CATANIA – Others two prestigious awards arrive for the “Nicola Spedalieri” Classical High School in Catania: a 1st place for the senior section a Gianlorenzo Battaglia in the Certamen Syracusanum and a first place for the senior section Matteo Paci in the Certamen Aetnaeum.
“Syracuse, where art, culture and science thrive like nowhere else place”: this is how the great Cicero expressed himself in the 1st century. BC regarding the Aretusea city. Even today, confirming the thousand-year history of Syracuse and its cultural primacy, the city hosts numerous events of notable importance among which undoubtedly includes the “Certamen Latinum Syracusanum”. Organized annually by “T. High School Gargallo” and now in its XXXVI edition, the “certamen”, among the oldest and most prestigious on the island, consists of a translation competition from Latin into Italian accompanied by a commentary of a historical-literary nature in Latin for the participants of the three years of secondary school, an element that makes the test unique in its kind, or by a paraphrase in the same language for students of the two-year period.
This year the test, which took place on Monday 15 April 2024 in the premises of the same high school, has saw guys coming from Messina, Caltagirone, Catania and Syracuse itself discuss a passage from Cicero’s “Tusculanae Disputationes” focused on the nature of the soul.
There awards ceremonyheld Thursday 16 May 2024 at the auditorium of the “T. Gargallo”, was preceded, as usual, by a conference relating to the classical performances that every yearNational Institute of Ancient Drama (INDA) organizes at the Greek theater of Syracuse, arousing appreciation from all over the world. This time she saw how speakers Francesco Morosiresearch fellow in Greek literature first at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and now at the University of Udine, and Caterina Mordegliaassociate professor of Latin literature and philology and history of Latin theater at the University of Trento.
Once the dissertation of the illustrious guests was finished, the award ceremony for the winners began in which the winner of the first place for the three-year period was Gianlorenzo Battagliaclass VB, del Classical High School “N. Spedalieri” of Catania. Gianlorenzo, accompanied by his literature teacher, Prof. Loredana Battiatoand at his second statement in the “Certamen Latinum Syracusanum” after the honorable mention last year, he released the following words: “I am very excited about the extraordinary goal achieved, winning is always nice, but in such a prestigious event and in front of such important guests the emotion is twofold. In any case, rather than victory, what is closest to my heart and will remain with me forever is the great honor of having competed in a competition that allowed me to put myself to the test, making the desire to compete even more mature in me. know and learn more about these languages that are as ancient as they are fascinating and which, in my opinion, still have so much to teach us“.
Another 1st prize was awarded at the “Galileo Galilei” Scientific High School, last April 12th, to Matteo Paci, class IVA of the same high school, who had the honor of participating in the national Aetnaeum Certamen and competing with other valid students from Catania and beyond. Matteo, visibly satisfied, declared: “In addition to the unexpected victory, I appreciated the theme chosen for this year, Roman technical prose, which is not particularly studied in current high school programs, but which has many connections with the current world and modern scientific and technological discoveries. After the translation of a passage by the Latin author and architect Vitruvius, I was asked to write a commentary in Italian in which I underlined the current importance of the theme of the passage, with particular reference to the current issue of environmental pollution, and briefly treated of the history of scientific prose in the history of Roman literature. Overall this experience, in which I was followed not only by my teacher, the Prof. Silvana Mentabut I also attended a translation workshop to prepare for the Certomina, held by prof. Marco Ficiproved to be extremely interesting for delving into the works not only of Vitruvius but also of other Latin writers such as Seneca or Petronius and thus entering into that incessant dialogue with the thinkers of antiquity, from which we have so much to learn”.
