Casa Cava packed last night in Matera for the presentation of the new book by Professor Saverio Omar Ciccimarra Medieval civilization (Altrimedia Editions). Together with the Author, teacher of History and Philosophy at the Liceo Classico of Matera, the editorial director of Altrimedia Edizioni Gabriella Lanzillotta, Patrizia Di Franco (head teacher of IIS Duni-Levi), Giovanna Quarto (teacher of the Liceo Classico) and Daniele Taccardi ( already a classical high school student).
Medieval civilization it is not a manual of Medieval History, because there are already many and the design of this book is more modest and undoubtedly less ambitious. The purpose is to tell the story of the period between the 4th and 15th centuries, from the last decades of Late Antiquity to the era of the great geographical discoveries, the Middle Ages, to free it from the rhetoric of the “dark ages”.
In the text, the Author cites among others Paolo Delogu who, in his Introduction to the study of Medieval History, underlines that the Middle Ages is proposed “as an obligatory passage in the students’ itinerary and this constitutes in many cases the only reason for an often unsolicited and perhaps unwelcome meeting. In common opinion, continues Delogu, it is often considered as the opposite of all the values that are the basis of modern consciousness and customs: traditionalism and cultural authoritarianism, accentuated hierarchization of society, subsistence economy based mainly on agriculture, are the fundamental aspects of the Middle Ages which contrast markedly with the organization that European society has developed over the last few centuries and in which it recognizes itself, characterized by the spirit of criticism, democracy, legal and social egalitarianism and economic prosperity based on industrial production. In short, the Middle Ages could be interesting essentially for the way in which it denied itself and then slipped into the Modern Age. However, alongside this spontaneous and deep-rooted refusal, one often finds in the cultural opinion of our times also a lively curiosity for its most characteristic aspects; for the, one might say, anti-modern side of the Middle Ages: the religious faith and beliefs, the social and cultural heritage and the technological backwardness of a simple society”.
With Altrimedia Edizioni the prof. Ciccimarra – born in Ferrandina in 1975 – has also published Biography of monarchic Italy.
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