This year, the Classis Asiatica of the Ambrosiana Academy – continuing the program of studies and research on the Far East cultures, which in the previous Dies Academicus had dealt with “Forms of diversity in man and nature” – developed a theme divided into four sessions on the plurality of philosophical, literary, artistic and social conceptions in China, Korea, Japan, and India. During the Dies, three new members of the Classis Asiatica will be proclaimed: the new Ambrosian scholars Elisa Giunipero, Matilde Mastrangelo, and Cinzia Pieruccini.
Furthermore, it will also be presented volume 10-11 (2021) of the Asian Ambrosiana series. The introductory Lectio by the Ambrosian academic Giuseppe Veltri, Professor at the University of Hamburg, will introduce the concept of philosophia perennis dear to Marsilio Ficino and Nicola Cusano, to then examine the variety of rites and their developments. Finally, the Lectio will concern the diversity of religions and their various types of humanism.
In Session A, Professor Zhao Tingyang of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences will propose a reflection on the system, already Confucian, of a possible global and social order based on 天下 (All under Heaven: The Tianxia System for a Possible World Order), for a relationship between people based on common advantage. The Ambrosian scholar Elisa Giunipero, Professor of the Catholic University of the Sacro Cuore in Milan, will contribute with a complementary study on humanism from the perspective of “Haevenly Studies”.
Session B, thanks to the reports of the Ambrosian academic Matilde Mastrangelo, Professor at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, and of Professor Cristian Pallone of the University of Bergamo, will consider some approaches to forms of humanism, witnessed in the Japanese literary field in the 18th-19th century by Mori Ōgai in his Diaries (Doitsu sanbusaku and Doitsu nikki), by Hiraga Gennai, Ueda Akinari and Santō Kyōden.
In Session C, the Ambrosian scholar Cinzia Pieruccini will illustrate the group of plaques from the Virabhadra collection, dating back to the 18th-19th century and donated to the Ambrosiana by Giuseppe and Paola Berger. In addition, the scholar will explain the origin of Virabhadra’s myth, attested in the Sanskrit sources and disseminated in the Deccan. The aspects of the idea of man, diverging from the doctrine of bráhman- / ātmán, are the subject of the report by the Ambrosian scholar Daniele Maggi.
The academic day will conclude with a report by Professor Vincenza D’Urso of the “Ca’ Foscari” University of Venice, appointed in the Classis Asiatica as Academic Assistant for Korean Studies. Her speech is dedicated to “Images of poets reflected in the Maninbo di Ko Un”, a well- known poet who is also an Ambrosian scholar.
The Acts will be published by the Class in 2023.
Zoroaster and Ptolemy, detail from Raphael’s Cartoon for the School of Athens
