Diamond peaks beyond borders

International Conference

PRESENTATION
In 2025, the University for Foreigners of Perugia celebrated its first hundred years of existence. The institution’s natural international outlook, always devoted to promoting the Italian language and culture in the spirit of dialogue among different civilizations and traditions, makes it a particularly suitable venue for hosting initiatives that contribute to the monitoring and appreciation of ongoing Italian studies, with special attention to work carried out abroad or by international researchers.

This is undoubtedly an ambitious objective and, as is quite evident, it cannot be comprehensively addressed or fulfilled in a single conference event. A more realistic approach is to plan study days, held periodically, for which a specific theme is selected and outlined each time: for example, an author or genre from our literary tradition, a movement in the visual or musical arts, a crucial turning point in our linguistic history that has resonated abroad and on which particularly significant research has been dedicated in recent years outside Italy.

In addition to presentations by invited speakers, these study days will also include the presentation of one or more recently published volumes.
The first trial of this project will take place as a two half-day event, from May 6 to 7, 2026, on two “jewels” of the literary canon, Dante and Ariosto, whose works—the highest expressions of the multifaceted cultural, political, religious, and linguistic realities of their time—have spoken and continue to speak to successive generations of cultured Europe and beyond. They are the two Italian authors most prominent in the sphere of so-called World Literature, widely studied in the Americas and translated also into Far Eastern languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean).

The event will open with the presentation, on the afternoon of May 6, of four collective volumes on Dante and Ariosto, three of which are the results of conferences held respectively at the University for Foreigners of Perugia, Villa I Tatti (The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies), and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.
The following morning will be dedicated to plenary lectures, organized into the sessions Dante and Ariosto in the World: Case Studies and Dante and Ariosto in the World: Worksites in Progress.

Organization and Scientific Coordination:
Sandra Covino and Sabrina Stroppa (University for Foreigners of Perugia), Stefano Jossa (University of Palermo/formerly Royal Holloway, University of London), Christian Rivoletti (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg).

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Wednesday, May 6, 2026, 2:30 PM–6:30 PM -Palazzo Gallenga, Aula Magna
OPENING OF THE EVENT
2:30–3:00 PM Institutional greetings – Introduction

FIRST SESSION
ACHIEVED PROJECTS: BOOK PRESENTATIONS
3:00–4:00 PM – DANTE

Discussant: Luca Marcozzi (Roma Tre University)

The “Varying Fortune of Dante” in Italy and Europe, edited by Sandra Covino, Floriana Calitti, Enrico Terrinoni,
Alessandria, Edizioni dell’Orso, 2024

Now Feed Yourself. Anglo-American and Italian Scholarship on Dante, ed. by Zygmunt G. Barański,
Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., and Anna Pegoretti, Cambridge, Legenda – Modern Humanities Research Association, 2024

COFFEE BREAK

4:30–6:30 PM – ARIOSTO

Discussant: Stefano Jossa (University of Palermo)

Ariosto and the Arabs. Contexts for the “Orlando Furioso”, ed. by Mario Casari, Monica Preti and Michael
Wyatt, Florence, I Tatti – The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies; Rome, Officina Libraria, 2022

“Orlando Furioso” Beyond Five Hundred Years. New Perspectives on Reading, edited by Christian Rivoletti,
Bologna, Il Mulino, 2023

ROUND TABLE AND DISCUSSION (on the entire session)
With the participation of the scholars present and Stefano Rapisarda, author of the recent volume Philology of the
Medieval Mediterranean. Encounters and Clashes among Texts, Languages, and Culture, Rome, Carocci, 2026.

Thursday, May 7, 2026, 9:30 AM–1:00 PM – Palazzo Gallenga, Aula Magna

SECOND SESSION
9:30–11:00 AM – DANTE AND ARIOSTO IN THE WORLD: CASE STUDIES

Erminia Ardissino (University of Turin), From Japan to Australia, thinking with Dante about inclusion,
environment, emotions

Christian Rivoletti (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), Ariosto and Shakespeare in
European tradition: emerging connections and poetic affinities

Discussion

COFFEE BREAK

THIRD SESSION
11:30 AM–1:00 PM – DANTE AND ARIOSTO IN THE WORLD: WORKSITES IN PROGRESS

Franziska Meier (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), From the Rime to the Vita Nova: the function of colors and
metapoetic reflection

Nicole Volta (I Tatti – The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies), Ariosto Works in Progress

Discussion
Final conclusions