A lecture by dr. Toni Veneri, University of Trieste. Event in collaboration with the Società Dante Alighieri in Haifa.
Young Italian scholars travelling between East and West
Young Italian scholars travelling between East and West THE MYSTERIOUS IDENTITY OF DAVID REUBENI, TRAVELLER AND MESSIAHA lecture by dr. Toni Veneri, University of Trieste.Event in collaboration with the Società Dante Alighieri in Haifa.Venice, November 1530: Giovanni Battista Ramusio, first secretary of the Republic, relates to the Senate on David Reubeni's case, a traveler who just arrived in the city and whose Jewish origins seem to be the only certain fact regarding his identity. Reubeni claims to be the son of King Salomon and the brother of King Joseph, rulers of a kingdom allegedly located in the desert of Tabor, with a population of three hundred thousand Jews, all descendants from the lost tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh. Historians interpreted in very different ways Reubeni's mysterious figure, which also inspired novelists like Max Brod and Marek Halter. Toni Veneri lives in Trieste, where, after the archivist qualification (2009), he obtained in 2011 his PhD in Italian Literature and was appointed "cultore della materia" in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory. Besides acting as Director of the Istituto Gramsci del Friuli Venezia Giulia, and working as high school teacher (Literature, History, Latin), he is currently completing his post-doctoral research at the University of Haifa. His areas of interest overlap: the literary and scientific construction of space in late Medieval and early modern times; travel literature in its encounters with the history of cartography, art, print and diplomacy; theoretical issues between history and literature.Event held in Italian. Monday, March 31st, 2014, at 19:00Italian Cultural Instituterehov Meir Rutberg 12 – Haifa