On the occasion of the 24th Week of the Italian Language in the World, the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago presents a series of events inspired by the theme “Italian and the Book: The World Between the Lines,” which explores the connection between language and literature in the contemporary world, highlighting the role of the book as a vehicle for Italy’s cultural, values, and identity. In collaboration with Loyola University, the Istituto presents a seminary dedicated to the historical importance of libraries and their role in shaping contemporary society.
Rosa Otranto, Full Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, presents Books and Libraries in the Ancient World: The Cases of Alexandria and Herculaneum, a reflection on the importance of libraries in ancient times. What has survived of ancient, public and private, libraries? Which sources can help reconstruct their structure, content and functioning? This presentation, through a detailed examination of the extant sources – literary, papyrological, and archaeological – will focus on locations, functions and content of ancient libraries, with particular attention to two of the most famous examples, Alexandria and Herculaneum.
Two additional speakers will join the conversation. Robert Di Vito, chair of the Department of Theology at Loyola University Chicago, will present The Qumran Library. Chris Skinner, PhD, Catholic University of America, will speak about The Nag Hammadi Library. The almost contemporary discoveries of the collections of Jewish scrolls, mostly in Hebrew, in the caves around Qumran (then Jordan, now Israel), dating roughly form the time of Jesus, and of the 4th – 5th Century Christian, mostly Gnostic, books in Coptic in a large jar near Nag Hammady (in Egypt), not only changed the way we perceive Late Judaism and Early Christianity, but challenge our very concept of “Library”.
Free event. No registration required.
Rosa Otranto teaches Classical Philology and Papyrology in the Department of Research and Humanistic Innovation (DIRIUM) at the University of Bari Aldo Moro. Her primary research interests are the history of books and libraries in the ancient world, book catalogues, book forms and transmission of texts, manuscript tradition of ancient authors, Demosthenic tradition and exegesis and ancient lexicography. She coordinated the Project “Disease, Word, City: Narrating and Communicating Disease for the Well-being of Society” (Horizon Europe Seeds); currently she leads the PRIN Project “MetaLibraries. Living Libraries for a Better Living”. Among her most significant publications are Antiche liste di libri su papiro (Rome, 2000), the Italian edition of H. Blanck, Il libro nel mondo antico (Bari, 2008); Storie di testi e tradizione classica per Luciano Canfora (Rome, 2018), Malattia, parola, città. Ricerche e prospettive tra passato e presente (2024), and Medico, malattia e società. testi e contesti tra mondo antico e mondo moderno (2024).
Robert A. Di Vito is chair of the Department of Theology at Loyola University Chicago. His area of specialization is ancient Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, with concentrations in Hebrew Bible, Northwest Semitic epigraphy, and Assyriology. Currently one of four editors-in-chief for the revision of the New American Bible under sponsorship by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and a translator for the project, he regularly teaches courses in the Dead Sea Scrolls. His research interests include Pentateuchal criticism, biblical hermeneutics, and biblical anthropology.
Christopher W. Skinner is a scholar of New Testament and Christian origins working at the intersections of narratology, narrative criticism, and historical criticism. His research explores literary and historical questions in the narratives about Jesus both within and outside the New Testament. He has written extensively about narrative-critical issues as well as characterization in the Gospels of John and Mark. He has also written about the scholarly reception of the Gospel of Thomas and New Testament ethics. His additional interests include the reception of Jesus within popular culture and the leveraging of ideas about and images of Jesus within contemporary political and religious discourse.
