Scuola di Studi Superiori "Ferdinando Rossi" dell'Università degli Studi di Torino - SSST

Course goals are to familiarize students with the links between history, memory, traditions, identities and with the growing weight of "Cultural heritage" in regional, national and European political agendas. The know-how of the four lecturers (two medievalists: Laura Gaffuri and Paolo Rosso; a specialist in book history: Maria Alessandra Panzanelli Fratoni; a contemporary history scholar: Pierangelo Gentile) will make it possible to address the topic of the course through specific case studies and in an interdisciplinary perspective.
A special focus will be done on both the cultural and social function of libraries, archives, museums in preserving and transmitting a collective memory, and the the role of the Universities as centres of cultural development and production, as well as political pressure and influence.

Module 1 - History, Memory, Identities: first questions

Teaching staff: Prof.ssa Laura Gaffuri (h. 6 )

What does it mean the word "identity"? What links exist between history, collective memory, tradition and identity? What political weight these words had in the past and do they have today?
The first module provides a methodological framework for the course by using the latest critical tools in an interdisciplinary perspective. During the third lesson a case study will enable students to verify the information acquired.

Module 2 - The University and the City: Knowledge, Identities, and Urban Transformations

Teaching staff:Prof. Paolo Rosso ( h. 4 )

The first part of the module provides an introduction to the history of medieval and early modern universities, with particular attention to their institutional organization (doctoral colleges, universitas scholarium), academic curricula, and teaching methods.
The university will then be examined as an urban phenomenon, with particular attention to the impact of the Studium on the social structure, economy, and urban development of the city. These topics will be further explored through a case study of the University of Turin, from its foundation in 1404 to the late sixteenth century, when, under Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, the university city consolidated its political centrality as Turin was elevated to the rank of capital of the Savoyard domain.
The military conflicts that profoundly shaped Italian history for much of the sixteenth century will provide an opportunity to reflect on the effects of war on the academic and intellectual life of universities during this period.

Module 3 - The Studium, the books and papers: An overall presentation of the book-collection and the archive of the University of Turin

Teaching staff:Prof.ssa Maria Alessandra Panzanelli Fratoni ( h. 4 )

When and how did the book collection necessary for the university activities begin to create? Where can be found the earliest documents testifying the Studium? The creation of a central library for the Studium and of the central archive can be dated in relation to the reformation of the university made by Vittorio Amedeo II (1730 ca.). Where are the earliest book collections and documents is part of this course, together with an overall evaluation of the impact played by politics into the formation of the university cultural heritage. Wars and conflicts play, of course, a major role, which is taken in consideration, especially in relation to the Second World War.

Module 4 - The University and the City: revolution and war

Teaching staff:Prof. Pierangelo Gentile ( h. 4 )

During the uprisings of 1821, the University of Turin underwent a serious crisis. The winds of revolution coming from Spain and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies saw the university at the forefront in welcoming the winds of renewal. Yet the episode of the students' insurrection was over-interpreted by the authorities. There was a real invention of tradition, which is still visible today in the urban spaces and the rectory. The course aims to question these aspects: when history shapes memories and rhetoric.