The sfondagiaco is a rare type of dagger, with a robust blade and a very sharp tip, capable of perforating chainmail and sliding between metal armour plates. The handle of this dagger is elegantly decorated with gilding and diamonds and the ribbon that is wound around the ears bears the second verse of Psalm 31 (30): IN TE DOMIN[E] SPERAVI / ET NON CONFUNDAR IN [AETERNUM] (“In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded”). Tradition has it that this was the weapon used by Andrea Lampugnani to kill Galeazzo Sforza at the doors of the church of Santo Stefano on 26 December 1476, but this is refuted by the date attributed to the dagger by experts.
The lectures will be grouped into three "knots":"Memory and Christianity, from Augustine to the Modern Age", "Memory in performative and missionary practices" and "Practices of Memory and Mission: from Europe to the Overseas Worlds".
The new Ambrosiana Digital Library was created with the aim of enhancing the main funds (inf., Sup., S.P. and Trotti) through digitization and public and free dissemination via the Internet.
The series of lectures Dante and Europe in the nineteenth century investigates the fortune of the Poet among leading figures of nineteenth-century European culture.
