The Scuola Normale (Pisa) will host two study days, June 18th and 19th, calling on experts from around the world to celebrate Ovid and his fortunes. The recently established International Ovidian Society has chosen the Normale as the European venue for a conference that aims to lend new impetus to the study of the works of Publio Ovidio Nasone, the Latin poet born in Sulmona in Abruzzo on March 20th, 43 BC, who died in exile in 17 AD in Tomi, Romania.

The Scuola Normale is a natural choice of venue, given the research activity of the Dean of the Faculty of Letters, Gianpiero Rosati, a Latin scholar who has dedicated numerous publications to Ovid.

"Ovid's poetry”, explains Professor Rosati, “is perennially popular. He is the favourite ancient poet of the general reading public, and dominates the attention of scholars to such an extent that there has been talk of a new Ovidian aetas following on from his establishment in the Middle Ages as the focal point of the canon of major ancient poets ".

One of the many initiatives that accompanied the recent celebration (2017) of the 2000th anniversary of the poet's death in many countries around the world, the International Ovidian Society was recently established in the United States. "The purpose of the association”, explains Rosati, “which was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies held in January 2019 in San Diego, California, is to promote the study of Ovid's works and their influence right up to modern and contemporary times in the most varied fields, including art history, modern literature, music, theatre, cinema, video art and performance art.

The conference to be held in Pisa at the Scuola Normale will cover all these themes and will be the association's European début, the first stage of a series of initiatives that it intends to promote in the coming years throughout Europe".

In addition to Rosati, speakers will include Alessandro Barchiesi (New York University), Federica Bessone (University of Turin), Barbara Weiden Boyd (Bowdoin College), Jacqueline Fabre-Serris (Université Lille 3), Andrew Feldherr (Princeton University) , Laurel Fulkerson (Florida State University), Philip Hardie (Cambridge University), Alison Keith (University of Toronto), Mario Labate (University of Florence), John F. Miller (University of Virginia), Melanie Möller (Freie Universität Berlin), K. Sara Myers (University of Virginia), Carole Newlands (University of Colorado, Boulder), Alessandro Schiesaro (University of Manchester), Alison Sharrock (University of Manchester) and Richard Tarrant (Harvard University).