the first European festival on creativity

2011 Programme

Evento n.7

Alessandro Barbero

How did Middle Ages men think? The friar

Salimbene from Parma was a Franciscan friar who as ashamed to beg because, an aristocrat of birth, he was supposed to ride horses, have a good time at tournaments, and courting beautiful women. As a young man, Salimbene had blindly believed end-of-the-world prophecies, and had been terribly disappointed to find out they were not true. He was moved to tears by the humanity of Saint Louis, the king of France, but could not refrain from admiring the brilliant excommunicated emperor Frederic II. Salimbene wrote in Latin interspersed with biblical quotations, but thought in a Po River Valley dialect. He had no regard for anyone and he was inclined to make politically incorrect statements, as when he dubbed southern Italians homines caccarelli et merdaçoli. Through his monumental work entitled Cronaca we discover that a Middle Ages friar could be far more entertaining and unprejudiced than we would ever expect.

https://www.festivaldellamente.it/it/live-streaming-alessandro-barbero/
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Alessandro Barbero, historian and writer, is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Eastern Piedmont and Vercelli. He contributes to the programmes “Passato e presente” and “a.C.d.C.” aired on Rai Storia. Since 2023 he has been the star of the programme “In viaggio con Barbero”, on LA7. In the same year he started for Chora Media “Chiedilo a Barbero”, a podcast in which he answers questions on history sent in by listeners. Among his publications: “Le parole del papa” (2016), “Caporetto” (2017), “Dante” (2020), 2All' arme! All'arme. I priori fanno carne” (2023), published by Laterza; “Gli occhi di Venezia” (2011) and “Le Ateniesi” (2015), published by Mondadori; “Costantino il vincitore” (Salerno, 2016); “Il divano di Istanbul” (2011), “Alabama” (2021), “Poeta al comando” (2022) and “Brick for stone” (2023), published by Sellerio.


All theevents2011


   

Evento n.1

Chiara Saraceno

Too much inequality hinders everyone’s well-being

Evento n.2

Giuseppe Penone, Sergio Risaliti

Flowing in time like a river pebble

Evento n.3

Kinds of lies

Evento n.4

Edoardo Boncinelli

What is life? Can artificial life exist?

Evento n.6

Zygmunt Bauman

Reflections on the notions of community and network, on social networks and Facebook

Evento n.7

Alessandro Barbero

How did Middle Ages men think? The friar

Evento n.8

Francesco Piccolo

How to write a screenplay

Evento n.10

Maurizio Bettini

Mythological forms of memory in ancient Greece and Rome

Evento n.11

Almudena Grandes, Ranieri Polese

History from the viewpoint of women

Evento n.12

Adriano Prosperi

Crime and forgiveness

Evento n.14

Gian Carlo Calza

Different, eccentric, extraordinary: aesthetics and creativity between Asia and the West

Evento n.16

Marco Belpoliti

As you have seen it on tv

Evento n.17

Salvatore Veca

On philosophical imagination

Evento n.18

Vittorio Gregotti

City, metropolis and urban design

Evento n.19

Enzo Bianchi

Paths of humanization

Evento n.20

Patrizia Cavalli

Poetry knows everything first

Evento n.21

Edoardo Boncinelli

What is life? Life is communication

Evento n.23

Silvio Orlando

Diderot, Rameau and other paradoxes

Evento n.24

Alessandro Barbero

How did Middle Ages men think? The merchant

Evento n.26

Franco Borgogno

In other people’s hearts and minds. A psychoanalyst between tradition and creativity

Evento n.27

Giuseppe Bertolucci, Emanuele Trevi

In words and pictures: cinema and literature

Evento n.28

Michela Marzano

Mind and body: anorexia, or the enigma of desire

Evento n.29

Alfonso Berardinelli

Intellectual types, styles and powers

Evento n.30

Luca Scarlini

The power of images, the images of power

Evento n.31

Felice Cimatti

Mind, communication and language in animals, including Homo sapiens

Evento n.32

Gianpiero Dalla Zuanna

Regretting the families of yesteryear?

Evento n.33

Alberto Manguel

The Muse of impossibility

Evento N.34

Ennio Peres

Mathematics is the game of life

Evento N.35

Luce Irigaray

Saving human energy. Breathing: a source of universal sharing

Evento n.36

Edoardo Boncinelli

What is life? Life yesterday, today and tomorrow

Evento n.37

Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni

A quiet sunny day. Attilio Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini, a friendship in verse

Evento n.39

Alessandro Barbero

How did Middle Ages men think? The knight

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