of events house Einaudi. Two other distinguished such as these, to managing new architec- guests spotlighted on the stage were Dario tural work in the building, to advising Disegni, director of Cultural Affairs for the about relations with the Italian diplomat- Compagnia di San Paolo, and Alain ic corps, press, and cultural officials—as Elkann, head of the Museo Egizio at Turin well as putting her mind to the important and Director of FIAC, both of whom have task of fundraising. This kind of versatili- shown strong support for the aims and ty is typical of our hardworking staff, and work of the Academy. Needless to say, the has contributed substantially to the many high points of the evening were the successes of our multifarious offerings in exchanges between Giuliano Soria and

16 italian academy for advanced studies in america Philip Roth. I was happy to speak about and influential conference on Art and the my own coincidental involvement with New Biology of Mind, where he was much Torinese literary culture, and briefly applauded for his important talk on mir- recalled my personal recollections of ror neurons, and in the context of the Giulio Einaudi, Natalia Ginzburg, and Academy’s ongoing program in Art and their relations with Primo Levi. Neuroscience, Vittorio Gallese of the Uni- In this context, it is worth recording (as versity of Parma returned to the Acade- if by productive contrast) the excellent my. His lecture on Mirror Neurons, conference organized on the challenging Embodied Simulation and Aesthetic topic of Canoni Assenti/Absent Canons by Experience brought another full house. the head of our Italian Department at The subject of mirror neurons—of which Columbia, Paolo Valesio. It was dedicated Gallese was one of the principal discover- to lesser-studied aspects of contemporary ers—now arouses intense interest in many Italian poetry, and to the important yet fields, and so it was not surprising that difficult problem of the emergence of lit- the discussion that followed the erary canons. Once more we were glad to exchanges between Gallese, Kevin be able to count on the combined support Ochsner of our Psychology Department, of the Italian Department, the Casa Ital- and myself, was rich and productive. iana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU, and our Such events represent only the tip of the good friends at the Istituto Italiano di important work the Academy is doing in Cultura—sine quos non, as so often. presenting the work of top Italian scien- In addition to the conferences on Tech- tists in the US. I should add that the work nologies of the Diva and Absent Canons, of this year’s Fellow, nanophysicist Alber- architectural historians Lucy Maulsby, to Morgante—whose luncheon seminar David Rifkind, and Andrew Manson was a model of lucidity and innovation— organized an international conference further contributed to the prestige of Ital- entitled Polis and Politics: Italian Urban- ian science in key new fields. ism under Fascism, at which our good As always, the Academy was happy to friend and supporter, Consul-General host the lecture and seminar series spon- Antonio Bandini, also spoke. His talk on sored by the Center for the Ancient the fascist architecture of Asmara, where Mediterranean (headed by Professor he served as Italian Ambassador during a William Harris and housed in the Acade- particularly difficult period in Eritrea’s my), and by Columbia’s Seminar in Mod- recent history, was one of the several ern Italian Studies, which in fact is not highlights of the conference. just a Columbia institution, but involves In the wake of last year’s acclaimed many institutions in the tri-state area

report on the academic year 2006–2007 17 (and this year was headed by Prof. Mary how much the work of the Academy Gibson of the Graduate Center of the City depends on productive collaborative University of New York, and John Jay effort. From the Fellowship Program to College). many of our events, we rely on the coop- Last but by no means least I should eration of our many colleagues and mention our 2006-7 exhibition series. In friends in Italy, at Columbia, and else- addition to a number of additional shows where in New York and the United States. (notably those of Emory physicist Ferey- We have expanded our Fellowship Pro- doon Family’s remarkable paintings and gram not only as a result of substantial Mario Santoro’s photographs of New York donations from the Alexander Bodini and Rome) which graced our walls, the Foundation (in the case of Luigi Mazzone end-of-semester shows by our Premio New this year), but also thanks to the joint York winners Paolo Chiasera, Eva Mattes, funding of individual Fellowships from Rossella Biscotti, and Nico Vascellari drew the Dean of the School of Engineering, numerous visitors. The Internet element of Zvi Galil (in the case of Alberto Mor- Eva Mattes’ acclaimed exhibition was gante), from Prof. Eric Kandel, one of reprised at the virtual Italian Cultural Columbia’s Nobel Prizewinners (in the Institute recently launched by the Ministry case of Luana Fioriti), and Prof. Ottavio of Foreign Affairs within the online com- Arancio of Columbia’s Pathology Depart- munity secondlife.com. We were fortunate ment (in the case of Daniela Puzzo). this year in the high degree of involvement As always, readers of this report will of our artist Fellows, the winners of the have noted our collaborations with the ever more desirable Premio New York. Istituto Italiano di Cultura and with One of the most gratifying aspects of the NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò. Of Premio New York program is to be able to course, I am grateful to Claudio Angelini, follow the way in which our artists go on with whom we have enjoyed a close work- to greater successes after what almost ing relationship for the whole duration of always turns out to be a formative stay in his successful tenure at the Istituto in New New York. It is impossible not to recall York, and with Stefano Albertini of NYU. here the vision of Umberto Vattani, the Needless to say, both Consul-General great supporter of the arts both while he Antonio Bandini and his deputy Consul, was Director General of the Ministry of Paola Munzi, have been good friends of Foreign Affairs and now as President of the Academy, and I am particularly the Italian Foreign Trade Commission indebted to Consul-General Bandini for (ICE), in founding the Premio New York. his ever-ready advice on a range of politi- It will be clear from all of the above cal and diplomatic matters, as well as for

18 italian academy for advanced studies in america his consistently sound counsel and friend- Humanities, under the able and active ship. As both he and Dott. Angelini move direction of Prof. Akeel Bilgrami, has on to new positions, we send them and grown richer and more frequent. One of their wives—also good friends and sup- the great pleasures of my Directorship at porters of the Academy—all our best the Academy has been to see our institu- wishes for the future, and assure them tion play an ever more important and vis- that they will always be welcome guests ible role in the intellectual life of the Uni- here at Columbia. Ambassadors Castel- versity; but none of this could have come laneta in Washington and Spatafora at about without the active interest and sup- the UN have been consistently solid support of too many colleagues to mention. porters as well, always encouraging and The encouragement of so many friends never invasive, and I am immensely and colleagues at Columbia has been a grateful to them for their interest in the constant source of inspiration, and I Academy. It is always a pleasure to see extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you them at the Academy, and we look for- who have attended our events and offered ward to seeing even more of them at our your support in more ways than can be future events. listed here. In Rome, Gherardo La Francesca, The Academy has seen a number of Director of Cultural Affairs at the Min- changes to its administrative staff in the istry of Foreign Affairs, has been the most course of the past year. We were excep- active and practical collaborator we have tionally fortunate in being able to appoint yet had at the Ministry. The support we Dr. Barbara Faedda, a well-known have in Rome, whether at the Esteri or at anthropologist from Rome, who also the Beni Culturali, continues to be both a brought with her considerable experience major stimulus and encouragement in all of the fashion industry, as our Assistant our cultural activities. I have already Director in charge of the Fellowship Pro- referred to several instances of the way in gram and of diplomatic and political which the Academy continues to beneﬁt affairs. In the short time since her from its collaborations, joint activities, appointment, Dr. Faedda has integrated and co-sponsorships with other depart- herself completely into the activities and ments and institutes at Columbia. Once duties of the Academy; her start has been more we were happy to hold events in a most auspicious one, and we hope she concert with the Center for Comparative stays with us for many years to come. Literature and Society under the direction Allison Jeffrey, the longest-serving mem- of Prof. Gayatri Spivak, while our part- ber of our staff, was promoted to Assis- nership with the Heyman Center for the tant Director chieﬂy in charge of events

report on the academic year 2006–2007 19 and planning, and the richness of our Charles Desselle, our web manager and events program this year is clear testimo- graphic designer, has produced striking ny to the vigorous start she has made in and engaging images for our many events. this position. As always, Will Buford’s But I would also like to thank our devoted excellent and attentive assistance with work study staff, especially Amy Tang both events and building operations were and Justin Reardon, who have worked critical to the smooth running of the with us for several years now, as well as Academy. His patience in unraveling diffi- Massimo Alpian, Alessandra Bravi, Austin cult practical problems has been remark- Carr, Gerrard Carter, Katie Hathaway, able and has contributed significantly to Fan Kong, Yasmine Koukaz, Francesca the general sense of the well-being of the Procaccini, Adrienne Reitano, Stephan Academy and the efficiency of our day-to- Stewart, and Jenny Tillman. We have day operations. In July Ellen Baird came been able to count on them to keep the on board as my assistant, but in fact her Academy running smoothly, efficiently, duties extend well beyond those of man- and gracefully, thus contributing to the aging a busy Director. She runs our even good impression which I believe we make more intensely busy office with calm and on all who visit us, whether as Fellows, efficient precision. Abigail Asher has con- visitors, or simply as guests at individual tinued to work for us as a part-time staff events. We could not do without them. member, responsible for all the activities I Indeed, I think it will be clear to all mentioned earlier, as well as for matters who read this report how much the Acad- relating to our library, in statu nascendi. emy manages to achieve with so small a Everything about her devotion to the staff. We have received, as I have noted, Academy suggests that of a full-time many compliments this year for the over- employee. Robbie Brooks has been the all success and challenging variety of our most attentive Business Manager we have events. Yet despite such success and pub- ever had, and keeps all of us, including lic approval, I believe that we can do the Director, within budgetary reason in a much more. We could probably put our variety of effectively firm and polite ways. theater, library, and seminar spaces to I have already mentioned the contribu- more intense use, but we are limited by tions of our ever-efficient Theater Manag- two factors: staff size and lack of er Rick Whitaker to the musical and liter- resources for further programs. While it is ary life at the Academy, as well as those of often possible to raise funds for specific our Curator of Film, Jenny McPhee (now, events, our staff is stretched as it is, run- alas, working from London, despite her ning both a very successful Fellowship frequent visits to us on critical occasions). Program and sustaining our dense pro-

20 italian academy for advanced studies in america gram of events. antors at our twice-annual meetings: I therefore conclude this report with a indeed, every one of our six Italian guar- further call to make a donation to the antors were present at the last meeting, no Academy. We need two more staff mem- mean token of support when one consid- bers to help expand our programs of ers that they flew over, in the midst of events, to work on development, and to their own intense schedule of commit- enhance relations with other academic ments, simply to be present for this occa- institutions in Italy, the US and elsewhere. sion. I would also like to extend my We also need to substantially expand the thanks to Provost Alan Brinkley and Pres- resources of our library, both for book ident Lee Bollinger for their continued acquisition and for a staff person to run support of the Academy, and their interest it. We do have other needs, from the in all our activities. Without Provost urgent task of initiating an Academy pub- Brinkley’s active and consistent encour- lication series to the pleasant yet impor- agement and good counsel, we would not tant project of improving our outdoor have come as far as we have. space, the garden outside the theater It remains for me to wish the new Pres- (nicely but insufficiently enhanced this ident of the Republic of Italy, Giorgio year, as I hope visitors will have noticed); Napolitano, who is ex-officio the honorary but our main priorities—to emphasize President of the Academy, a successful them again—remain without doubt the and peaceful term of office. expansion of our Fellowship Program, the Above all, I would like to thank all of expansion of our staff to enhance our you have supported us this year, whether events program, and the creation of a ful- by your presence at our events, your par- ly endowed library. ticipation in our scholarly activities, or As I conclude this report, I would like your material contributions to the Acade- to thank our devoted Board of Guarantors my. Without you we would not have for their constant support and good coun- become what we are; nor could we hope sel. The rapid development of the Acade- to become what we yet might be. my has been accompanied, needless to With my best wishes, say, by ever fuller representation of Guar- david freedberg

report on the academic year 2006–2007 21

Fellows’ Reports

Bella Brover-Lubovsky

For me, the Fellowship at the Academy ma and Seconda Pratica of Settecento was in many terms a “new start,” deﬁning Music Theory, which focuses on dissecting what was to some extent a critical period the cultural and epistemological roots of the in my development as a scholar. It was a early-Settecento concepts of pitch structure golden possibility to temporarily with- and organization of tonal space. Its aim is draw from (however vital and pleasant) to incorporate a general exploration of the- everyday routine duties and to revisit my oretical concepts (including aesthetics, work’s goals and methodologies. reception, theory, and pedagogy) with prac- Arriving in New York a short time after tical implementations of tonal organization delivering my magnum opus (Estro in Italian music of the early and mid-eigh- armonico. Organization of Tonal Space in teenth century. I also hope to perceptively the Music of Antonio Vivaldi) to the pub- reﬂect the historical circumstances of the lisher (Indiana University Press), I felt to shifting attitude towards the conceptualiza- some extent depleted by crossing several tion of tonal space as well as illuminate the limitations of approach. My fusing of the diffusion of artistic ideas in this area of various sub-disciplines of musicology Western culture. (theory and analysis, history of theory, Close examination reveals that it was artistic reception and criticism) had grad- precisely the Italian repertory that most ually increased my interest in providing contributed to the establishment of com- these areas with an appropriate general mon-practice tonality and normalization artistic, cultural, and intellectual back- of harmonic syntax that was eventually to ground. In this sense, the broad cross-cul- form the bedrock of the galant and tural mandate of the Fellowship program mature classical styles. Paradoxically, the (along with other manifold activities the historical triumph of the operatic bel can- Italian Academy lavishly offers) were to idiom and emerging instrumental styles most rewarding for my professional devel- seem entirely incompatible with the (then opment—something that will hopefully prevalent) traditionally modal concept of come to light in my future endeavors. pitch structure. However, what remains During my Fellowship period I was striking is the coexistence of modern working on my main research project, Pri- practices with those conservative theories

report on the academic year 2006–2007 25 that persisted in explaining these prac- nounced riposte by promulgating the tices in terms of old paradigms. bifurcation between progress in sciences I first perceived this when working on on the one hand and in arts and literature Italian tonal theories during my previous on the other. Thus the reluctance of Ital- research fellowship at the Newberry ian theorists to adopt the system of twen- Library, Chicago (2005), where I found ty-four major and minor keys (and to an immense—and mostly unknown to the accept the ultimate decline of modal theo- contemporary reader—corpus of theoreti- ry) was coupled with their rejection of the cal treatises and books on music and very idea of progress in literature, arts, musical criticism printed in Italy from the and music and their fierce espousal of the late seventeenth to the first half of the supremacy of the ancient arts. Notwith- nineteenth century. The bulk of this cor- standing the all-embracing notion of pus comprises “minor” treatises by mar- progress that dominated the French ginal authors, preserved in very few Enlightenment, the Italian illuminismo copies and not recently reprinted. denied that music (traditionally concep- Following my gaining some acquain- tualized as a linguistic-rhetoric discipline) tance with these texts, I began to seek a was also subject to this general tendency. persuasive explanation of this phenome- Side by side with this general classicis- non on the higher cultural and intellectual tic position, it would surely be an over- level. Observing the conflict between simplification to describe the Italian illu- archaic modal theory and advanced tonal minismo as entirely rejecting the concept writing through the lens of the intellectual of progress in music. I learned about an “climate of opinion,” I assumed that, intense Enlightenment movement that despite appearing merely technical in was concentrated primarily in the Veneto nature, it was to emerge as part of the region, with its extreme importance for pivotal pan-European philosophical and the renewal of Italian scientific activity aesthetic polemic querelle des anciens et and the revival of interest in modern sci- des moderns. ence. In music, this was a circle of the In Italy as elsewhere the intellectual armonisti fisico-matematici that devel- climate was galvanized by the antica e oped and promulgated the updated con- moderna debates, but its “local” facets cept of pitch structure based on the new distinguished the Italian notion of science: Euler’s acoustics, Newtonian progress from the overt radicalism of their optics and celestian mechanics, and Northern colleagues. The Italian illumin- Bernoulli’s permutation theories. All these isti, with Giambattista Vico as one of their forward-looking views on pitch structure central figures, provided a neat and pro- emerged in intellectual circles around the

26 italian academy for advanced studies in america Basilica of St. Antonio in Padua, in the An immediate outlet of my renewed scientifically grounded discourses on tonal enthusiasm for art and intellectual history organization by Francescantonio Cale- is another project: “Algarotti, Tiepolo, gari, Giordano Riccatti, Giuseppe Tartini, Vivaldi, and the Venetian Enlighten- and Francescantonio Vallotti. Most of ment.” This will be presented as a paper these authors intentionally avoided pub- at the forthcoming international congress lishing their works, preferring them to be Antonio Vivaldi. Passato e futuro, which disseminated in manuscripts and amply is due to be held in Venice at the Fon- discussed in correspondence. That is why, dazione Cini in June 2007. It became in mid-century, the armonia fisico- obvious to me that at least some of the matematica remained a hidden trend in idiosyncratic components of Vivaldi’s the conceptualization of tonal space—one compositional style and technique, along that not only failed to affect the contem- with the vicissitudes of its evaluation and poraneous concept of pitch structure but reception, resist narrowly focused musical which was also methodically castigated explanation, being deeply rooted in the and rejected in “official” views, such as general artistic and intellectual climate of those maintained by Giambattista Martini the Veneto region. and his circle. For me, the Italian Academy provided Apart from working on this project, I the ideal circumstances to undertake eventually completed and submitted to an these projects, as it offers a combination academic journal a pivotal article entitled of prodigious academic infrastructure “Le diable boiteux, Omnipresent Meyer with matchless library facilities. Working and ‘Intermediate Tonic’ in the Eigh- in a spacious and comfortable studiolo in teenth-Century Symphony.” My experi- the gorgeous Casa Italiana building in the ence here enabled me to discuss in this very core of Manhattan (including access article the shifting concept of tonal struc- to Columbia’s cultural and intellectual life ture in mid-eighteenth-century instru- and community) was an inspiring, stimu- mental music against a much broader lating, and challenging experience. I also background, interpreting the status and had the chance to attend lectures from the morphological function of the tonic in the leading intellectuals of our time at the mid-century tonality through the lens of Italian Academy and the Heyman Center contemporary literary practices and sci- for Humanities, as well as at various entific theories, and considering them Columbia departments. Pleasant and from the point of view of Foucault’s enlightening daily contacts and exchanges notion of coeval general epistemological of ideas with my co-Fellows and visitors shifts. from widely different fields, along with

report on the academic year 2006–2007 27 the weekly seminars with absorbing staff of the Academy for their profession- debates and comments of the Academy alism, understanding, generosity, and Director, Professor David Freedberg, have support—in fact, while leaving the Acad- also been immensely important in the emy and packing up my lifetime’s supply context of reshaping and extending my of xeroxed materials, I feel very much like previous views and beliefs. the protagonist of L’espulsione dal Par- May I extend special thanks to all the adiso!

28 italian academy for advanced studies in america Maurizio Ferraris

The research project I carried out at the and as a document. Of course, paper is a Italian Academy dealt with some funda- physical object, documents are more than mental questions concerning social ontol- physical objects, and social reality is an ogy: what are the basic ingredients of social ontological region: how can we bring reality? How can there be a social and insti- together such extraordinarily different lev- tutional reality within a physical universe? els of reality (physical facts and reality, What is the logical and ontological struc- rights, regions of being)? The answer to this ture of social and institutional reality? question lies in the concept of documentali- What is the distinctive mark of human ty—the idea of an ontology of documents as social reality? What kind of objects are doc- the basic element (if not the possibility con- uments and what is their role in the condition) of a social ontology. The guiding struction of social reality? The answers to idea of my research proposal is that wher- these questions are to be found, I submit- ever there is society, there is also documen- ted, in a philosophical theory of “documentality, namely the possibility of inscription, tality,” namely in the idea that the social authentication, and identiﬁcation. and institutional ontology of human civi- “Documentality,” in this sense, should lization is mostly a matter of documents, not be thought of as a kind of substance, inscriptions, and their associated deontic but as a property: it is what makes x—any powers. This research project resulted in writing support, from clay to hard disks— the publication of the book Sans Papier. into y—a document. To account for this Ontologia dell’attualità (Castelvecchi, transformation we appeal not to magic, but 2007); here following is an outline of the to the power of a valid inscription. I origi- book. nally sketched such an idea in my 2006 What is the link between apparently dis- book, Dove sei? Ontologia del telefonino, parate phenomena such as being sans and I developed it further at the Italian papiers, the (impending) disappearance of Academy. In the theory I defended in that paper in the world of Internet, and Big book, the constitutive law of social objects Brother? As a matter of fact, it is paper is spelled out as the law “Object = Inscribed itself, in all of its forms and transforma- Act”: social objects are social acts (taking tions—intended both as a physical support place between at least two persons) whose

report on the academic year 2006–2007 29 distinctive mark lies in the fact of being a right or a status. My suggestion is that an inscribed on paper, in a computer file, or inscription is the necessary, though not suf- even, and simply, in the subjects’ minds. ficient, condition for the existence of socie- There is no need for voluminous physical ty. Without some kind of inscription, even objects (a territory, a human body) in order an inscription in someone’s mind, there to have a social object: in most cases, a few cannot be society; on the other hand, of molecules of ink, a computer blip, or some course, there can be inscriptions without neurons will suffice to transform a man into society: the marks on Robinson Crusoe’s a husband, a piece of paper into money or a calendar are devoid of any social value until work of art, a handshake or a gesture of the Friday’s arrival. The existence of physical head into a promise or a threat. objects such as mountains or the existence Developing such a hypothesis, I investi- of ideal objects such as theorems is inde- gated the idea that the outcome of a phe- pendent from any kind of inscription; nomenology of social objects is precisely a whereas the existence of social objects theory of documentality, intended as the depends on some kind of inscription, for a identification and description of the proper- society without memory would be strictly ties that are the necessary and sufficient inconceivable. conditions for the production of a social The second dissertation addresses a object (taking as a starting point a very technological question: what kinds of tools general feature: being an inscription on a are necessary for the distribution of docu- document or being “documental”). In par- ments in a complex society? What happens ticular, my general claim is that there can- to the being of the world, and to our being not be any society without documents, and in the world, with the passage from papier that documents are just records with a spe- to sans papier? Is this the final goodbye for cific social value. Given these premises, I paper? No, paper probably won’t disap- elaborated the theory along three main pear. Its transformations are more quanti- directions or, as I call them in my new tative than qualitative. Space and time are book, three dissertations. somehow affected by these transforma- In the first dissertation, I outlined an tions. Space gets smaller, time becomes ontology in order to answer the following faster, and such changes have an effect on question: what exactly is a document and many other things. Globalization is less the what are its functions? My aim here was to product of the migration of sans papiers show that our social existence is essentially than of the transformations of sans papier: covered with documents, that it is not a Without information highways, or even bare life—after all, an “investiture” in the without the papery rues des Archives, glob- Middle Age was precisely the conferring of alization could never have taken place.

30 italian academy for advanced studies in america Analogously, all the changes in our being in ally, what happened is just the contrary: the world could never have taken place. even typically non-written practices such These changes might even suggest the as television have been invaded by writing, necessity of a new Being and Time—bear- logos, subtitles, teletexts, etc.; such prac- ing in mind, however, that Heidegger, tices become writing themselves as long as endorsing a Platonic prejudice, gave very they are recorded and, therefore, manipu- little attention to the forms of communica- lable; “digital terrestrial television” is tion and even less attention to the forms of nothing but the incorporation of television record. However, it is worth pointing out into computers, which was utterly incon- that these changes do not affect the sub- ceivable even a few years ago, when the stance: we are not entering an immaterial opposite was predicted. And this explosion world. Sans papier—precisely like sans of writing is not confined exclusively to papiers—does not mean sans matière: mat- images: even oral speeches are not ter displaces itself and changes, and even if ephemeral anymore, for one can be record- it turns into apparently immaterial bytes, ed by any telemarketer, by telephone com- we still need the computer with all its solid panies, in this universal “black box” that matter. All this can be condensed in the records everything, and not just the last ten principle that there is no memory without seconds of our conversations. The moral: matter, just like there is no mind without a recording is much more powerful and deep body, and it is somehow weird that theo- than just communicating, for it confers the rists of virtual reality, even the materialist power to register people’s secrets, and to ones, have ignored such a circumstance. make them public someday. What is so The third dissertation deals with the striking about the enormous issue of priva- ethical and juridical pragmatics implied by cy is not the difficulty of keeping our the ontology and technology of the docu- secrets safe, but rather the difficulty of pre- ment along with its metamorphoses. Sur- venting the aggregation of all the public prisingly enough, the end of the monopoly (and generally innocuous) information of paper results not in the disappearance of that concerns us—an aggregation that writing but rather in its explosion, or, more would not contravene any privacy law, and precisely, in an explosion of records. And that is now possible thanks to the extraor- this goes quite against everything we were dinary power of recording, and the speed told half a century ago about expected and simplicity of search engines such as future transformations, changes such as Google. Sooner or later, Google will reveal the alleged disappearance of writing and us to the world, blabbing urbi et orbi not the pervasive triumph of oral communica- what we want to hide, but rather what we tion. None of these events took place. Actu- wanted to make public.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 31 Luana Fioriti

The remarkable progress in molecular regions. The critical site for these interac- genetics over the past two decades has tions is the “synapse”—the functional brought about a new and more unified connection between neurons where one view of the biological sciences. A major brain cell communicates with another— advancement in our understanding of and information transfer at this site is genes, their expression, and the structure essential to perception, behavior, memory, of the proteins they encode has led to a and thinking. As recently as the early better appreciation of the conservation of 1980s, scientists knew very little about cellular function at the molecular level the molecular mechanisms of synaptic that now provides a common conceptual interactions. But today researchers are framework for several previously unrelat- beginning to understand the molecules ed disciplines: cell biology, biochemistry, and mechanisms by which brain cells development and cellular neurobiology. A change in response to experience. This parallel and potentially equally profound understanding of how synapses function unification is occurring between cognitive and change over time is necessary for psychology, the science of the mind, and delineating the molecular mechanisms neural science, the science of the brain. that underlie memory, reasoning, emotion The ability to study the biological basis of and even consciousness. mental function is proving a refined impe- One of the most intriguing features of tus for examining cognitive process, such the brain is its ability not only to process as perception, language, learning, and and acquire information about the exter- memory. To what degree can these two nal world through learning but also to independent and disparate disciplines be store it for posterity as memory. The pre- brought together? Can molecular biology vailing view is that learning occurs via provide novel insights into the mind? experience-dependent changes in the elec- Virtually any cognitive task requires trical properties of ensembles of neurons. that the brain work on many different Memory is the maintenance of that levels, extending from molecular interac- altered state of neuronal activity. A fasci- tion in individual neurons to neural cir- nating aspect of memory storage is that cuits that encompass many cerebral memory can last for an entire lifetime;

32 italian academy for advanced studies in america but how can this be explained from a mRNA (ribonucleic acid messenger) that molecular point of view? Memory is due is resident at the synapse and modify it in to alterations in the strength of a signal order to be translated and give rise to pro- transmitted through a synapse, a phe- teins that stabilize the synaptic growth. nomenon known as “synaptic plastici- Moreover, CPEB could maintain the con- ty”—the changes that occur in synapses tinuing protein synthesis that stores a because of events we experience or memory long after the learning experi- thoughts we produce. It has been hypoth- ence has passed, due to its prion-like, esized that long-term memories may be self-perpetuating qualities. stored in the form of anatomical and My project here at the Italian Academy functional changes at the synapse. has been to characterize the mammalian What are the molecules that stabilize homologue of Aplysia CPEB, called the learning-related synaptic growth for CPEB-3, and in particular to clarify the the persistence of long-term memory? Si molecular events leading to the conforma- and colleagues (Si et al, 2003) in Kandel’s tional changes of CPEB molecules at the laboratory found that a protein called marked synapse. cytoplasmic polyadenylation element- During my research at the Italian binding protein (CPEB), a regulator of Academy, I found that CPEB conforma- local protein synthesis, exists in a particu- tional changes might be initiated by an lar form in the nervous system of the appropriate stimulus such as the action of marine snail Aplysia and stabilizes newly a neurotransmitter at the synapse. This formed synaptic connections. How does stimulation leads to an increase in the this occur? The ﬁrst 150 amino-acids of expression level of CPEB protein, thus CPEB constitute a domain that is very increasing the chance of a conformational similar to that of “prions,” pathogenic change among the many CPEB molecules protein particles responsible for a number produced. Additional molecules could of neurodegenerative fatal disorders that regulate the conversion process. In partic- affect both humans (Creutzfeldt Jacob ular, a class of proteins called “chaperone disease) and animals (scrapie and mad proteins” is known to assist other proteins cow disease; Prusiner, 1982). Like prions, during their folding, and they could play CPEB can exist in two conformationally an important role in the conformational distinct isoforms, but only one is metabol- change of CPEB. To further investigate ically active: the dominant form, charac- how this change in conformation might be terized by a self-perpetuating aggregate regulated, I started studying the role of state. The Kandel lab is testing the idea chaperones and I found that it is possible that these aggregates bind to dormant to detect sites where CPEB and chaper-

report on the academic year 2006–2007 33 ones reside together, suggesting that they this project is to study how CPEB aggre- might physically interact. gation is implicated in the regulation of Another main goal of my research has new protein synthesis and, therefore, been to examine if the prion domain of learning-related changes in synaptic func- CPEB causes self-perpetuation in neurons tion and structure. and if this is the mechanism that main- If the general form of the model I pro- tains long-term memory in neurons. To pose here is indeed referable to neuronal address this point, I focused on the rela- synaptic biology, the results will prove tionship between the physical, aggregated fascinating to explore and nothing less state of CPEB and the activity of the than extraordinary. Intricacies abound; synapse. First of all I expressed a modi- one example is the recent finding that fied version of CPEB, containing a fluo- CPEB may be involved in localizing rescent dye tag, in neurons. This modifi- CPE-containing mRNAs to the dendrite cation allowed me to observe the distribu- (Huang et al., 2003), raising the possi- tion of CPEB in neurons and also its bio- bility that prion-like switches, if they do physical state. The protein does indeed occur in mammalian neurons, could distribute with a homogeneous pattern affect various aspects of protein biology. when it is completely soluble, whereas in At least in mammals, neuronal RNA an aggregated state it forms distinguish- binding proteins, in addition to CPEB, able aggregated puncta within neurons. may also play roles in the regulation of Subsequently I compared the properties synaptic RNAs. For instance, the fragile- of CPEB (i.e., the tendency to form aggre- X mental retardation syndrome results gates) before and after neurotransmitter from the lack of an RNA binding protein stimulation of the neuron. Protein believed to be present in the synapse and extracts were taken from the stimulated to play a role in synaptic plasticity (Jin neurons and analyzed by a specific cen- and Warren, 2003). Added to the issue trifugation assay that permits me to sepa- of additional RNA binding proteins is the rate the soluble fraction of the proteins possibility that at least some neuronal from the insoluble, aggregated fraction in RNA binding proteins, including FMRP, which CPEB should reside. may regulate neuronal mRNAs. Identifi- These biochemical analyses are sup- cation of key RNA binding proteins ported by morphological studies examin- involved in synaptic plasticity thus whets ing the localization of the CPEB protein one’s appetite for knowing what RNAs at the synapse and its association to other are being regulated. Finally, I would like already known components of the trans- to mention that the findings coming lational machinery, as the main goal of from these studies may pave the way to

34 italian academy for advanced studies in america demonstrating that prion-like switches 2006). I really enjoined the pleasant play a number of important roles in atmosphere of the weekly luncheon semi- mammalian cells, that they are not nars, during which we had the challeng- responsible for neurological disorders ing experience of presenting our research alone. to scholars from very different disciplines. In conclusion, the year I spent at the I am grateful to the Italian Academy for Italian Academy was extremely produc- granting me the opportunity of this year tive, and some of the data I obtained have of research, for all the inspiring discus- already been presented at the Society for sions, and for the friendly and always Neuroscience’s annual meeting (Atlanta, helpful staff.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 35 Jennie Hirsh

I was granted a post-doctoral fellow- with the burden of tradition in the work ship from the Italian Academy in order to of de Chirico’s Italian peers, Massimo complete the remaining research as well Campigli and Gino Severini, as well as the as the writing of my book project, Greek artists Fotis Kontoglou, Nikos Mediterranean Modernity: Art and Engonopoulos, and Yannis Tsarouchis. Nationalism in Italy and Greece 1918- Analysis of the integration of past, pres- 1945, which considers how various forms ent, and future in works by de Chirico’s of antiquity—Greco-Roman, Etruscan, Italian contemporaries and the so-called and Byzantine—appear and, at times, Greek “Generation of the Thirties,” to converge in visual representations ranging which Kontoglou, Engonopoulos, and from individual art objects to publicly Tsarouchis belong, is here achieved installed and consumed works of art— through close examination of related case such as mural paintings, mosaics, and studies that weave together the allusive even currency design—executed in Italy and indeed elusive peculiarities of Greek and Greece between the two World Wars. and Italian modernism. This project builds upon my doctoral dis- Gino Severini is best known for his ear- sertation, “Self-Portraiture and Self-Rep- ly work as a futurist; like de Chirico, his resentation: The Painting and Writing of later (post-1918) artistic production as Giorgio de Chirico,” in which I consider well as his writings has remained neglect- the ways in which de Chirico’s paintings ed in the art-historical discourse. My proj- and writings manifest complicated rela- ect aims to ﬁll this gap in scholarship on tionships with tradition and history, as Severini as well as to treat rigorously well as art history. Campigli’s contributions of what I consid- Mediterranean Modernity considers for er to be neo-Etruscan compositions echo- the ﬁrst time historical, political, and aes- ing another aspect of antiquity that thetic points of intersection between these became increasingly visible under the two neighboring countries, expanding my regime, as key Etruscan works, such as earlier interest in the persistence of the the Apollo of Veii, were discovered and past in de Chirico’s work to examine a restored. In evaluating the promotion of similar, yet paradoxical, preoccupation Campigli’s works, I consider as well the

36 italian academy for advanced studies in america growing interest in ethnography and poraries’ manipulations of antique picto- indigenous history through the continued rial signs. Thanks to the support of the care and expansion of specific Roman Italian Academy, I was able to continue museums founded in the late nineteenth working on this project, completing much century, such as the Museo Luigi Pigorini of the research and documentation neces- (now at EUR) and the collections of sary to argue in my manuscript that Etruscan artifacts at the Villa Giulia. strong—yet heretofore ignored—aesthetic Similarly, my book surveys the evolution and political links endured between Ital- of state-sponsored archaeological projects ian and Greek painting in the first half of that were contemporary to the creation, the twentieth century. For example, while exhibition, and reception of the interwar the French and Belgian surrealists bear and wartime artistic objects analyzed in formal affinities with de Chirico’s pictorial my study. Moreover, de Chirico, Severini, project, Engonopoulos’ paintings consti- and Campigli all spent a significant por- tute a far more striking case of thematic tion of their respective careers living in as well as formal influence, since de Chiri- Paris and, as such, they constitute inter- co’s French and Belgian surrealist follow- esting case studies in terms of not only ers eliminated the allegorical impact of their participation in the creation of Ital- his depictions of remnants of the Greek ian modernism but also their roles as past in their formal appropriations of his points of contact with international artis- pictorial contributions. The pictorial tic circles and institutions. Since they enterprise of de Chirico’s Greek contem- exhibited their work widely both inside poraries, however, embraces a similar and outside of Italy, critical consideration ambivalence toward the enduring and of these artists remains vital to under- fragmented past that simultaneously standing Italian modernism’s place in demands and prevents integration into relation to the history of modern art as it the present that confronts it. has been written. My semester at the Italian Academy Prior to arriving at the Italian Acade- provided me with the ideal environment my, I worked on the Greek portion of my and support for my project in a number of book while holding a postdoctoral fellow- ways. First of all, I was able to take a ship at Princeton University (2005- semester-long leave from teaching just as 2006), where I was able to examine care- I began a new appointment at the Mary- fully modernist works by Kontoglou, land Institute College of Art, and so the Engonopoulos, and Tsarouchis which grant equipped me with a whole semes- serve as a comparative case for my analy- ter’s worth of time to dedicate to full-time sis of de Chirico and his Italian contem- research and writing just before diving

report on the academic year 2006–2007 37 into the responsibilities of developing new as an essay in a volume focused on The courses, joining college committees, and Making of National Art to be published in taking on administrative tasks that 2008 under the auspices of the Depart- accompany a new position. The resources ment of Art History at the University of of the Avery Library were unparalleled, Hamburg in conjunction with the War- especially in terms of period journals, and burg Haus, which held a Kolleg of the I was able to find excellent supplementary same title in which I participated in materials at both the New York Public March and October 2006. This chapter, Library and the Watson Library at the entitled “The Faces of Fascism: Re-Read- Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose holding Giorgio de Chirico’s Self-Portraiture,” ings on Italian modernism are also retraces de Chirico’s activities and politi- notable. The privilege of working with cal alliances through the genre of self- such wonderful resources prompted me to portraiture within a reconstruction of his work on a separate research project relat- exhibition history during the period. This ed to the visual culture of fascist radio, was the focus of the workshop at the Ital- and, in particular, the Ente Radio Rurale. ian Academy, and the responses to my I was fortunate to participate in a collo- paper that day enabled me to make key quium entitled Polis/Politics: Italian revisions in the final stages of that publi- Urbanism under Fascism held at the Ital- cation project. ian Academy in the Spring semester and One of the most valuable aspects of organized by Lucy Maulsby, David my time at the Italian Academy was the Rifkind, and Andrew Manson, all of privilege of working within a larger com- whom worked tirelessly to bring this munity of scholars, whose academic event to fruition. Thus, in addition to the training, intellectual curiosity, collegial wonderful colleagues that I gained during support, and critical feedback proved the Fall semester, I was fortunate to make invaluable. I was able to interact closely connections with an international net- with scholars who brought not only their work of scholars working on Italian archi- focused attention but also unique per- tecture and urban planning during the spectives that greatly expanded my own Spring semester after my tenure at the art-historical viewpoint to incorporate a Academy had come to a close. much broader range of perspectives. In My fellowship enabled me to move particular, Margherita Losacco’s expert- ahead significantly on my work on both ise on Byzantine appropriations and recy- Severini and Campigli as well as to com- cling of classical texts exposed me to new plete the writing and editing of my chap- ways of thinking about the classical tra- ter on de Chirico, which will appear first dition(s) leading up to the fascist period

38 italian academy for advanced studies in america in Italy. Moreover, Dr. Losacco and I were toral scholars at Princeton and continued able to exchange ideas about bibliogra- at Columbia—we have conceived of a phy, and she introduced me to key biblio- focused scholars’ conference entitled graphical sources related to classical From Africa to the Balkans to be held at philology executed during the ventennio and with support of the Italian Academy as well as the historiography of that in conjunction with various departments work. Kristina Sessa assisted me with re- and programs at Columbia in the Fall of thinking my use of historical terms and 2008. Although I single out only a few of concepts as well as the tensions between my colleagues, my other “fellow Fellows” different modern historical prejudices also contributed enormously to my work. against and definitions of particular Finally, in addition to benefiting from (artificially constructed) historical peri- Professor Freedberg’s wonderful orches- ods and geographical entities. Lidia tration of my workshop (and the other Santarelli generously shared not only her weekly workshops), I gained enormously intimate knowledge of Italian fascism but from his insightful and provocative feed- also her rare and in-depth sensitivity to back, which sensitively touched upon Italian activities in the larger Mediter- both individual details about the artists ranean region, both in terms of Africa in question and larger issues at work and the Balkans. Through our continued (such as Modernism writ large) within collaboration—begun as fellow postdoc- my project.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 39 Margherita Losacco

My research at the Italian Academy issue of Byzantine “literacy” in the broad- explored several facets of a broader proj- est sense of the term. Nevertheless, if we ect about books in Byzantium: in search reconsider this perspective, a relevant par- of “Libraries.” In the semester I spent at adox arises. In investigating the so-called the Italian Academy, I focused on two Byzantine millennium, the modern scholar case studies. I worked on my re-catalogu- has to rely mostly on written sources, since ing of the Greek manuscript collection the monumental and archaeological evi- preserved in the Archiginnasio Library in dence for the Middle and Late Byzantine Bologna. In addition, I investigated the periods is very poor and has only been history of transmission of what is known partially studied and explored. Much rich- as Photius’ Library (9th century) through er, and much more substantial, is the writ- the manuscripts containing excerpts from ten evidence. Current estimates claim at it. I beneﬁted greatly from the Columbia least thirty thousand manuscripts have libraries, mainly the Butler Library and come down to us. This enormous written the Rare Book and Manuscript Library. I corpus is constituted mainly of literary fruitfully discussed my research with col- sources in the broadest sense of the term, leagues both at Columbia and at NYU (in fact, most documentary and archives and, toward the end of my Fellowship, I sources have been lost, owing primarily to spent ten days working in the Dumbarton the catastrophic events in the history of Oaks Center for Byzantine studies (Wash- the Byzantine Empire, 1204 and 1453). ington, D.C.). Thus, this written corpus—containing The starting point of my research is the works ranging from Homeric poetry up to frequent characterization of the Byzantine late Byzantine literature—remains the sin- civilization as “bookish,” insofar as it was gle most signiﬁcant source for shedding grounded in education and literacy as a light on the Byzantine millennium. means of social and professional improve- Through it, we can begin to reconstruct ment and largely devoted to the practices the broader context of the scribes, readers, of book-collecting, book-reading, and and scholars who wrote, read, possessed, book-writing. In the last few years new borrowed, annotated, and restored those attention has been given to the overlooked books. Nevertheless, even this circum-

40 italian academy for advanced studies in america stance—so large a quantity of preserved ened my research on the manuscript A 2, literature combined with such a dramatic which contains a 12th-century commen- absence of other sources—might have suc- tary on the Old Testament. In order to cessfully contributed to creating the allur- protect the text from damage, a flyleaf ing image of a “bookish” Byzantium. was affixed to the inner front board of this The codicological, paleographical, and manuscript. I discovered that the flyleaf is historical research on a manuscript, or a actually a Byzantine imperial document: collection of manuscripts such as the i.e., a so-called chrysoboullon sigillion. It small collection at the Archiginnasio was issued by emperor Andronicus III Library in Bologna, might yield informa- Paleologus (1328-1341) in order to con- tion on the techniques of book produc- firm and enlarge the privileges of the so- tion; on the scribes who copied the manu- called tou strivimitou monastery in the script; on the scriptorium where they city of Adrianople (modern Edirne, worked (in a small percentage of cases); Turkey). Until now, fewer than a dozen on the people who commissioned or pos- such documents have been encountered. sessed the manuscript and noted their And it is worth noting that it is the very impressions in the margins of their books; first known document concerning the city on book circulation, if they borrowed or of Adrianople. In New York, I had the loaned books, and on the reading circle opportunity to discuss such findings and which in some cases can be inferred; and to work on the digital images of the on the existence and “assets” of libraries, chrysoboullon with Kostantinos Smyrlis, public or private, lay or monastic. Such professor of Byzantine History at New an extensive study of a small manuscript York University and a specialist in Byzan- collection works as a concrete case study tine diplomatics. in the investigation of the Byzantine As an accomplished reader, as a book- “bookish” civilization. Over the past few owner, a book-reader, and a book-review- months I have been compiling a new cata- er, Photius—patriarch of Constantinople logue of the Greek manuscript collection in the 9th century—provides an excellent preserved in the Archiginnasio Library in case study for the issues of “literacy” in Bologna, a project that I hope to complete the widest sense of the term: the produc- within the coming year. This collection tion, circulation, and use of books in consists of 28 Greek manuscripts dating Byzantium. Furthermore, as the author of from the 10th to the 16th centuries. In the a sort of reference book—the so-called semester I spent at the Italian Academy, I Library—he was widely read, commented wrote an article which provides an on, extracted, and “used,” from the time overview of this collection and I broad- that his Library left his hands through

report on the academic year 2006–2007 41 the period of the Italian Renaissance, direct and indirect transmission and on when two manuscripts from the Library the methodological problems in the arrived in Italy. The history of the trans- research of palimpsests. Ms. Venice, Bib- mission of the Library, albeit too often lioteca Nazionale Marciana, Gr. 49 clari- obscure, allows us a glimpse into the very fies how Byzantine scholars modified and dynamics of the composition and recep- integrated Photius’ single chapters in tion of literary works in Byzantium. order to satisfy the excerptor’s needs, so Photius’ Library and its afterlife provide that the reuse of the Library is nothing us simultaneously with impressions of not but the generic reuse of a reference text. only the aims of a given author and his During my Italian Academy Fellowship, I projected contemporary audience, but isolated a cluster of manuscripts linked to also his posthumous audience and their the figure of the renowned scholar usage, thus exceeding even his own Nicephorus Gregoras, a Byzantine poly- expectations. We know about 60 manu- math and historian of the 14th century. scripts which preserve the Library, in full At least three manuscripts containing or in part. The manuscripts containing excerpts from Photius’ Library were isolated chapters, or groups of chapters, either in full or in part written by him— from the Library show that this master- not to mention Nicephorus’ references to piece had a large circulation among Photius in his literary works. No other Byzantine scholars: Photius’ Library was Byzantine scholar is known to have left really a “book on books,” and this is why such an extensive account of his concern it was read, copied, borrowed, and for and intimate knowledge of Photius’ “used” as a companion, as a reference Library. In my attempt to contribute to text, and as a source for introducing or the concrete knowledge of Byzantine “lit- explaining other books. My aim being to eracy”, Nicephorus is a very significant make a comprehensive study of the trans- sample, since he used the Library heavily, mission of this work through the manu- treating it as an actual reference book, scripts which contain extracts of it and of either excerpting chapters in order to cre- the traces of the Photian Library which ate new collections of texts or copying remain in later literary works, I spent my them as an introduction to others. Around time at the Italian Academy working on both Photius and Nicephorus, as leading several manuscripts in order to elucidate bibliophiloi, we can reconstruct the exis- different dynamics and methodological tence and the function of groups of read- problems related to my research. Ms. ers, scholars, and scribes linked to each London, British Library, Arundel 529 other by their mutual love of books. And sheds light on the slippery overlap of we can suppose then that the members of

42 italian academy for advanced studies in america such gatherings shared not only their most thankful to the Director, to the Fel- responsibilities—such as reading, com- lows, and to the whole staff for the con- menting, criticizing, copying, and restor- tinuous exchanges I enjoyed with them ing books—but also what the ancient and for the suggestions I received from Greeks called philia: friendship reinforced them. I am sure my Fellowship at the Ital- by shared scientiﬁc and cultural concerns. ian Academy will remain one of the most This was the kind of friendship I truly signiﬁcant and fruitful periods of my experienced at the Italian Academy. I am intellectual and academic life.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 43 Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe

The majority of my time at the Italian for example, the serpent in the Garden of Academy was spent working on my post- Eden), to images where, although invisi- doctoral research project: a history of ble, he was nonetheless implicitly present images and ideas of the Devil in late (such as narratives of exorcism). antiquity. The origin of this project lies in I spent a productive year in Rome in my doctoral research on the political the- 2001-2, exploring images of the Devil in ology of Ambrosiaster, a Latin Christian late antique art in the city. However, it author writing in Rome in the fourth cen- rapidly became apparent that it was tury AD. In investigating his presentation impossible to write about the Devil in of the political role of the Devil in human such neat geographical isolation; this is to politics, I came to explore more broadly a great extent a story about the travel and the ways in which the Devil was evoked exchange of ideas and images across by contemporary Christian writers in lit- space and time. Thus the book as re- erature and art. It quickly became appar- imagined at the Italian Academy will have ent that there was a scholarly consensus a much broader remit: to investigate that the Devil, although frequently and Christian imaginings of the Devil between vividly evoked in Christian literature, was about 180 and 600 across the Roman strikingly absent from Christian art. Empire. The rationale for these chrono- However, on further examination, it logical limits is that it is only in the late appeared that this judgment was rather second century that Christian image- ﬂawed. The Devil does not appear in early making took off, and that after about 600 Christian art in the anthropomorphic a different sort of iconography evolved, in form in which he ﬂourished from the mid- which demons and devils took explicit dle ages onwards; but the fact that this anthropomorphic form as impish, horned iconography developed some six centuries winged creatures. after the foundation of the church should At the Italian Academy I prepared one not lead us to conclude that the Devil was of the central chapters of this book, on absent from this early art. In fact, the narratives of exorcism. In early Christian Devil should be seen as subtly but power- art, depictions of Jesus exorcising are not fully present in a range of early Christian nearly as common as those of his other images, from bestial representations (of, miracles of healing, feeding, and raising

44 italian academy for advanced studies in america people from the dead. However, there are speciﬁc detail, the demon itself was not a handful of images of this biblical story “seen,” but rather its exit from the pos- in different media (mosaic, fresco, and sessed was generally inferred from carved ivory) from the late fourth to mid- peripheral (often violent and destructive) sixth centuries which allow us to chart phenomena. That is, demons were not different ways of envisioning a biblical seen with the physical eye, but perceived demonic story and to identify the shift with the spiritual and intellectual eye. from implying demonic presence to However, although demons were invisible, depicting demons in the anthropomorphic they were highly audible, being noisy, form in which they were to become so chatty creatures. This research into the familiar. I concentrated on doing an experience of encountering demons in late exhaustive search (using, among other antiquity gave some useful insights into things, the excellent Princeton Index of the process of craftsmen’s envisaging and Christian Art, now available online) for visually presenting new Christian stories. early Christian images of biblical exor- It certainly made less surprising the fact cisms. One of the problems with this of diabolical invisibility in art; since search is that many images, particularly demons and devils could not be seen in those on portable objects like ivory real life, there was no apparent need to plaques and pyxes, are difﬁcult to date represent them visually. I presented some with precision. This makes one’s argu- of this work on exorcism in a paper to the ments rather liable to circularity and trac- weekly Fellows’ seminar at the Italian ing developments over time rather hard. Academy, where my colleagues gave stim- Broadly speaking, however, it is possible ulating, provocative, and helpful feed- to group images from across the Roman back. Some of my fellow Fellows also had Empire into particular stylistic and icono- allied research interests in late antique graphic categories, and thereby to and Byzantine history, and further inter- demonstrate the spread of particular change with them proved very fruitful. images across space and time. I also commenced writing another sec- In this section of the project I also tion of this project, on the relationship tackled the question of how Christians between “pagan” or non-Christian “imagined” the Devil and his demons, demons (spirits with ambivalent moral and looked closely at a range of literary valency; some good, some bad, and most descriptions of both biblical and contem- mischievous) and Christian demons; this porary exorcisms. It became clear that involved examining a range of intriguing although many elements of exorcisms artifacts, among which apotropaic pen- were described in minute and visually dants and carved amulets (often bearing

report on the academic year 2006–2007 45 sketchy representations of animal-headed develops work done for my doctoral dis- demons) are particularly important. This sertation and contains a final, climactic will form an important part of the explo- chapter on the Devil which serves as a ration of the extent to which Christian bridging point to my current work. imaginings of diabolical form were shaped In the brief hiatus between finishing by existing, if murky, conceptions of the one demanding teaching job in Cam- demonic. Finally, and by chance, I spent a bridge and commencing a new one in fortnight of my time at the Italian Acade- London, it was very valuable to have the my preparing the very final manuscript for office space, the library resources, the a book to be published this year by Oxford scholarly contacts, and above all the University Press, entitled Ambrosiaster’s thinking and writing time which the Ital- Political Theology. This book presents and ian Academy generously provided.

46 italian academy for advanced studies in america Sebastiano Maffettone

During my period at the Italian Acade- according to which historical diversities my in New York, from September to between states and cultures are not theo- December of 2006, I developed the fol- retically irrelevant. lowing project. The atmosphere and the This mixed account is based on the fer- intellectual milieu were ideal. tilization of the concept of normative The theoretical background: Cos- regionalism. We present normative mopolitanism is universalist, individual- regionalism starting from cosmopoli- ist, and equalitarian. It maintains that all tanism and its limits. The limits of cos- human beings must be treated as equal mopolitanism are of a political, economic, and that, if this is not the case, we are in and cultural nature. Cosmopolitanism can need of a special justiﬁcation. Any other be dangerous politically because it ignores option—concerning the treatment of state sovereignty; it can be wrongly utopi- global community and its inhabitants— an from an economic point of view; and would be considered arbitrary from a blind toward cultural diversity. moral point of view. We then present our constructive Cosmopolitanism is usually contrasted hypothesis, specifying how normative by statism. According to the statists, the regionalism can work. The model can in universalist and individualist egalitarian- principle be applied ﬁrst to Indian-Euro- ism of cosmopolitans is the consequence pean relationships and then to interre- of an extreme and inopportune abstrac- gional macro-areas. tion. It could go well for a religious or One can conceive what is called here moral doctrine, but surely not for interna- normative regionalism as a generalization tional politics. That’s why, beyond the and a fertilization of the EU model. This state—statism claims—there is no justice. model is evidently based on a double This research project aims to articulate standard: another thesis, different from cosmopoli- (i) on a horizontal level, we have the tanism and statism. From cosmopoli- EU institutions tanism, we take the idea according to which global justice could exist in princi- (ii) a vertical level, we have the (inter)- ple. From statism, we take the vision national institutions.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 47 It is plausible to speculate that such a starting from a reduction of extreme dual system can progressively solve the poverty and, over time, enabling peoples classical international relations dilemma, to decide their own fate. It may be a dilemma based on the coexistence of a affirmed that this thesis, which moves our strong need for collective governance and attention from relative inequality to radi- the weak power of trans-national struc- cal deprivations, is based on a more mod- tures. The horizontal level creates pro- est ideal than global equality, an ideal gressively more comprehensive and sig- that may be called “weak global distribu- nificant institutions, whereas the vertical tive justice.” level permits progressively more legit- In my opinion, this intermediate option imization and effectiveness. meets another requirement of some signif- The project is based on the idea that icance, at least for a political theorist with the dual system and the EU model can be a liberal background. Cosmopolitans have generalized and conceived as a general a propensity for a radical moralization of framework for global relations. international politics, whose institutions To further explore this issue, I wrote a are considered at the service of their paper for a volume being prepared by favorite moral ideals. Statists, on the con- Thomas Pogge for Oxford University trary, tend to cut to a minimum the space Press. In it, I noted that, as a rule, cos- of morals in international politics. I mopolitans subscribe to the global dis- believe that, for a liberal, both positions tributive justice model, reducing socio- should prove unconvincing. This is the economic rights to a corollary of their the- reason why I have called this third posi- ories of justice. Statists, instead, reject the tion of mine—which is based on a weak idea of global distributive justice. The ideal of global justice and is neither third option that I proposed recognizes moralistic nor skeptical—a “liberal con- that, at this time, a comprehensive ideal ception.” of global distributive justice—founded on My article presented the liberal con- the domestic distributive justice model— ception with a focus on the distinction is not yet theoretically justifiable, between an institutional argument and an although it does not deserve the degree of anti-monistic argument. These arguments skepticism expressed by many statists. were presented in the second section of However, a broad and convincing inter- the piece in one of their latest versions, as pretation of socio-economic rights may do formulated by Thomas Nagel under the a great deal to reduce social injustice in name of a “political conception.” I then today’s globalized world. This position is tried to separate, in the second part of sufficientist in the way defined above, Section 2, two meanings of anti-monism,

48 italian academy for advanced studies in america labeled here as anti-monism 1—or struc- liberal conception was developed within tural anti-monism—and anti-monism 2— the fabric of socio-economic human or pluralist anti-monism—where anti- rights. The final section provided a fur- monism 1 or structural anti-monism is ther qualification of the liberal conception strictly concerned with the institutional within the universe defined by a Rawlsian argument and anti-monism 2 or pluralist model of global distributive justice. anti-monism is relatively independent I noted in my conclusion that it is cus- from it. Nagel’s political conception was tomary for a liberal to think that funda- subsequently examined, starting from a mental rights enable people to have a plausible cosmopolitan criticism. Here, I starting position of relative equality while argued that this criticism often fails to subsequent voluntary choices determine adequately consider the need to draw a different outcomes, better or worse, distinction between the institutional argu- depending on individual cases. This prin- ment and the two-fold anti-monistic ciple is what counts, while the methods to argument I mentioned before. In Section attain its goals count only up to a certain 3 I argued for the possibility of making point. Ultimately, human rights and duty progress in the direction of global justice of assistance to burdened societies—which starting from the political conception Rawls presents as two different aspects of even though a full idea of global distribu- the foreign policy of a liberal state—may tive justice may not yet be supported. also be conceived as being actually two Then, in Section 4, I upheld the main the- faces of the same coin, which may coincide sis within my liberal conception; namely, in an extended version of socio-economic that there are “basic rights,” that is to say human rights that enables everyone to human rights that are fundamental for make political choices. This would also survival and subsistence which can create allow for the attainment of one of the obligations and do not violate Rawls’ major goals of Rawlsian liberalism: to con- anti-monism. These rights—based on ceive distributive justice and equality in what I call a “universal duty of justice”— general as instruments to secure a liberal- represent a sort of moral threshold for the democratic political equilibrium, rather human community. The article closed than as independent moral purposes. with Sections 5 and 6. In Section 5 the

report on the academic year 2006–2007 49 Simone Magherini

During the semester spent at the Ital- 1930 by Preda Publisher in Milan. The ian Academy, the project entitled brief manifesto of Palazzeschi’s early “Palazzeschi and the domain of the comic work takes on a programmatic and pre- genre in early twentieth-century avant- liminary function in this “raccolta defini- garde European literature” was divided tiva e definitivamente curata,” making it into two main courses of study. the recurring emblem of the whole first The first was strictly linked to the main season of Palazzeschi’s poetry (1905- vein of research and focused on two 1915). The opening poem Chi sono? in exemplary works representative of Poesie functions as an introduction to an Palazzeschi’s poetic thought: one in prose unpublished poem narrating a dramatic and the other in verse. The transcription poetic adventure; it is the story of a and study of an unpublished version of “giovinezza turbata e quasi disperata” the futuristic manifesto Il Controdolore (upon the traumatic discovery of his (1914; kept at Yale University’s Beinecke homosexuality), which resolves in “alle- Rare Book and Manuscript Library) has gria” in a precious moment (coinciding shed light on the development both of with the artistic time of his novel, :riflessi, Palazzeschi’s originality and the corrosive 1908), “come per miracolo, come per strength of his comic thought, leading us virtù di un incantesimo del quale non to limit Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s con- saprei io stesso spiegare il mistero (appro- tribution to the Conclusioni of the final fondita conoscenza della vita, degli altri e draft of this “scherzo di gioventù.” Study di me stesso?)” (Premessa, in Opere gio- of the verse work chosen, which was vanili, pp. 2-3). Under the magnifying shared with other Fellows in a convivial “glass,” focused on the poet’s “cuore,” reading during one of the Italian Acade- “per farlo vedere alla gente,” lies hidden my’s weekly seminar luncheons, consisted the bitter secret of Palazzeschi’s amuse- of rereading the famous self-portrait Chi ment. His “piccola arte” revolves around sono? in connection with the self-antho- the disclosure of his “cuore”: an appar- logical collection Poesie published in ently cynical and sadistic operation that

50 italian academy for advanced studies in america he effects through the Poesie with a unpublished aspect of the work done by secret, unconfessed urgency to ultimately Prezzolini together with several Americans encounter someone or something that of Italian origin in an effort to spread the understands. It is indeed significant that Italian language and encourage Italian cul- Palazzeschi, after 30 years of silence, tural studies in the US and particularly in returns to poetry with a book entitled New York before the outbreak of the Sec- Cuor mio, which would seem to suggest ond World War. One archive which prom- that his dialogue and youthful search had ises to be exceptionally useful in recon- not yet come to an end, but that it contin- structing cultural work done by Casa Ital- ued still to wear away at the terrain of his iana over fifty years is the archive entitled existence like the steady flow of a stream. “Peter M. Riccio’s Papers,” which has The second course of study, which was a recently been donated to Columbia Uni- mere outline at my departure from Italy, versity by Olga Ragusa. The man to whom has expanded tremendously in the last few the archive belonged was a member of the months, taking on the dimensions of a new Circolo Italiano of Columbia University, independent research project with numer- and his name appears among others on a ous subsections. This project is dedicated letter to President Nicholas Butler, dated to probing Casa Italiana’s historical April 2, 1920, which requested a reading archives, kept at various institutions of room furnished with Italian books. Riccio Columbia (Columbia University Archives later taught Italian literature at in the at Low Library, the Rare Book & Manu- Department of Italian at Columbia and at script Library at Butler Library, and the Barnard College; after many years as secre- Italian Academy’s historical archives). This tary of Casa Italiana, he became its direc- type of work has never before been taken tor from 1957 to 1966. In his archive, up systematically. Only samples have been there are many important documents considered, and from a historical viewpoint which tell the story of Casa Italiana from at that, linked only to the legal battle of the year it was officially founded (1927, Giuseppe Prezzolini, who was repeatedly although some documents date as early as accused of having transformed Casa Ital- 1920) to the year it closed (1990). iana into an instrument of propaganda in In chronological and partially thematic favor of the Fascist government during his order, the vast trove of material found in directorship (1930-1940). This project Riccio’s papers can be grouped into the will focus on reconstructing a partially following sections:

report on the academic year 2006–2007 51 · Documents on the foundation, inaugu- New York), Giuseppe Prezzolini, Ardengo ration, and history of Casa Italiana Sofﬁci, Enrico Vallecchi (including sub- (1920-1979), including the years of the stantial correspondence which traces the Italian House Foundation (relations attempt by Vallecchi to open a company with the administration of Columbia, in New York after the war); Istituto Italiano di Cultura, contribu- · The Paterno Library’s constitution and tors, government cultural institutions, history (these papers are made up of the and Italian university institutions who following: lists of books and periodicals supported the initiative from abroad); belonging to Casa Italiana’s library, · Documents regarding Prezzolini and books donated by Prezzolini, lists of Riccio’s direction (including reports and subscriptions to periodicals, lists of minutes from the Administrative Board books for young people, and library ref- meetings dating from the 1930s to the erence services offered by Prezzolini); 1950s); · Documents regarding the creation of · Documents and a news item regarding the Permanent Italian Books Exhibi- the relationship between Casa Italiana tion; and the Italian government and Fascism; · Documents regarding activities of the · Correspondence with Italian ambassa- Federation of Italian Clubs at Casa dors and consulates in the US (in the Italiana; programs for readings of poet- folder containing correspondence with ry by Italian authors performed by stu- Giacomo De Martino are numerous let- dents during the annual exhibitions; ters written by Judge John J. Freschi · Fellowships promoted by Casa Italiana with clear traces of an attempt to pre- to send American students to Italian vent Gaetano Salvemini’s arrival in New universities; York in 1926, and correspondence with · Documents regarding the Italian Center the Italian Foreign Affairs Minister, for International Scholastic Correspon- Piero Parini, and the Minister of Educa- dence (an exchange of letters between tion, Emilio Bodrero); Italian and American students); · Riccio’s correspondence with Corrado · Documents regarding activities of the Alvaro, Arturo Loria, Alberto Moravia, Educational Borough (Leonard Covel- Aldo Palazzeschi (including material lo), which was operative in the 1930s at regarding the publication of Perelà. Casa Italiana; Uomo di fumo in English—“The Man of · A copy of the “Casa Italiana Guest Smoke,” translated by Riccio in 1936 Book / Some of the Distinguished Visi- and published by Vanni Publishers in

52 italian academy for advanced studies in america tors / to the Casa” (February 1931- Digitale del Novecento Letterario Italiano 1972); (www.ad900.it), promoted by the Univer- · A photographic index (among which sity of Florence’s “Aldo Palazzeschi” can be found material regarding the Study Center in collaboration with the inauguration of Casa Italiana and the University of Genoa Library, that same honoris causa degree conferred on Pres- university’s Twentieth Century in Liguria ident Nicholas Butler at the University Archive, and the University of Torino’s of Rome). Gozzano-Pavese Archive. Finally, a well-deserved thank-you The initial recovery and development of goes to the director, staff, and Fellows of this vast historical documentation, includ- the Italian Academy, who have all con- ing the precious papers kept in the histori- tributed to making my research pleasant cal archive of the Italian Academy (espe- and stimulating. The youthful enthusiasm cially Medardo Rosso’s correspondence of Maristella Lorch and Luciano Rebay with Ardengo Sofﬁci and Prezzolini, dated for the research on Casa Italiana will not between 1909-1911, and a precious pho- be forgotten. Lastly, I wish to mention tographic album documenting the history Paolo Valesio, with whom I have been of awards and cultural initiatives promot- privileged to share our common passion ed by Casa Italiana) could be carried out for the beauty of poetry in these few by the Italian Academy itself through par- months. ticipation in the research project Archivio

report on the academic year 2006–2007 53 Ti t o M a g r i

In the four months I spent as a Fellow as a visiting professor at the University of at the Italian Academy for Advanced Michigan in the Fall term of 2006) and, Studies at Columbia (Winter term 2007), I especially, during my time at the Italian have been working on my book Practical Academy. At present it is divided into five Sense. A Study of Mind and Action. In this chapters: two mainly stage-setting and book I attempt to establish a connection critical, and three mainly constructive. My between moral realism, which is one of the project was to spend my term at the Acad- leading themes in contemporary metaethi- emy writing this book, so I think that this cal reflection, a non-standard philosophi- report should in the first place deal with cal view of action and an account of the how much of that project was accom- possibility of practical conceptual thought. plished. The answer is (give or take some- In the barest outline, the argument should thing): half. Physically, I managed to write move from a first-order interpretation of virtually ex novo (that is, completely revis- moral realism to the rejection of a certain ing and substituting a pre-existent text) sort of radical pragmatism and inferential- two and a half of the presently planned five ism about concepts and of the underlying chapters. From the more substantive, theo- (broadly) Davidsonian view of action, and retical viewpoint, I managed not only to then to a conception of the reality and solve some excruciating issues (especially normativity of action as a factive and about the theory of action) which left me practical state of mind and of its content suspended, but to almost completely as a kind of Fregean sense, and finally (on redesign the main conceptual threads of the ground of this latter view) to an the work. But two and a half chapters still account of the possibility of practical con- remain to be written; and crucially impor- ceptual content. tant theoretical points are to be addressed The basic structure of the book has and assessed in detail. However, I cannot evolved, both during the interval of time really complain about my productivity between my application for the fellowship during this term. Besides writing a good and my arrival in New York in early 2007 half of the book, I have put on paper the (this was mostly due to my having taught first draft of a very long article on the courses broadly on the themes of the book metaethics of G.E. Moore (which aims to

54 italian academy for advanced studies in america cast new light on the Moorean conception moral realism, however, I argue that it is of intrinsic value). I also gave talks at the not foundationally self-standing. While it University of Arizona, Tucson, and at would not be legitimate to search for any NYU. Besides, it is well known that writing deeper moral foundation for moral judg- takes a much longer time than one can rea- ments once they are true and justified in sonably predict; one reason for this is that the context of the best exercise of the one should responsibly check any step one practice of morality (except in the first- is taking; another is that one must often order sense that it is morally appropriate spend time summoning the forces and the to be ready to criticize one’s moral views), mood for setting oneself to writing. it is perfectly legitimate (and necessary) (Diderot used to say that in doing literary to investigate the conceptual foundations work one must be prepared to waste six of that practice and its claims to give hours in order to work three; this is also access to reality. There are two distinct my personal estimate.) foundational tasks involved in the con- More in detail, the work I have been struction of moral realism: one exclusively doing at the Academy has discussed, in ethical and the other exclusively concep- the first place, alternative, theoretical tual. My intent has been to individuate possibilities of understanding reference, and disentangle them and to frame the truth, and knowledge in the moral nature of the second one as a theory of domain. I chose moral realism as the con- practical concepts. (This is a summary of text of my discussion on account of its Chapter 1.) intrinsic importance (it makes quite a dif- In the second place, I have set some ference whether we can or cannot discuss preliminary (and generally agreed-upon) moral matters aiming at definite, objec- requirements on the form of a theory of tive, true answers); of its raising central concepts, insisting in particular on the and highly controversial philosophical idea that concepts are the bearers of the questions; and of its general implications fundamental normativity (conditions of for issues of realism that arise in other correctness) of all episodes that have this domains. I end by recommending an normative character; and that, for just internal, or pragmatic, or first-order (as I this reason, an account of concepts is prefer to say) interpretation of moral real- committed to an appropriate form of realism which has limited direct metaphysical ism. Therefore, a theory of practical con- commitments and which seems to stand cepts is also a theory of practical norma- in stable reflective equilibrium with a tivity. I then take into consideration and wide variety of authoritative metaethical discard an otherwise extremely well-craft- positions. With regard of this form of ed and deep-searching proposal for a the-

report on the academic year 2006–2007 55 ory of concepts. This proposal, inferen- tion that action has to be factorized in an tialist pragmatism, attempts to bring to internal or mental and an external or bear on concepts, and in particular on physical component; and propose a radi- practical or action concepts, the first- cal revision of this framework, articulat- order form of realism that I have endorsed ing an all-around practical conception of in the case of moral judgment and justifi- the nature of action as the only one which cation. However, I reject this proposal, at is consistent with practical content (and least when it is applied to the content of action itself) being conceptual. (This is a practical concepts (and the same holds summary of Chapter 2.) true for empirical concepts). One of the In Chapter 3 I move from certain gen- main reasons for my rejecting it is that, in eral views concerning actions as real order to give support to the idea that episodes in the life of rational beings practical concepts can be defined in terms (views which are both strongly intuitive of a certain kind of inferential practice, it and highly philosophically articulated, for subscribes to an implausible, and in fact instance in Aristotle’s and Anscombe’s seriously flawed, conception of action. theory of action) to a quite extensive The influence of this flawed conception is investigation of the nature of action as a wide and deep. In effect, if action is con- factive and unitary state of mind display- ceived along its lines, it may be difficult, if ing a specific kind of normative structure not straightforwardly impossible, to gain and a property of self-referentiality. This an understanding of practical conceptual view of action seems to provide the right content that has any significant founda- framework for giving an account of prac- tional bearing. I discuss this conception tical conceptual content because of its analytically by examining it in the version normative articulation and of its commit- offered by its most authoritative propo- ment to realism and objectivity. This is nent, Donald Davidson. I then identify the exactly where I was when my term at the main flaw of this conception: the assump- Italian Academy ended.

56 italian academy for advanced studies in america Luigi Mazzone

During my year as a Fellow at the Ital- sending out commands to the body. In ian Academy, I have focused mainly on fMRI, the patient performs a particular two projects. task while the imaging is done. In my The first project was aimed at explor- study, an event-related task called the ing the reward system in children with “Wheel of Fortune task,” was adminis- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder tered to each child during a scan with (ADHD) by using functional magnetic functional magnetic resonance imaging. resonance. ADHD is a neuro-behavioral The Wheel of Fortune (WOF) is a com- disorder characterized by pervasive inat- puterized, two-choice decision-making tention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity, task involving probabilistic monetary out- which may result in significant functional comes. In each trial, subjects chose impairment. Convergent data from neu- between two options, each with an roimaging, genetics, and neuropsycholog- assigned probability of winning a certain ical as well as neurochemical studies have amount of money. indicated dysfunction of two systems in Stated simply, my study aims to under- patients with ADHD: 1) the attention sys- stand why subjects afflicted by ADHD tem and 2) the reward system. Each of exhibit contradictory behavior patterns as these functions has been studied through compared to healthy control subjects and various methods that explore the function subjects with anxiety disorder. Unique and structure of the brain, including patterns of activity in the reward system functional magnetic resonance imaging. could be helpful in understanding how Known as fMRI, this is a relatively new this system contributes to motivated procedure that uses MR imaging to meas- behavior. In addition, a better under- ure quick metabolic changes that occur in standing of the underlying neurobiologi- the active part of the brain. This technol- cal substrates of anxiety and ADHD ogy is used to identify regions of the brain should provide a priori hypotheses for where blood vessels expand, chemical future focused studies. Although anxiety changes take place, or extra oxygen is appears to be biased toward avoidance delivered—all indications that this part of and ADHD toward approach behavior, the brain is processing information and these two disorders often coexist within

report on the academic year 2006–2007 57 the same individuals. Approximately 25 fears, poor eye contact, aggressive behav- percent of children with ADHD have an iors, temper tantrums, irritability, and anxiety disorder. inexplicable changes in mood. Subtle dis- Children with ADHD require stronger turbances in movement, such as hypo- or and more salient reinforcers to regulate hyperactivity, have been detected in chil- their behavior than healthy children. And dren with ASD who are as young as four yet these patients indiscriminately pro- months old. Subtle abnormalities in duce excessive responses to both novel response to sensory stimulation, excessive and rewarding stimuli, i.e., generating oral fixation on objects, and an aversion approach behavior. Moreover, they tend to social touch and auditory stimuli have to show less sensitivity to changes in rein- been observed in children with ASD who forcement contingencies and respond are as young as 9 months old. more strongly to negative than to positive The appearance of these subtle abnor- reinforcers. In contrast, anxiety disorders malities may not be recognized by par- are characterized by a bias towards harm- ents. However, the overt abnormalities avoidant behaviors. An obvious difficulty that are most strongly associated with in the study of anxiety is the heterogene- ASD, such as difficulties with speech and ity of disorders placed under the umbrella hearing, typically become evident to par- of anxiety disorders. ents and pediatricians by the time the The second project during my time at affected children reach an age of 12 to 24 the Italian Academy was to define a criti- months. cal review of neuroimaging of patients The past ten years have witnessed a suffering from Autistic Spectrum Disor- shift in both our understanding and our ders (ASDs). approach to the study of ASD. This shift Autism Spectrum Disorder refers to a has occurred in part because of the emer- category of conditions that includes gence of new technological and method- Autism, Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Syn- ological means for investigating both nor- drome, and Pervasive Developmental Dis- mal and pathological development in order Not Otherwise Specified (PDD- children and adolescents. Central among NOS). Each of these disorders is charac- these new means are structural magnetic terized by complex developmental dis- resonance imaging (MRI) and functional abilities, including impairment of com- MRI (fMRI), which can reveal structural munication, difficulties in social interac- and functional abnormalities, respective- tion, and restrictive or repetitive behav- ly, in brain development. Both of these iors. Other symptoms commonly found in modalities of MRI have played an impor- individuals with ASD include irrational tant role in advancing our knowledge of

58 italian academy for advanced studies in america ASD by showing that these disorders the prevalent heterogeneity of samples in involve a number of both cortical and ASD research that can confound research subcortical regions within the brain, findings; and the lack of studies of chil- including the frontal, medial, prefrontal, dren—as opposed to adolescents and and temporal cortices, the anterior cingu- adults—with ASDs. All of these difficulties late, the basal ganglia, the thalamus, and have a direct influence on our ability to the cerebellum. For example, recent stud- distinguish symptoms from compensation ies using fMRI have identified reduced with ASD as well as our ability to distin- temporal synchronization between key guish core symptoms of ASD from those of cortical areas in autistic subjects during other comorbid disorders. the performance of tasks that measure The weekly lunch sessions have been sentence comprehension and working very important for me. I had the opportuni- memory. These same studies also found ty to increase my cultural background and that autistic subjects showed evidence of be in a multidisciplinary environment increased lower-level processing in the where topics encompassing medicine, histo- posterior areas of the brain but reduced ry, philosophy, and physics were discussed. higher-level processing in frontal areas of It was a great pleasure working with the brain. The findings of another study Daniela Puzzo to organize an evening of have suggested that in individuals with music and fencing in the theater of Italian autism the amygdala plays a greater role Academy on March 2nd. The fencing part (than in healthy individuals) within the of the program took place during the neural network that subserves face per- intermissions of the contemporary opera ception. These and other findings have “Selenal,” and was a mixed epee team shown that nearly the entire brain is match between a US National Team involved in autism. However, a number of (Brendan Baby, Lindsay Campbell, and challenges remain in the application of Justin Tausig) and a European team neuroimaging, and notably of fMRI, to (Attila Lukacs, Reka Szele, and myself). the study of ASD. Finally, I would like to thank the whole The critical review that I completed staff of the Italian Academy and the during this year at the Italian Academy Director, Prof. David Freedberg, for their discusses difficulties in interpreting find- kindness, which has made my stay at the ings from MRI and fMRI; designing exper- Italian Academy incredibly pleasant. I iments that target activations of interest; really appreciate their efforts.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 59 Alberto Morgante

In the past ten years nanoscience has Science Foundation that is focused on become a very important forefront field of studying the transport of charge in molec- science where researchers with diverse ular nanostructures down to the level of a backgrounds (physicists, chemists, biolo- single molecule. During my stay at the gists, and electrical engineers) join their Italian Academy I’ve been closely collabo- efforts to reach a better understanding of rating with various Columbia Nanocenter the properties of matter on a very small research groups. My expertise is in study- scale; nanoscientists in fact study matter ing the electronic and structural proper- confined to the scale of “nanometers,” ties of surfaces of very thin films (with that is, one billionth of a meter. In prac- thickness ranging from less than a single tice nanoscience studies everything from atomic layer to a few atomic layers, the single-atom scale (the typical dimen- meaning from a few Angstroms to a few sion of which is one Angstrom, i.e., one nanometers) and of systems that are con- tenth of a nanometer) to 100 nanometers fined to the nanoscale in particular, using (just below the typical length scale of a synchrotron radiation (a very special light virus). This type of research is expected to that is emitted by large accelerator produce great advances in many techno- machines where electrons travel at a logical fields relevant for our everyday speed near the speed of light and emit life: medical applications like new diag- radiation similar to LASER radiation but nostic methods and focused drug delivery, with a broad spectrum that goes from energetics (in both production and stor- infrared to X-rays). Recently I have been age, e.g., nanotechnology-based fuel cells, studying molecular structures and more and solar cells based on nanomaterials), specifically structures based on organic and new light-emitting devices (organic molecules on surfaces, trying to under- LED). But the most sought-after applica- stand the formation of chemical bonds tion is the further miniaturization of the between organic molecules and inorganic transistor, the basic component of any substrates, and to recover information electronic device. about the transfer of charges (electrons) Columbia University has been awarded from the molecules to the substrates by a Nanocenter financed by the National shining X-rays on the films. A similar goal

60 italian academy for advanced studies in america is being sought in the research carried out scopic studies using synchrotron radiation by Prof. Latha Venkataraman at the have been carried out at the same time in Columbia Nanocenter, who has recently Trieste. The collaboration will continue in shown—with strikingly clear-cut experi- the coming months and researchers from ments—how it is possible to actually the Columbia Nanocenter will come to measure the current that is flowing Trieste for experiments next summer. through a single molecule. This means A further collaboration that I’ve start- that Prof. Venkataraman has been able to ed in this period focuses on the study of a measure currents that are flowing through newly discovered material (or, rather, a a wire that is composed of a single organic very old material) that promises both molecule and that connects two metal plenty of foreseeable applications in what (gold) nanoelectrodes. There is a clear is called nanoelectronics and also the pos- motivation for trying to understand the sibility of studying fundamental physical physical basis of processes such as the processes that previously were confined charge transport in single molecules: the either to exotic parts of the universe, like need to find new ways to further reduce the black holes, or to very high energy and miniaturize the basic electronic cir- accelerator machines. (These are very cuit element, the transistor. Prof. high cost machines, not to be confused Venkataraman’s experiments have shown with the “cheap” synchrotron radiation that a lot can be learned from the direct machines; they are so expensive that the measurement of the resistance of a single new multinational collaboration at molecule about the mechanisms that reg- CERN, which also includes the USA, can ulate the charge transfer inside the mole- afford only one.) cule, but to reach a real understanding of This wonderful material is graphene, the entire charge transfer process (which which consists of a single crystal plane of also involves the connection of the mole- carbon atoms in the graphite structure. In cule with the metallic nanoelectrode) a graphite the carbon atoms are arranged in broader approach is needed. a peculiar way: they form a so-called hon- To this aim we have started a project eycomb structure in a plane, and the that involves other research groups at atoms in the plane are very strongly Columbia University (Prof. Heinz’s group bound one to the other, held together by in Electrical Engineering and Prof. Flynn’s very strong covalent bonds (where elec- group in Chemistry) and my research trons are shared between different group in Trieste. Experiments with Scan- atoms), while the interaction between dif- ning Tunneling Microscopy have been ferent planes is rather weak (with not carried out at Columbia while spectro- much sharing of electrons). The crystal

report on the academic year 2006–2007 61 planes are therefore very easily cleaved, or even disturbed by the thermal motion or separated from one another, which is of the atoms (all effects that, in normal why graphite is used for writing (when materials, cause what is called the Joule you write with a pencil you leave carbon effect: the transformation of part of the crystal planes on the paper), and also as a electrical energy into heat, an undesired dry lubricant. The fact that a single plane effect in any electric and electronic is weakly bound to the rest of the crystal device). This property makes graphene a makes graphite a good candidate to create very promising candidate for building a real 2D system, the properties of which nanoelectronic devices, and graphene- theoretical scientists have been simulat- based transistors working with a single ing, calculating, and predicting for many electron have recently been proposed. By years. However, a 2D system has never using the synchrotron radiation in Trieste actually been available for experiments. It we are planning to study the band struc- was discovered in the last three years that ture that makes graphene so extraordi- it is feasible to obtain graphene samples nary, since these huge machines are the composed of a single atomic layer, and the only sources able to produce the high- Columbia Nanocenter, and in particular intensity, high-resolution X-ray beams Prof. Philip Kim’s group, was the first to with micro or nano spatial size that are study this system. The properties that needed to study the very small graphene make graphene so extraordinary are relat- samples. ed to the characteristics of the quantum While working at these projects, I also states in which the electrons are located in greatly enjoyed a very lively and active this material. The particular geometrical scientific atmosphere at the Nanocenter, characteristics of the periodic lattice (the where I could listen to many seminars of so-called honeycomb lattice) of the outside speakers of a high scientific level. graphene film cause these electrons to What I appreciated most were the internal behave in an extraordinary way: more seminars of the Nanocenter and of the like photons or high-energy particles than chemistry department, which were always normal massive particles. This material followed by long, interesting, and fruitful also appears to display quantum effects discussions that allowed me to participate usually measurable only at very extreme in the scientific activity of the various conditions like extreme purity and low research groups and that are, I think, a temperatures near absolute zero (zero real strength of the center itself. Kelvin). Moreover, electrons travel in The seminars at the Italian Academy graphene with very low probability of were a very refreshing and exciting expe- being scattered by defects or impurities, rience for me, as I am used to working

62 italian academy for advanced studies in america most of the time in the laboratory. I real- the physics of the tip of a pencil. I think ly appreciated the chance to discuss very that this was a really formative experi- different subjects and to compare the ence that is unfortunately very rare in working methods in science and the the specialized world of today’s science. humanities. I always found the scholars Nevertheless, I think that we are reach- very interested in hearing the naïve ing the awareness that this interdiscipli- remarks and questions of an outsider nary work is really important and help- like me; and on the other hand they also ful both for scientists and scholars in the showed interest in such arid subjects as humanities.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 63 Daniela Puzzo

During my time at the Italian Academy following Aβ elevation. The overall pur- I studied the effect of phosphodiesterase 5 pose of my project was to explore the inhibitors on synaptic dysfunction and molecular basis for Aβ-induced changes memory loss in animal models of in synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus, Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Memory loss is a structure within the temporal lobe par- an important clinical sign of diseases ticularly critical for memory storage and characterized by abnormal deposition of a with remarkable plastic characteristics of protein called amyloid-beta (Aβ). Aβ is the kind that are required for learning produced in high amounts in the brain of and memory. humans affected by disorders of the nerv- The observation that Aβ markedly ous system, including neurodegenerative inhibits long-term potentiation (LTP)–a pathologies of adult humans, such as AD, physiological correlate of synaptic plastic- and developmental pathologies such as ity that is thought to underlie learning Down’s syndrome (DS). Aβ is thought to and memory–has recently inspired a impair communication among different series of studies aiming to explain the components of the brain. The steady mechanism(s) by which the peptide sup- accumulation of Aβ over years would presses plasticity. Studies on cause progressive displacement of essen- APP(K670N:M671L) transgenic (Tg) tial neuronal structures with loss of animals at advanced ages (20 months) synapses and eventually death of neurons. have shown a decrease in phosphorylation Early in the disease process, low levels of of a transcriptional mediator of LTP, the pathogenic Aβ assemblies could produce CREB protein. Moreover, CREB is inhibit- synaptic dysfunction before synapse loss. ed in cultured hippocampal neurons that These events would open up a temporal were exposed to sublethal levels of Aβ42. frame in which it could still be possible to This inhibition was due to down-regula- intervene therapeutically before any irre- tion of cAMP-dependent-protein kinase versible damage has ensued. There is, (PKA), an enzyme that was also responsi- therefore, intense interest in understand- ble for the impairment of LTP observed in ing the cellular and molecular mecha- acute hippocampal slices perfused with nisms that affect synaptic transmission Aβ42. Nitric-oxide (NO) and cGMP are

64 italian academy for advanced studies in america two additional molecules that induce APP(K670N:M671L)/PS1(M146L) CREB phosphorylation. NO is a mem- mouse, termed APP/PS1. The use of brane permeable gas generated from the APP/PS1 transgenic mice to study synap- amino acid L-arginine by the enzyme NO tic disruption represents a more “physio- synthase (NOS); it is involved in several logical” approach than the exogenous types of learning (as demonstrated by application of Aβ. Interestingly, these pharmacological studies with NOS mice present an early increase of brain inhibitors) and neuronal plasticity, and plasma Aβ levels together with the through activation of soluble-guanylyl- appearance of plaques. I have chosen cyclase (sGC), the cGMP producing them rather than other amyloid-deposit- enzyme. cGMP, in turn, can activate ing animals because of the early impair- cGMP-dependent-protein-kinase (PKGs), ment of LTP and cognition in them that a family of proteins with an important will allow time to be saved on the experi- role as signal transduction mediators, ments. increasing phospho-CREB during LTP. One effective way to increase cGMP Although there is extensive literature on levels includes use of inhibitors of phos- NO and cGMP showing that they may be phodiesterase 5 (PDE5), a member of a both responsible for i) A‚ toxicity in dif- super-family of enzymes including 11 ferent systems ranging from in vivo ani- types of PDE, some of which play a criti- mals to cell lines, and ii) neuroprotection cal role in memory and behavior in during A‚-induced cell death and vasoac- diverse organisms ranging from the fruit tivity, there are no studies linking A‚- fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to humans. induced synaptic dysfunction to the PDE5 is a cGMP-specific PDE expressed NO/cGMP/CREB signaling cascade. In ubiquitously, including in several brain previous work I provided data supporting regions associated with cognitive function this link showing that i) A? inhibits NO such as the hippocampus, cortex and production leading to lower cGMP levels cerebellum. Preclinical studies have during induction of plasticity and memo- shown that the selective PDE5 inhibitors ry and ii) NO donors and cGMP-analogs sildenafil raise hippocampal cGMP levels might protect against A‚-induced LTP and improve memory in mice. Moreover, impairment. sildenafil (Viagra by Pfizer, pyrazol-[4,3- Based on these findings, the aim of my d]-pyrimidinone derivative) crosses the project was to investigate if the up-regu- blood-brain barrier and represents a good lation of the NO cascade plays a beneficial candidate for CNS studies. In the present role against synaptic dysfunction in trans- study I have investigated whether silde- genic mice models of AD, the nafil could exert beneficial effects in

report on the academic year 2006–2007 65 APP/PS1 mice that display impaired LTP, also considerably delay the natural pro- spatial working memory, and contextual gression of the disease, suggesting that learning as early as 3–4 months of age, treatment with these drugs can be used as associated with loss of tetanus-induced a prophylactic measure to prevent or increases in CREB phosphorylation. reduce the cognitive symptoms in AD. My research has been carried out An additional benefit of my stay at the through electrophysiological, behavioral, Italian Academy was the extraordinary and immunocytochemical methods. I privilege of performing in the Academy’s found that: i) a brief application of silde- theatre the premiere of my contemporary nafil was capable of rescuing the defect in lyric opera “Selenal,” in collaboration LTP of slices derived from 3-month-old with Luigi Mazzone, for an evening of APP/PS1 mice; ii) sildenafil was also music and fencing. Thanks to Prof. capable of reversing the behavioral defect Freedberg and the great help of the Ital- in these animals; iii) sildenafil reversed ian Academy staff, I could play my music the impairment of CREB phosphorylation on that wonderful stage, along with five during LTP. other musicians and five singers, before a I next examined whether the PDE5 full house. inhibits or maintains its protective effect against synaptic dysfunction and memory loss. In these experiments, 3-month-old mice were injected intraperitoneally with sildenafil for 3 weeks, then the treatment was stopped for 9-12 weeks prior to testing. The mice were then re-tested. I found that inhibition of PDE5 is capable of rescuing deficits in LTP, behaviour, and CREB phosphorylation in APP/PS1 mice for an extended time beyond the duration of drug administration. Thus, it is very appealing to think that PDE5 inhibitors might counteract memory loss and synaptic dysfunction in patients affected by AD. The potential impact of drugs up-regulat- ing the NO cascade is very high, because they can not only counteract the inhibito- ry effects of high levels of Ab in AD, but

66 italian academy for advanced studies in america Lidia Santarelli

As a Fellow of the Italian Academy I of crossing the border from the German to have conducted research on Fascist Italy the Italian zone of occupation. Through and the Holocaust in Axis-occupied the concession of Italian citizenship to a Europe. My project focuses on the city of considerable number of Greek Jews resid- Salonika and explores the diplomacy of ing in Salonika, as well as the organiza- aiding and protecting the Jews which was tion of an underground network, the Ital- unofficially promoted by the local Italian ian Consulate unofficially promoted Consulate during the years 1942-43. In diplomacy to aid and protect Jews, first particular, my research dissects the from racial discrimination, confiscation of dynamics of rescue and analyzes their property, and social segregation and, implications for the construction of both starting in 1943, from mass deportation. individual and collective memory of the Historical evidence suggests that Ital- war experience. ian authorities managed to save between By the outbreak of World War II, 800 and 1,000 Jews from deportation. Salonika was inhabited by the largest Combining archival material, diplomatic Jewish community in Greece. After the documents, and underground press with Axis invasion of the country in 1941, the diaries, testimonies, and memoirs gener- city fell within the German zone of occu- ated on the Italian, Greek, and German pation and became one of the main tar- sides, my research explores the mechanics gets of Nazi racial policy in Southeastern of aid and its impact on the everyday life Europe. The Jewish situation, however, of the city under Axis occupation. turned into a major point of contention Salonika stood as a conspicuous obser- between Italian and German occupation vatory for investigating the contentious authorities. relationship between the two distinct Beginning in the Spring of 1942, the projects for a Nazi and a Fascist New Italian Consulate in Salonika worked con- Order. In contrast to the notion some stantly on behalf of the Jews of Italian ori- scholars have advanced of the Italian gin and/or with Italian citizenship in occupation as an anthropological alterna- order to provide shelter, documents, and tive to the Nazis’ total war, my study means of escape from the ghetto, and thus argues that the politics of rescue on behalf

report on the academic year 2006–2007 67 of the Jews of Salonika represented a con- I articulate the case study on Salonika troversial, and even contradictory, out- within the wider framework of my come of the crisis suffered by the Fascist research on the Italian occupation of project for a New Order from 1941 Greece. First, my study highlights the onwards. divergent perceptions that Italian Fascist The survival of the Jews of Italian ori- rulers, military officers and diplomatic gin and/or with Italian citizenship resid- authorities articulated regarding the Jew- ing in Salonika was considered essential ish question within Axis-occupied territo- to the long-term interests of Fascist for- ries. The diplomacy to aid and protect the eign policy in Southeastern Europe. Jews designed by the Italian Consulate in Wartime Italian diplomatic documents Salonika is compared and contrasted with pointed out that the Italian-Jewish fami- the different cases of Rhodes, Corfù, Jani- lies of Salonika represented an outpost of na, and Athens. In so doing, I argue that Italianismo in the Eastern Mediterranean. the rescue of Jews in Salonika represented Thus both their social status and econom- a specific case, rather than a general ic achievements had to be protected from trend, of Fascist Italy’s occupation policy Nazi racial persecution. The survival of in the Balkans. Jewish families culturally, economically, Second, my study stresses how, begin- and politically linked to Italy would be ning in the Spring of 1942, the diplomacy crucial to the construction of the Italian to aid and protect the Jews of Salonika Spazio Vitale in a region otherwise domi- developed simultaneously with the nated by Nazi Germany on political, eco- increasing radicalization of Italian repres- nomic, and strategic levels. sive policy in Central Greece. Within the From this perspective, my research Italian zone of occupation, in fact, the investigates the contradictions and incon- implementation of large-scale counterin- sistencies between the institutionalization surgency operations led to a war waged of anti-Semitism in Italy, where the Jews against civilians. Historical evidence of fell victim to state-promoted racial perse- war crimes committed by Italian troops cution, and the diplomatic decision to aid against civilian populations sheds new and protect the Jews residing in Axis- light on Fascist Italy’s military violence occupied territories. This approach raises and its values and calls into question the major issues concerning the ideological conventional representation of the Italian tenets of Fascist racial theories in compar- occupation as a bloodless and humane ison with Nazi ones and their implications system of domination. for both the political and military behav- During my stay at the Academy I have ior of Fascist Italy as an occupying Power. benefited from the opportunity of consult-

68 italian academy for advanced studies in america ing the vast collections of both biblio- my and the vivid exchange of ideas which graphical resources and historical docu- took place both during the Fellows Pro- ments housed at Columbia’s libraries. gram weekly seminars and everyday Furthermore, the Academy has provided informal conversations. Our interdiscipli- me an important bridge to historical nary seminars have challenged most of archives and cultural institutions in the my certainties about the conventional city of New York. Both these circum- boundaries between sciences and humani- stances have allowed me to expand my ties, raising fascinating questions about research beyond my initial expectations. the languages, methods, and epistemology In particular, I have developed my of our distinct approaches to knowledge. study on the ideological and cultural I am extremely grateful to David background of Italy’s territorial expan- Freedberg for his enthusiasm, commit- sionism, focusing on the long-term history ment, and energy in running the Italian of Italian colonialism/imperialism in the Academy, for constantly supporting my Mediterranean. This work has given birth work, and for widening my perspective on to the project for the international confer- American culture and society. I have ence “From Africa to the Balkans: New enjoyed particularly the opportunity of Perspectives on Fascist Italy’s Material sharing my intellectual curiosity, doubts, Culture and Ideology” (which I am cur- and hypotheses for current and future rently co-organizing for 2008 with Jen- research with Barbara Faedda. I am also nifer Hirsh, an Academy Fellow in the Fall particularly grateful to Abigail Asher, who semester). Thanks to the generous support introduced me to the activity of the Cen- provided by the Italian Academy, this con- tro Primo Levi, which turned into an ference will bring to Columbia scholars important point of reference for my study with different research backgrounds in on the Jews of Salonika. Finally, I want to order to challenge traditional approaches thank Ellen Baird for our conversations to the history of Fascist Italy’s expansion- on human rights, and Allison Jeffrey, ism and to explore its legacy in light of the Robbie Brooks, and Will Buford for their ongoing debate in comparative European help and assistance. On many occasions and Mediterranean Studies. Irma Rodriguez made me feel at home. I I have very much enjoyed the opportu- owe to her a number of new Spanish nity to discuss the results of my study words and the privilege of always ﬁnding with both scholars and staff of the Acade- ﬂowers in my studiolo.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 69 Kristina Sessa

During my year-long fellowship at the secured? I contend that a group of largely Italian Academy, I made significant unexplored texts, many of which have progress on my first monograph, The been rejected by scholars on account of Household and the Bishop in Late their “fictional” status, played central Antique Rome. This book presents a new roles in the construction of papal authori- conceptual history of the emergence of ty in Rome and its establishment in the episcopal authority in late antique Rome household and the city. (ca. 300-600 CE). I argue that the late This project began as a doctoral dis- antique Roman papacy was a relatively sertation, and my goal for this year at the anemic institution, which depended heav- Italian Academy was to draft two chap- ily upon the support of Rome’s wealthy ters based on new research, conducted and powerful private households. The previously in Rome and, more recently, at Bishop of Rome, while long honored by the libraries of Columbia University and clergy outside of Rome as an authority on Union Theological Seminary. Chapter matters of doctrine and discipline, para- One, “Governing the Domus: Domestic doxically exercised a limited authority Authority in Classical and Christian within the city of Rome itself: he was typi- Rome,” introduces readers to the institu- cally of middling social status; he had to tion of the private, aristocratic household govern an urban church that lacked a as a central social, economic, religious, well-defined “cathedral center”; and his and political in institution in ancient and role as a civic leader was dwarfed by the late ancient Rome. I argue that the classi- continuing presence of secular officials, cal Roman model of domestic authority, whose robust exercise of power in the city which was grounded largely in property complicates traditional historiographies ownership, underwent subtle but impor- of late antique Rome’s “papalization.” In tant changes in late antiquity due to the order to establish his authority in the city influence of Christianity. Specifically, I writ large, the bishop first had to secure suggest that Christian householders were the trust of the families who largely con- encouraged by clergy (and especially trolled its economy, society, and political bishops) to conceptualize their authority world—but how might this trust be as a form of stewardship rather than

70 italian academy for advanced studies in america dominion, and to take more seriously materiality of domestic life in late antiq- their traditional obligation to oversee the uity. I had the opportunity to present sec- religious life of their home. The second tions of my own contribution to the vol- chapter, “The Rector of Rome,” presents ume, “Christianity and the Cubiculum: my study’s other protagonist, the Bishop Spiritual Politics and Domestic Space in of Rome. Here I contend that the emer- Late Antique Rome,” at the Italian Acad- gence of the Roman bishop as an authori- emy during a lunch colloquium in the Fall ty who might oversee the private house- semester. My colleagues, as well as my hold and its resources was a slow and invited guest, the Columbia art historian uneven process, which took on truly insti- Irina Oryshkevich, posed a number of tutional qualities only in the very late fifth hard questions about my sources and my century. I argue that many of the duties interpretations of them, which led me to and powers Roman bishops exercised are rework the argument in a highly produc- best understood as aspects of a new model tive manner. of episcopal estate management, which My second presentation included selec- was potentially at odds with the tradition- tions from a second article completed dur- al Roman practice of governing the ing my residency at the Italian Academy, domestic sphere. Thus my third chapter, “Domestic Conversions: Households and which I also worked on this year, discuss- Bishops in Late Antique ‘Papal Legends’,” es the key issues (e.g. property ownership; to appear in Religion, Dynasty and the policing of ethical behavior within the Patronage in Early Christian Rome, 300- church; the treatment of children and 900, eds. Kate Cooper and Julia Hillner slaves) that locked Roman bishops and (Cambridge University Press, forthcom- householders in heated and sometimes ing, 2007). The paper examined how one even violent disputes. anonymous text produced in Rome In addition to work on my book manu- between the late fifth and early sixth cen- script, I also completed two articles for tury modeled the relationship between publication and guest edited a special vol- bishops and male householders, and how ume of the Journal of Early Christian its author(s) imagined the presence of Studies. The volume, entitled “Holy episcopal authority within the domestic Households: Space, Property and Power sphere. In the Gesta de Xysti pugatione, in Late Antiquity,” presents five different bishops and householders compete for articles and will appear in the summer of domestic resources and authority within a 2007. It brings together five scholars juridical arena through their participation (including myself) with different areas of in various legal and extra-legal practices. expertise, but who share an interest in the While most readers have interpreted this

report on the academic year 2006–2007 71 text in light of its contextual connection to the rigorous comments of my colleagues at the Laurentian Schism (498-507 CE), I the Italian Academy and from my invited attend to the ideological implications of its guest, Kim Bowes, an expert on religion literary landscape. I show how the authors and the late antique household from Ford- of the Gesta de Xysti purgatione drew on ham University. familiar exempla of domestic situations I am extremely grateful to the Italian from the Bible and the Apocryphal Acts Academy and its stellar staff for providing and assimilated these topoi with contem- me with a wonderful work space over the porary juridical practices in order to con- course of this year. And I am especially struct a model of episcopal authority that thankful to David Freedberg for promoting trumped the agency traditionally exercised such stimulating discussion at the lunch- by householders. I again beneﬁted from eons, which were a highlight of my week.

72 italian academy for advanced studies in america Marcello Simonetta

The four months of Fellowship at the pope, Sixtus IV, when he was summoned Italian Academy have been the most pro- to Rome to decorate the walls of the Sis- ductive and research-intensive I have been tine Chapel. In an elaborate analysis of able to enjoy since the last year of my some iconographical elements of the Vati- Ph.D. fellowship at Yale (2000/2001). In can frescoes by Botticelli and of his my original proposal entitled “Images of famous Spring, I propose a new reading of Power,” I had said: “I conceive of ‘images’ these pictures. I also talk about another in a broad sense, both as visual or pictorial potential discovery: the relationship and literary icons of cultural memory, to between the portrait of Federico da Mon- be studied in the intersection of different tefeltro (now in the Palazzo Ducale in ﬁelds, and as a way of bringing to the fore Urbino) in which the Duke is holding a the complex layers of history. I intend to thick volume, and a Vatican codex that he engage in a comparative study of Renais- might be reading. This idea is developed sance portraiture, manuscript illumina- in the catalogue of the exhibition “Federi- tion, humanism, diplomacy and architec- co da Montefeltro and His Library” (from ture, in order to understand the nature of June 8 to September 30, 2007 at the Mor- the self-representation of authority and of gan Library). Throughout the semester the rhetoric of power.” Retrospectively, I the process of editing the catalogue has can say I have been utterly faithful to my been greatly enhanced by exchanges with statement of purpose. the Fellows and the Director, David Early in the semester, for the weekly Freedberg, who have been duly acknowl- luncheon, I circulated a draft of the last edged in the forthcoming publication. chapter of my now forthcoming book I have written a general introduction to entitled “Montefeltro. A Coded Conspira- this catalogue, edited all of the other cy, the Medici and the Sistine Chapel” essays and entries, and contributed four (Doubleday, 2008). This chapter explores entries of my own: on the portrait, on a the possibility that Sandro Botticelli, the horoscope for the year 1475 (from the quintessential Florentine painter of the Beinecke Library) and on two auto- late ﬁfteenth century, might have held a graphdiplomatic dispatches from 1478. political and personal grudge against the Overall, this catalogue aims at studying

report on the academic year 2006–2007 73 the self-fashioning pose of Federico da ent methodological biases) with a study of Montefeltro as a man of action and as a his contemporary depictions, examined humanist. through the lenses of the historian. Also, The problematic intersection between drawing from a wealth of unpublished vita activa and vita contemplativa (a top- sources, especially documents from Flo- ic, by the way, explored from different rence, Mantua and Milan, I have sketched disciplinary angles by other Fellows this the main facets of the humanistic educa- semester) was the focus of my dissertation tion of a young prince, of his courtly life, and in many ways it continues to fuel my and the momentous beginning of his writing. Lately, I have engaged in a sort of career as a Duke of Urbino after his narrative non-fiction or history-writing father’s death (in 1482, when Guidobaldo (deeply aware of the historiographical was only ten years old). My contribution tradition behind it) which I hope will lead gives an alternative view to the stiff and me into new creative areas of thinking. conventional picture offered by Baldas- Certainly my forthcoming book will be sarre Castiglione, Pietro Bembo, and moving in this direction. Bernardino Baldi. While sitting in my studiolo at the The second focuses on an overlooked Academy, I also finished and submitted letter of September 14, 1482, from the an article, “Guidoubaldus dux Urbini: Bishop of Arezzo, Gentile Becchi, to Ritratto del principe da giovane,” forth- Lorenzo de’ Medici, in which the architec- coming in Hvmanistica (2007), and tural patronage of Lorenzo’s grandfather worked on three other articles: on Cosimo is explicitly compared to the lav- Donatello and Gentile Becchi for Mit- ish practice of “the Magnificent.” The let- teilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes ter contains a curious mention of Donatel- in Florenz, on Aretino and Giovio for lo (who had worked for Cosimo in collab- Filologia e critica, and on Guicciardini oration with Becchi) which I explore with and Francesco Della Rovere for Rivista the help of my friend and colleague storica italiana. Francesco Caglioti, who has written the Without getting into too much detail most extensive monograph on the famous about each of these articles, I want to Florentine bronzes of David and Judith. briefly summarize them. The third article uncovers a few lost The first aims to portray the elusive autograph letters by Pietro Aretino and figure of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro from Paolo Giovio, two of the most elegant writ- his birth in 1472 through his pre-teen ers and early “journalists” of the Italian years. I have coupled a close analysis of Renaissance. The letters are all preserved the official biographies (and their inher- at the Morgan Library. They are addressed

74 italian academy for advanced studies in america to various major political ﬁgures of the in Italy in the critical years between 1526 time (two to Cosimo I de’ Medici, Duke of and 1536, I realized that this attack was Florence; one of these contains an part of a larger polemic addressing Guic- unknown sonnet dedicated to Emperor ciardini’s supposed objectivity in writing Charles V), and to several Cardinals. They his fundamental Storia d’Italia. This show the naked will to power (and thirst research (which was enhanced by a quick for money) that these brilliant humanists visit to the Vatican Library in March) is exercised without much restraint. still ongoing but promises to challenge the The fourth project deals with an intrigu- very concept of historiographical “truth” in ing host of manuscript sources. After hav- the Renaissance. ing discovered an anonymous text attack- All of the above is part of my project ing Francesco Guicciardini for having on “Images of Power,” which I have been blamed the Duke of Urbino, Francesco so lucky to expand thanks to the Fellow- Della Rovere, for all the evils that occurred ship at the Italian Academy.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 75 Maddalena Spagnolo

During my four months at the Italian It is with great pleasure that I can now Academy I worked on a research project say I was able to sort out most of the dedicated to the rise of wit and irony in problems of this article, which I hope to early modern art criticism. see published soon. Although my past studies have been First of all, my research benefited from devoted to art criticism, in particular to the the rich Avery Library, where I could find history of the reception of artists and almost every book I needed, and also works of art in the sixteenth and seven- many Ph.D. theses which I would not teenth centuries, this research project con- have easily found from Italy. cerns a topic which is in many respects dif- Even more important for my research ferent from what I have been working on was the Burke Theological Library. I origin the past years. It was hence—and it still inally went there to read some early mod- is—at its very early stage. ern Christian sources, but then the pres- Before arriving in New York I had col- ence of many early modern Protestant lected both some archival evidence and texts allowed me to see my topic in a quotations from the primary sources, and wider context. I spent many days in the I had an idea of the aims of this research. beautiful architecture of the Burke I must say that I leave the Italian Acad- Library, where I found both exceptional emy with a much clearer sense of the prior- kindness and invaluable help from the ities and the directions of my research as staff. The librarians made every effort to well as with the awareness that there is still allow me to see as many rare books as I much work to do in this almost entirely asked for, and they even provided me neglected aspect of art history. with suggestions and advice. Furthermore, when I left Italy I had a The opportunity to compare early long draft of an article dedicated to three modern Christian and Protestant sources poems mocking works of art which were offered me a good framework for under- written in early seventeenth-century standing the use of irony towards works Rome. I was determined to finish this arti- of art in sixteenth-century Italy. Poems cle in a short time, although it had more mocking works of art challenged not only than a few riddles which I could not solve. artists and patrons but challenged the

76 italian academy for advanced studies in america very power of images, not by means of have heard at the Institute of Fine Arts destruction, as in the countries of the and at the Frick Collection, have offered Reformed North, but by means of sar- me quite a wide range of different casm intended to “neutralize” their approaches to art history research. impact. This could also explain why the Of course New York offers an art histo- practice of mocking works of art became rian stimulus—even too much stimulus— more widespread in the sixteenth century, in terms of museums and collections. So I a crucial century for Europe’s imagery. must say that it is thanks to this Fellow- Irony then became a strategic weapon for ship that I had the rare opportunity to answering the dramatic “questione delle return for many visits, with the privilege immagini.” And it was sharply used, for of the slowness that as a tourist I could example, in the critical response to never have experienced, to the Metropoli- Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. tan, the MoMA, the Frick Collection, and When I gave my paper at the Italian the Guggenheim Museum, to mention Academy, many of these paths of my only some of the most famous institutions. research were only implicit. But the lively Unlike other similar fellowship pro- discussion which followed it, and the com- grams, the Italian Academy’s program ments of Professor Freedberg, allowed me permits scholars to be quite free while to clarify how to develop my work. working on their research project. Never- I am sure that each Fellow has had the theless it offers beautiful ofﬁces, a great pleasure of counting on Professor Freed- library, and overall a friendly and colle- berg’s advice and challenging comments, gial atmosphere. This explains why, but as an art historian I think I have been despite the many cultural attractions particularly lucky in this respect. His sug- which New York can offer, it was always a gestions have not only made my research pleasure to go back to work at the “Casa much richer and multifaceted than I Italiana” and see the other Fellows. could have imagined, but they have also The usual meeting at the Wednesday showed me a way to explore and expand lunches soon became a much-anticipated the domain of art history. moment for discussing with colleagues Thanks to him I have been put in con- every cultural experience we had had dur- tact with the Department of Art History ing the week. at Columbia University and with several This created a genuine atmosphere of an scholars in particular. This allowed me to “academy” and, since the opinions of the attend the rich program of Art History Fellows were far from uniform, we could conferences organized at Columbia Uni- often enrich our personal points of view. versity. These, together with the papers I The most unusual aspect of the Fellow-

report on the academic year 2006–2007 77 ship program at the Italian Academy is concerts and films, a cycle of lectures— certainly its high level of interdisciplinari- “Italy at Columbia”—and even an unex- ty. The topics of the papers were most pected and successful evening of fencing varied, ranging from autistic diseases to and music organized by two Fellows. the crimes of the Second World War, pass- All this contributed to a cheerful ing through the poetry of Aldo atmosphere where the Fellows tend to be Palazzeschi and the musical theories of not only colleagues but friends. During the seventeenth century. these four months we shared not only the It would be difficult to exaggerate the doubts and the pleasures of our research spirit of intellectual exchange which char- but also the free time outside the Acade- acterized these seminars. Each Fellow my to discover New York and its bor- tried to find the best way to make his or oughs. Some of us will continue to work her research accessible to a non-specialist in the States, others are ready to go back audience, and this produced a sense of to Italy or are heading for other countries, real collaboration among all of us. I won- but there is no doubt that in most cases der if the Director is aware of the fact that these relationships will not end with the the discussions started in the Wednesday end of the Fellowship. seminars hardly finished with the end of The pleasant context that I have tried the lunches. In fact, they usually contin- to describe could not exist without Bar- ued in our offices or outside of the Acade- bara Faedda, Allison Jeffrey, Abigail Ash- my over a cup of tea or during dinner. er, Ellen Baird, and Will Buford. Each of The Wednesday seminars provided a them, in different ways, offered us his or unique chance to see how research is con- her kind and generous help in solving the ducted in different disciplines and by many practical problems which scholars scholars of different nationalities and must deal with as soon as they arrive in ages. Therefore the lively debates that the States. accompanied the end of each paper were Also I wish to say here how much I owe often addressed to the methodological to Dr. Maria Arbilo of the Human problems of each field, as we tried both to Resources department at Columbia Uni- trace the roots of the concept of versity. She had both the patience and the “research” itself and to avoid the com- competence to sort out every bureaucratic monplaces which usually separate the question that I had. humanities from the sciences. As a visiting scholar at Columbia I was Finally, the Italian Academy offered us able to take, together with other Fellows, a many cultural events which made our four-month course in American Language. stay particularly pleasant: two series of My teacher, Dr. Lubie Alatriste, succeeded

78 italian academy for advanced studies in america in being more than simply a language period for the endless opportunities that teacher by creating a context in which we an Italian scholar ﬁnds at Columbia and could discuss and better understand many in New York. different aspects of American culture. I do hope that the fellowship program Now that the Fellowship is almost ﬁn- at the Italian Academy will maintain this ished and Spring is almost here, I regret fresh, collegial spirit and that it will keep only that I leave with the awareness of its cultural mission of being an ideal place how much could I still do here at Colum- to strengthen the relationships between bia and in New York. And if there is one Italian and American researchers, the thing I can complain about, it is that a humanities and the sciences, and artists four-month stay is slightly too short a and scholars.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 79

Winners of the Premio New York Paolo Chiasera

Paolo Chiasera presented “The Trilogy: faith in the myth as a representation of Drawings” as part of his ongoing video contemporary history and power, is the and multi-media project entitled “The ambiguity that Chiasera strives for and Trilogy: Vincent, Cornelius, Pieter” in which allows him—as an artist—both to which he explores the relationship toy with contemporary myths and judge between personal and collective mytholo- them at the same time.” (Andrea Viliani, gy. The show at the Italian Academy con- Curator, MAMbo Museo Arte Moderna sisted of works in ink and gouache on Bologna). Paolo Chiasera has exhibited paper, a “storyboard” for the larger proj- extensively throughout Europe and is cur- ect of three videos in which the artist uses rently afﬁliated with the Massimo Minini masks to investigate the possibilities in Gallery in Brescia, Italy. Chiasera’s works being a contemporary artist. In three sep- incorporate traditional artist media such arate videos Chiasera casts himself as the as painting and sculpture within a per- three renowned painters, Vincent Van formance and video format. His 2005 Gogh, Cornelius Escher and Pieter video, “The Following Days,” records a Brueghel, donning simple hand-crafted hallucinatory performance of three per- masks and embarking on a mysterious sons encountering the Italian director Pier quest. “Somewhere between conscious Paolo Pasolini (as a 15-foot-high plaster attack of the mechanisms of the social sculpture) in the countryside near and aesthetic induction of a clearly inef- Bologna. fective form of mythology, and a blind

82 italian academy for advanced studies in america report on the academic year 2006–2007 83 E va M a t t e s

Eva and Franco Mattes (a.k.a. Avatars.” Not unlike Warhol’s entourage 0100101110101101.ORG) presented “13 of stars, captured in the “13 Most Beauti- Most Beautiful Avatars,” a portrait series ful Boys” and “13 Most Beautiful at the Italian Academy and in an online Women” portrait series, the Matteses’ “13 exhibit organized by Rhizome and co-pre- Most Beautiful Avatars” captures the sented by the New Museum of Contempo- most visually dynamic and celebrated rary Art. Highlights of the online exhibi- “stars” of Second Life. tion were projected in the Italian Acade- Eva and Franco Mattes are known for my’s Teatro during the opening reception. their controversial artworks, such as stag- The Matteses have been living in the vir- ing high-proﬁle hoaxes and defeating the tual world, Second Life, for over a year, Nike Corporation in a legal battle over a exploring its terrain and interacting with fake advertising campaign. Their works its peculiar inhabitants. The result of have been shown worldwide including the their “video-game ﬂanerie” is a series of Venice Biennale, Manifesta and Postmas- portraits, entitled “13 Most Beautiful ters Gallery, New York.

84 italian academy for advanced studies in america report on the academic year 2006–2007 85 Rossella Biscotti

Rossella Biscotti presented “The Sun which history shapes individual memo- Shines in Kiev,” a video of the life of ries. Biscotti’s videos reveal the impossi- Vladimir Shevchenko, one of the first bility of establishing a consistent truth in filmmakers who was allowed access to the the reconstruction of a historical event. “red zone” after the meltdown of the The soundtrack of this video was com- nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in posed by the Italian electronic musician 1986. Since the Chernobyl disaster, offi- FRAME. cial information has been modified to Biscotti’s videos have been exhibited in serve the interests of the government of galleries and museums throughout Italy the former Soviet Union. Biscotti’s video and Europe including the National Gallery includes interviews with a number of peo- of Modern Art (New Delhi), Fonds BKVB ple on the life of Vladimir Shevchenko, (Amsterdam), TENT (Rotterdam), the some of which are contradictory. The American Academy in Rome (Rome), varying interpretations and personal Galeria Paolo Boselli (Brussels), GAM opinions give a multitude of perspectives (Monfalcone), Viafarini (Milan), Smart on the same reality. The artist uses these Project Space (Amsterdam), Prodajna contradictions to reconstruct the biogra- Galerija (Belgrade), Trevi Flash Art Muse- phy of Shevchenko, exploring the ways in um (Trevi), Fondazione Olivetti (Rome).

86 italian academy for advanced studies in america report on the academic year 2006–2007 87 Nico Vascellari

Nico Vascellari presented a video work “With Love,” a punk/noise band with titled “A Great Circle.” The intensity of which he has produced several albums performance is one of the starting points and toured throughout Europe, the USA of Vascellari’s artistic research. His proj- and Japan. In 2006 the IPG (Independent ects are most often performances, but his Performance Group) awarded Vascellari work also includes sculpture, photogra- the First International Prize for Perfor- phy, video and installation. His perform- mance for his project “Nico & the Vascel- ances were recently deﬁned as “storms of lari”; the committee was headed by Mari- feedback between the performer, the na Abramovic, who invited him to join audience and the space” (Andrea Lissoni her group, IPG. Vascellari’s work has in “Tema Celeste”). Vascellari was born been shown throughout Europe in many in Vittorio Veneto in 1976. He left the contemporary art institutions and may be university to focus on his singing for seen in the 2007 Venice Biennale.

88 italian academy for advanced studies in america report on the academic year 2006–2007 89 90 italian academy for advanced studies in america Description of Programs Fellowship Program

n 2006–2007, the Fellowship ly—but not exclusively—with regard to Program at the Italian Academy Italy. Theoretical, monographic, and Icontinued to focus on issues relating positivist approaches were equally to cultural identity, cultural transmission, welcomed. Applications dealing with the and cultural memory. It has a twofold scientiﬁc, sociological and technological aim: to foster the conservation of the aspects of culture and memory were many aspects of culture that are increas- encouraged. Sixteen Fellowships were ingly being lost, and to forge genuinely awarded in 2006–2007. new links between the arts, the sciences Preference was given to candidates who and the social sciences. planned to work with scholars in relevant Applications were therefore invited areas at Columbia, but other candidates for Fellowships in all areas relating to the were also considered. In all instances, Fel- study of cultural identity, cultural trans- lows were encouraged to work with depart- mission, and cultural memory, particular- ments and faculty members at Columbia.

92 italian academy for advanced studies in america Premio New York/ New York Prize

n April 2002, the Premio New York/ ter at Columbia. Each artist is given an New York Prize was established on ofﬁce at the Academy and a studio at the Ithe basis of an agreement signed by Columbia School of the Arts, and holds the Italian Academy and the Italian Min- an exhibition of his or her work at the end istry of Foreign Affairs. The Prize is of their period in New York. The aim of awarded by the Italian Academy and the this distinguished prize is to offer the Directorate General for Cultural most promising young Italian artists the Advancement and Cooperation of the opportunity to develop their work under Foreign Ministry. outstanding artists and in the context of A jury of distinguished experts in the the stimulating contemporary art envi- ﬁeld of contemporary art choose between ronment of New York City. It also encour- two and four of the most promising young ages the exchange of ideas between con- Italian artists to spend a year or a semes- temporary Italian and American artists.

report on the academic year 2006–2007 93 94 italian academy for advanced studies in america Activities of the Academy Fellows’ Seminars

Fa l l 2 0 0 6 From Africa to the Balkans: The Fascist New Order for Greece (1922-43) Universal Duty and Global Justice Lidia Santarelli Sebastiano Maffettone November 8 September 20 Involvement of the Nitric Oxide Pathway in Creating Christian Rome: Households, Synaptic Dysfunction Following Amyloid Bishops and the Spiritual Politics of Domes- Elevation in Alzheimer’s Disease tic Space in Late Antiquity Daniela Puzzo Tina Sessa November 15 October 4 Study of the Molecular Mechanisms for the Documentality Perpetuation of Memory Storage Maurizio Ferraris Luana Fioriti October 11 November 15

Charge Transport in Molecular Devices Artists’ Presentations Alberto Morgante Paolo Chiasera, Eva Mattes October 18 November 29

Diabolical Appearance in Late Antiquity: Books in Byzantium: In Search of Libraries The Case of Exorcism Margherita Losacco Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe December 5 October 25 The Faces of Fascism: Re-Reading Giorgio Reward System in Children and Adolescents de Chirico’s Self-Portraiture with ADHD and Anxiety Disorders Jennie Hirsh Luigi Mazzone December 6 November 1

96 italian academy for advanced studies in america Spring 2007 Mocking Works of Art in Early Modern Italy Maddalena Spagnolo Montefeltro. A Coded Conspiracy, the Medici and the Sistine Chapel March 21 Marcello Simonetta Domestic Conversions: Households and January 17 Bishops in Late Antique “Papal Legends” Tina Sessa Practical Sense and the Limits of Deliber- ation March 28 Tito Magri Prima and Seconda Pratica of Settecento January 31 Music Theory Bella Brover-Lubovsky Artists’ Presentations April 4 Rossella Biscotti, Nico Vascellari February 7 Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation Element Binding Protein (CPEB): A Prion-Like History versus Memory? A Discussion of Protein as a Regulator of Local Protein Italian War Crimes in World War II Synthesis and Synaptic Plasticity Lidia Santarelli Luana Fioriti February 14 April 11 Autism Spectrum Disorder: From Clinical Symptoms to Neuroimaging A New 2D World for Physicists? Luigi Mazzone Alberto Morgante February 28 April 18

«Chi sono?» (1930), Self-portrait by Aldo Art, Imagination and Reality: The Corti- Palazzeschi cal Motor Neurons Simone Magherini Domenica Crupi (with David Freedberg) March 7 April 25

Charge transport in molecular devices Luigi Mazzone April 25

report on the academic year 2006–2007 97 The Italian Academy Film Series

he Italian Academy continued its lively panel discussion followed the popular film series in the Fall of screening and included Judge Liliana Fer- T2006 with “Anni di Piombo: Ter- raro of the Fondazione Falcone; the direc- rorism on Film.” The series focused on tor, Antonio Frazzi; and the actress Elena the wrenching events of Italy’s “years of Sofia Ricci, who played Judge Falcone’s lead” or anni di piombo of the 1970s, wife, Francesca Morvillo, in the film. which were marked by a wave of violence The Spring series featured the post- attributed to right-wing and left-wing war genre known as “Comedy Italian extremists. As always, a selection of Style” which, while making the audience superb academics and cultural observers roll with laughter, often dealt with seri- introduced each screening and led illumi- ous, even tragic subjects. They strongly nating discussions after the film. In addi- influenced a wide range of future film- tion, we had a special documentary makers—Woody Allen’s “Take the Money screening of director Marco Turco’s and Run,” for example, was inspired by “Excellent Cadavers,” based on the book “Big Deal on Madonna Street.” We were of the same title by Alexander Stille, privileged to have among our speakers for about the lives and work of Sicilian anti- this series Professor Francesco Casetti mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo from Milan’s Università Cattolica; Laura Borsellino. Stille, San Paolo Professor of Caparrotti, who represents the Neapolitan International Journalism here at Colum- actor Totò’s family; and Remi Fournier, bia University, introduced the film. In who is writing a book on Classic Italian January, together with RAI Fiction and Comedy and has conducted extensive the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Italian interviews with the great directors of the Academy hosted the American premiere genre—Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Luigi of “Giovanni Falcone” directed by Andrea Comencini and many others. and Antonio Frazzi. A stimulating and j e n n y m c phee, curator

98 italian academy for advanced studies in america Fa l l 2 0 0 6 Spring 2007 Anni Di Piombo: Commedia Classica all’Italiana: Terrorism On Film Classic Comedy Italian Style

Tre fratelli by Francesco Rosi I soliti ignoti by Mario Monicelli Speaker: Gaetana Marrone-Puglia Speaker: Giancarlo Lombardi October 13 March 27

Buongiorno, notte by Marco Bellocchio Abbasso la ricchezza by Gennaro Righelli Speaker: Nicoletta Marini-Maio Speaker: Francesco Casetti October 16 March 29

Prova d’orchestra by Federico Fellini Un turco napoletano by Mario Mattioli Speaker: Leonard Quart Speaker: Laura Caparrotti October 17 March 30

Colpire al cuore by Gianni Amelio Pane, amore e fantasia by Luigi Speaker: Ellen Nerenberg Comencini October 18 Speaker: Giancarlo Lombardi April 5 Special documentary screening Peccato che sia una caniglia by Alessan- Excellent Cadavers by Marco Turco dro Blasetti (based on the book by Alexander Stille) Speaker: Remi Fournier Speaker: Alexander Stille April 10 October 19

Tutto a posto e niente in ordine by Lina La seconda volta by Mimmo Calopresti Wertmüller Speaker: Giancarlo Lombardi Speaker: Leonard Quart October 20 April 11

report on the academic year 2006–2007 99 The Italian Academy Concert Series

he Italian Academy broke with its ably by Anne Midgette of The New York recent tradition of presenting con- Times. She wrote that the Orchestra was Ttemporary European and American “willing and energetic, playing with music by hosting The Grand Tour Orches- involved enthusiasm.” And of Jennifer tra for its inaugural season in the Fall of Lane’s performance of Gentes Barbarae, a 2006. Charles Brink, the music director motet by Johann Adolf Hasse (1699- and a well-known Classical flutist, formed 1783), Midgette wrote, “It was as if a ray the New York group of period-instrument of pure silver light had broken through musicians after returning from several patchy clouds; and from her radiant smile, years of playing Classical music in Germany she knew it.” and elsewhere in Europe. The Orchestra’s In the Spring, we returned to our tradi- work is focused on music written in Europe tion emphatically, offering a series of free- during the period 1750-1800. admission concerts called “Music for the For the first concert, “Mozart in Italy,” New Century: Works Composed since mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel and 2000.” Some of New York’s finest young soprano Heather Buck joined the Orchestra performers presented challenging programs for a memorable performance of Mozart’s of works by Luciano Berio, Mischa Zupko, “Exsultate Jubilate” and works by Joseph Felipe Lara, Marco Stroppa, Francesco Myslivec˘ ek (1737-1781), Niccolò Jommelli D’Errico and many others. Pianist Blair (1714-1774), and Pietro Nardini (1722- McMillen presented the U.S. premiere of 1793). In November, the focus was on two Marco Stroppa’s Passacaglia Canonica, sons of J.S. Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann and the piano-violin team of Kathleen Bach (1710-1784) and Carl Philipp Supové and Jennifer Choi played the world Emanuel Bach (1714-1788). And the premiere of “Thar He,” a terrific late work December concert, featuring music by Bal- by American Leroy Jenkins, who died in dassare Galuppi (1706-1785) with mezzo- February 2007. soprano Jennifer Lane, was reviewed favor- r i c k w h i taker, curator 100 italian academy for advanced studies in america Fa l l 2 0 0 6 Spring 2007

The Grand Tour Orchestra Duo Diorama: Winston Choi (piano) and “Mozart in Italy” Minghuan Xu (violin) October 4 Works by Luciano Berio, Mischa Zupko, Melissa Hui, Felipe Lara and Omar The Grand Tour Orchestra Daniel “Hamburg and Berlin— March 14 Another Approach to Classicism” November 15 Blair McMillen (piano) Works by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Joan Tow- The Grand Tour Orchestra er, Frederic Rzewski, and Salvatore Sciar- “Sacred and Secular Music of Baldassare rino Galuppi and his Contemporaries” April 4 December 13 Kathleen Supové (piano) and Jennifer Choi (violin) Works by Roger Zahab, Leroy Jenkins, Ryan Anthony Francis and Mario Pagotto May 2

report on the academic year 2006–2007 101 Italy at Columbia Lecture Series

or the ongoing “Italy at Columbia” my’s mission, in our Teatro for both the lecture series, the Italian Academy professor’s registered students and a pub- Finvites prominent Columbia pro- lic audience. Admission to the lectures is fessors who are teaching lecture courses in free, and they have found a large, enthu- a given semester to present one of their siastic following. lectures, on a topic relevant to the Acade- rick whitaker

Fa l l 2 0 0 6 Spring 2007

Richard Howard on the Dantesque and Karen Henson on Rigoletto and Romantic the Pirandellian Irony September 19 February 21

Giuseppe Gerbino on Monteverdi Francesco Benelli on Siena and Urbino: October 9 the work of Francesco di Giorgio Martini March 1 Teodolinda Barolini on The Inferno, Can- tos 31 and 32 Paolo Valesio on the Futurist poet Filippo October 31 Tommaso Marinetti March 26

102 italian academy for advanced studies in america Exhibitions

2006–2007 Winners of the Premio New York Guest Artists: “The Trilogy: Drawings” “Transmutations: Paintings” Paolo Chiasera Fereydoon Family Painting Painting and September 19 “13 Most Beautiful Avatars” Eva and Franco Mattes “Darkness, Decadence, Empire” Photography Mario Santoro November 30 Photography and Mixed Media October 23 “The Sun Shines in Kiev” Rossella Biscotti Video and “A Great Circle” Nico Vascellari Video April 19

report on the academic year 2006–2007 103 photographs: Cover: photo, Abigail Asher. p. 2: Unidentiﬁed artist: Portrait of Lorenzo Da Ponte (Columbia University in the City of New York). p. 4: David Freedberg and Antonio Bandini; photo © Matilda Damele. p. 6: Margherita Losacco and Sibilla Ferrara; photo, Allison Jeffrey. p. 10: photo, Iannis Delatolas. p. 12: photo, Abigail Asher. p. 66: Luigi Mazzone and Daniela Puzzo; photo, Allison Jeffrey. pp. 83-89: courtesy of the artists. p. 92: photo, James Acuna. p. 93: Nico Vascellari and Rossella Biscotti; photo © Monica London. p. 98: photo, Iannis Delatolas. p. 101: photo, Iannis Delatolas. design: Jerry Kelly LLC 105