A lecture by dr. Francesca Gorgoni, Université de Paris III
Young Italian scholars travelling between East and West
Young Italian scholars travelling between East and West HISTORY AND TREASURES OF THE ROMAN GHETTOA lecture by dr. Francesca Gorgoni, Université de Paris III.Arnaldo Momigliano, one of the most important Italian historians of our time, once wrote: «Italian history is always a difficult subject. Behind it and inside it, there is the extraordinary variety of many regional and urban distinctive traits: the history of Florence is not the history of Pisa, or even that of Arezzo or Siena or Volterra, and where Jewish people are involved, the differences in local traditions are increased by substantial local differences». The Jewish community of Rome is known to be the oldest in Europe. Its history began in pre-Christian Roman time and during the Middle Ages its members were an active part of the Italian scientific and intellectual scene. When in 1555 Pope Paul IV imposed the establishment of the Roman Ghetto, the Jewish community was cast away from the rest of society.In the three following centuries, the Roman Ghetto became a parallel world and within its microcosm the Roman Jewish community developed in its own very specific and peculiar manner. Jews from different origins (Spanish, Catalan, Roman, Sicilian and from Puglia) all contributed to the creation of rituals, melodies and traditions, which partially merged into today's Italian minhag. Five synagogues (Cinque Scole), clustered in one building, represented the five main groups inside the Roman Ghetto: Scola Tempio, Scola Catalana, Scola Spagnola, Scola Siciliana and Scola Nova. The mappot, woven textils made to cover the Sepher Torah, were bestowed onto the synagogues by their own members. In the exhibit organized in the hall of the Italian Cultural Institute in Haifa in collaboration with the Jewish Museum of Rome, one can admire the photos of these precious fabrics. Francesca Gorgoni earned her BA and MA in History and Archeology of the Ancient Near East and Islam from the University of Rome "La Sapienza". She is currently a PhD student at the University of Paris, Inalco, and at the University of Aix-Marseille and is working on her PhD research about the Hebrew translation of Averroe'sMiddle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics. Francesca Gorgoni's major field of study is the interaction between Muslim Arabic culture and Judaism in the Middle Ages and in particular the Jewish poetry and philosophy written in Arabic during the Islamic classical period. Event held in Italian. Monday, March 3rd, 2014, at 19:00Italian Cultural Instituterehov Meir Rutberg 12 – Haifa