"Il fuoco nella pietra"

Timetable

Friday: 17:30 - 18:30

Free entry

How can one put into words an experience that seems to lie beyond all words? This is the question addressed by Il fuoco nella pietra. La tradizione mistica moderna (Vita e Pensiero, 2026), the volume in which Carlo Ossola summarises and traces fifty years of research into mysticism. Straddling the fields of literature and the history of spirituality, the book invites readers to engage with mystical writings not only in comparison with the teachings of Michel de Certeau, but also with the tradition of research that has developed over time in Ticino. Carlo Ossola and Giacomo Jori, Professor of Italian Literature at the Università della Svizzera italiana, will speak at the launch event. Monsignor Alain de Raemy, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Lugano, sends his greetings.

Giacomo Jori is an associate professor at the Institute of Italian Studies at the Università della Svizzera italiana, where he teaches Italian literature and the history of literary criticism. He is co-editor of Lettere Italiane and the Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa. His research focuses on authors and masters of Italian literature who bear witness to the modern condition, from Tasso to Pier Paolo Pasolini, as well as on religious poetry and mysticism. He has published the unpublished writings of Maria degli Angeli, La santità in viaggio. Lettere, libro delle relazioni (2012), with Olschki, as well as a volume on Pontius Pilate: Storia di un mito (2013). His most recent works include the edition of Furio Jesi’s poem, L’esilio (Turin, 2019). He is currently working on an edition of Guarino Guarini’s tragicomedy, La Pietà trionfante (Messina, 1660).

Carlo Ossola (Turin, 1946) is Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France. He is a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a Fellow of the British Academy. His most recent works include: Les vertus communes (Les Belles Lettres, 2019), Les cent mots de Baudelaire (PUF, 2021), Nœuds. Figures de l’essentiel (Collège de France, 2021), Personaggi della Divina Commedia (Marsilio, 2021), La vie simple (Les Belles Lettres, 2023), Entrez sans frapper (Les Belles Lettres, 2025), Alléger le temps (Les Belles Lettres, 2026). He edited the bilingual edition of the Divine Comedy in Gallimard’s ‘Pléiade’ series and provided an introduction (2021; new edition 2023; Italian edition: Marsilio 2021).