Keynote:

Dr. Corrado Confalonieri (Bernardino Telesio Professor, Ferrucci Institute)

Introductory remarks:

Dr. Federico Pacchioni (Ferrucci Director)

Dr. Daniele Struppa (Ferrucci Fellow)

What do a 16th-century knight on a quest, a fantastical island, and a centuries-old poem have to do with painting, music, and even architecture? This talk invites you to rediscover Italian Renaissance epic poetry not as a closed-in and rigid genre, but as a dynamic and expansive one—capable of absorbing, reconfiguring, and dialoguing with other literary forms, styles, and thematic concerns, while also extending beyond the boundaries of literature into the broader realm of the arts. Focusing on key examples from the Italian Renaissance epic—particularly the works of Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) and Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), along with responses from some of their early readers—this presentation argues that epic poetry has historically functioned as a crossroads for artistic expression. This is evident in several ways: the interdisciplinary theories underpinning epic composition; the frequent representation of visual and performative arts within the texts themselves; the interpretive demands that require engagement with artistic traditions; and the epics’ capacity to inspire tangible works of art and architecture. Ultimately, this talk positions the epic not only as a literary form but as a cultural engine that catalyzes artistic production across media—making it an ideal case study for students and scholars across disciplines today.

Corrado Confalonieri is the first holder of the Bernardino Telesio Endowed Professorship in Italian Studies at Chapman University. He holds two doctoral degrees, a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures (Harvard University, 2019) and a dottorato in Italian Literature and History of Italian Language (University of Padua, 2014).  He taught and did research both in Italy and in the United States, working as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian at Wesleyan University (2019-2020), as the Lauro de Bosis Fellow in Italian Studies at Harvard University (2020-2021), and as an Assistant Professor at the University of Parma (2021-2024). His publications include three monographs (most recently Torquato Tasso e il desiderio di unità. La "Gerusalemme liberata"e una nuova teoria dell'epica, Rome, Carocci, 2022, and "Queste spaziose loggie". Architettura e poetica nella tragedia italiana del Cinquecento, Naples, Loffredo, 2022) and more than thirty articles on topics spanning from the Renaissance to 20th-century Italian literature. He has edited an anthology of Boiardo’s works (Boiardo, Unicopli, 2018, with J. A. Cavallo), a multidisciplinary book on teaching (Il mestiere d'insegnante, Unicopli, 2013, with A. Musetti), and, together with Nicola Catelli, he is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Parole rubate. Rivista internazionale di studi sulla citazione/Purloined Letters. An international journal of quotation studies. He collaborated with Jeffrey Schnapp for FuturPiaggio: Six Italian Lessons on Mobility and Modern Life and translated the book into Italian (2017). His translations also include the Italian edition of The World Beyond Europe in the Romance Epics of Boiardo and Ariosto by J.A. Cavallo (2017).