November 24, 2019

Rare Books in Rome + Venice and Turin Visits

November 2019 Doings:

This month, we worked on bridge-building to alumni in Northern Italy, reaching out to Turin, Milan, and Venice. Our sympathy extends to those suffering hardship in the Venetian lagoon. We cancelled our meeting, but have Venice in our hearts and minds.

In Turin and Milan, we were able to speak with motivated alumni, and are crafting plans for 2020 events. Hot chocolate at the Farmacia del Cambio in Turin proved to be an incubator for ideas.

Rome's reunions centered on a visit to the rare book library of Dr. Giovanni Aldobrandini, GSAS '76, partnership with the Academy of Fine Arts Rome, and "patrocinio" of a John Cabot University event, on the subject of experimental film born in the USA (New Jersey, to be precise)....

Our November highlight was an exclusive visit to one of the great private collections of illustrated books, assembled by a scholar of British history, and descendant of Clement VII.

The family of Prince Giovanni Aldobrandini commissioned the artist Domenichino to make what are now considered the first pure landscape paintings, back in the early sevententh century.

Dr. Aldobrandini was our kind host on a tour of his extraordinary collection of illustrated books. We were welcomed into his private "Wunderkammer," and saw examples by Picasso, Matisse, Mirò, and many other great masters, of the twentieth, but also twenty-first century. A small group of alumni were joined by experts in library science, a scholar of medieval manuscripts, and an artist who makes artist's books himself.

November 24, 2019

Rare Books in Rome + Venice and Turin Visits

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