La storia del diavolo e del demagogo. Un topos millenario

A text unknown before the 2021 edition is presented: the Latin poem De partibus by Cristiano da Camerino written perhaps in Perugia at the end of the 14th century. It is an important chapter in Lucan's fortunes, but also a text of exceptional political inventiveness that associates the Aristotelian notion of a demagogue with the events of the Guelphs and Ghibellines and the topos of the infernal council. Examples of devilish councils in Western literature will be traced. The lecture will be given in Italian with an English presentation.

Andrea Bocchi graduated in History of Italian Language at the University of Pisa in 1989, studied at Scuola Normale Superiore and Universität des Saarlandes, obtained PhD at SNS (2003) and Pisa University (2010); since 2011, he has been teaching at the University of Udine. He published commercial, mathematical, literary, and administrative documents from medieval Marche, Umbria, Tuscany, and Veneto and worked on modern texts (U. Foscolo, G. Mazzini, A. Manzoni, A. De Gubernatis, B. Mussolini). Recent books concern the European history of the word ‘demagogue’ (L’eterno demagogo, Turin, 2011), a Trecento latin-italian dictionary (Il glossario di Cristiano da Camerino, Padua, 2015), plays by a Venetian dramatist (Francesco Griselini, Teatro, Pisa, 2015) and the Biagia da Decomano by an anonymous Florentine (2023), a Pisan translation of Ricoldo da Montecroce’s itinerary in Middle East (2017); then a Trecento Latin poem by Cristiano da Camerino (2021), a Venetian mariner’s book (2019), the Testi ussitani del Trecento (2023) and the Pratiche di mercature toscane del Trecento (2023). Presently, he attends to late medieval documents from Fano, Pisa, Camerino, and Ancona, to the XVth century portolano by Grazioso Benincasa, and the works of Michelangelo Florio. He received several grants: currently PRIN “Chartae Vulgares Antiquiores” 2014 and 2019 (member), ERC Project EmoBookTrade (member), PRID “CuriaInfera” 2017 (PI), PRIN “Il lessico della Repubblica” (2023).