On Thursday, January 14, 2016, Professor Mallette will deliver the Italian Program’s annual Tucci-Cornetti Lecture at 6pm in 602 CL (Humanities Center) .

“Writ in Water: Poetry on Paper in Medieval Italy”

The technology of papermaking took off in Italy following the fourth crusade, at the beginning of the thirteenth century. By the fourteenth century, Italian paper was abundant and cheap, and Italian papermakers soon dominated the paper industry across the Mediterranean, displacing parchment as writing material. This talk studies the impact that Italian paper had on the writers who used it – historians, storytellers, and especially poets – in late medieval Italy. How did great authors like Dante and Petrarch respond to the new technology? “Writ in Water” describes writers’ reactions to the introduction of the new medium, and how it transformed the writer’s craft.