Ezio Raimondi was an all-round intellectual like few others, prolific and brilliant, an unforgettable professor and man of letters. The celebrations for the centenary of his birth and the tenth anniversary of his death culminate with the exhibition dedicated to him by the Department of the University of Bologna where he taught.
The aim of the exhibition is to retrace the fundamental moments of the intellectual formation and affirmation of one of the greatest Italianists of the 20th century. A point of reference for humanistic culture, and always rooted in the Bolognese area, Raimondi was a reader "on multiple tables" throughout his work as a professor and literary critic and pursued an intellectual journey with few equals in the Italian and European panorama.
(from the dedicated website)
In a little book, small in size, but big in inspiration, Dialogo sulla cittadinanza. Bologna vecchia e nuova, Raimondi, in a dialogue with Angelo Varni, claims that theatricality is a characteristic of the nature of our territory and its inhabitants and suggests its relation with the pervasive presence of the porticoes:
Theatricality is one of the aspects of relational life that clearly finds two confirmations: on the one hand the presence of historic theaters, still numerous in the region and also in the city, ..., which are fully-fledged places of the whole community, not only of the ruling class; on the other hand, that kind of open theater represented not only by the squares, but also by the porticos, which can become a kind of setting, a place where not only one passes quickly but where, at least in other times, one stopped, exchanged opinions, information and maybe even gossip...
Don't worry if you haven't managed to visit the exhibition. You will find it also online at https://exhibits.ficlit.unibo.it/s/raimondi-biblioteca/page/introduzione-alla-mostra
The exhibition website: https://ficlit.unibo.it/it/eventi/ezio-raimondi-la-biblioteca-infinita-palazzo-magnani
The website of the Metropolitan City of Bologna where all the initiatives are collected: https://www.cittametropolitana.bo.it/cultura/raimondi_100
Videos of events dedicated to Raimondi:
- Presentation of the book Le buone letture di Ezio Raimondihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlxvLbKL-j8&t=55s
- I cento anni del lettore: per Ezio Raimondihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9ME3R2BMVs
The quote is taken from Ezio Raimondi, Angelo Varni, Dialogo sulla cittadinanza. Bologna vecchia e nuova, Venezia, Marsilio, 2002, p. 77