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50 Years of Ligabue Study and Research Center and Giancarlo Ligabue Foundation
On the occasion of a half-century of travel, research and dissemination initiated by the Ligabue Study and Research Center and carried on by the Foundation, we have decided to celebrate with our city and all those who have a keen interest in learning about issues related to Man and the environment.
We are happy to present the programming of nine extraordinary meetings with authors and scholars that will be held from the end of September through the whole month of October.
The “Giancarlo Ligabue” Museum of Natural History, our historical partner celebrating 100 years of history in 2023, will host most of the lectures in a month full of insights offered by leading figures in Science, Art and Communication.
Check out the calendar of events and secure your participation. Priority on reservation for Friends of Foundation only.
Ilaria Capua
Saturday, September 30 at 6:30 p.m., Natural History Museum, Venice
“Wonder and transformation toward circular health.”
The recent pandemic has reminded us that we are vulnerable, just as we were centuries ago, and that health is the one good we absolutely cannot live without as an evolved society. Health is not just about Homo sapiens but is like a lymph that flows and flows through a system in which all of us humans, animals, and plants are immersed.
Marino Niola
Sunday, October 1 at 6:30 p.m., Natural History Museum, Venice
“Food as the engine of History.”
From the discovery of fire to the invention of the induction cooktop, humans are distinguished by their food grammar. What to eat, what not to eat, how much, when, how, why, with whom. Types of cooking, the succession of courses, culinary etiquettes, religious taboos, fasts, and abstinences. These elements mirror the relationship humans have with themselves and with others, with their land and with their identity.
Giorgio Manzi
Saturday, Oct. 7, 6:30 p.m., Natural History Museum, Venice
“On the Trail of Human Evolution (in Africa and Beyond).”
A history before history. Fossil bones, teeth, artifacts, prehistoric sites, and genetic data to reconstruct the evolution of a group of anthropomorphic apes who, around 6 million years ago in Africa, embarked on the intricate evolutionary path that gave rise to our species. A long and complex path, fundamental to our nature as biological and, at the same time, cultural beings.
Davide Domenici
Sunday, Oct. 8, 6:30 p.m., Museum of Natural History, Venice
“The study of non-European artifacts in the 16th century, between antiquaria and natural history: the case of Ulisse Aldrovandi.”
The geographical explorations of the early modern age revealed to Europeans the existence of previously unknown regions and peoples. Thanks to the global networks that were being established, objects from that distant mankind flowed to Europe, where they were collected by scholars and aristocrats, flowing into Wunderkammer and “collections of curiosities.” The story of the Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) provides an exemplary case to illustrate the connection between the study of natural history and the discovery of non-European peoples at the origins of Modernity.
Telmo Pievani
Tuesday, Oct. 10, 6:30 p.m., Museum of Natural History, Venice
“Imperfection. A Natural History.”
We are the result of a series of successful imperfections. Our brains and our genome, two of the most complex systems nature has produced, are full of imperfections. It is the imperfect structures that give us insight into the way evolution works: not as an engineer who systematically optimizes his inventions, but as a craftsman who does what he can with the material at hand, imaginatively transforming it, making do and reworking it.
Inti Ligabue
Saturday, Oct. 14 at 6:30 p.m., Museum of Natural History, Venice
“Giancarlo Ligabue Study and Research Center and Foundation, 50 Years of Discoveries and Outreach.”
For half a century, first the Study and Research Center and then the Foundation named after Giancarlo Ligabue have been traveling through forests, deserts, mountains and valleys. The goal is always one: to increase the heritage of knowledge and make it available to all, scholars and the curious, insiders and ordinary people. “To know and make known” without barriers or exclusions, with the same tireless spirit as Giancarlo who said, “The knowledge and recovery of ancient civilizations is an essential prerequisite for the understanding of our common humanity.”
Luca Mercalli
Saturday, Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m., Museum of Natural History, Venice
“No Time Left. How to respond to environmental alerts.”
T for Time. Time is starting to run out to understand that climate and environment are emergencies we need to worry about. We are a part of nature, ecological science says so, and if nature degrades we too end up doing the same. There are many ways to preserve energy while avoiding exacerbating air pollution or to avoid needlessly wasting natural resources that are in short supply, putting the future at risk. Mercalli has been saying and writing this for more than two decades, and he offers here a compendium of reflections, taking lessons in method and life from Primo Levi.
Jacopo Veneziani
Sunday, October 22 at 6:30 p.m., Museum of Natural History, Venice
“History of the Wunderkammer, Between Mirabilia, Artificialia and Naturalia.”
Starting with the sixteenth-century Wunderkammer of the Natural History Museum of Venice, in which precious, rare, bizarre, grotesque, or monstrous objects are crowded together, Veneziani traces the history of these treasure chests created to “collect and amaze.” A journey through the centuries and metamorphoses of this phenomenon in the history of collecting.
Mario Tozzi
Monday, Oct. 30 at 6:30 p.m., Natural History Museum, Venice
“Unexpected Mediterranean.”
What could be unexpected about a sea we have known for ages? Does the Mediterranean really still have secrets to reveal to those who live on its shores, feed on its products or dive into it every summer? Well, yes. Mario Tozzi recounts the ante-history of our sea through the voices of the species that inhabit it and their ancestors – fish, cetaceans, elephants and monkeys – who lived there when it was still the great ocean Tethys and had to adapt to the changes (many of them caused by humans) that have transformed its face.