Giuliano Pisani


Giuliano Pisani is a writer, classical philologist, scholar of ancient Greek and Latin literature, and art historian who was born on April 13, 1950 in Verona, Italy. He graduated with a degree in ancient Greek history from Padua University with Professor Franco Sartori. He was a full professor of Greek and Latin literature at Liceo Tito Livio in Padua. Since 2011, he has been a member of the National Italian Committee of the Promoters of Classical Culture at MIUR. He was also the technical coordinator of the first Olympiad in Classical Languages and Civilizations, which was held in Venice.
His scholarly interests are mainly centered on philosophy and ethics. His work includes translations and studies of Plato, Plutarch, and Marsilio Ficino.
With his book on the Arena Chapel's frescoes by Giotto, entitled I volti segreti di Giotto, he gave a revolutionary interpretation of the celebrated artist's work.
He has received prestigious many prizes and acknowledgments for his work. In 1990, he won the Monselice Award Leone Traverso for his Greek translation of Plutarch's Moralia. In 1999, he won the Marcello d'Olivo Award of the city of Lignano. In 2000, he won the Francesco Petrarca Award of the Euganean Academy of Sciences, Literature and Arts. In 2009, he won the Bookseller's Prize of the city of Padua with his book about Giotto's frescoes in the Arena Chapel. In 2010, he won the Caorle Mare Award for Culture.
For his cultural merits in 1991, he was elected member of the Société Européenne de Culture, and since 1996, he has been a member of Lorenzo Valla foundation.
From 1983 to 1988, he has been the Secretary, and since 1988, he has been the President, of the Italian Association for Classical Culture, Padua's Delegation.
An active cultural promoter, in 1994, he created the Premio Campiello Giovani on the model of the Premio Campiello.
In 2001, he created with Virginia Baradel the Gemine Muse European format .
In 1995, he created a cycle of lectures devoted the theme of Philosophy as Therapy, which he has organized and directed ever since.
Since 1999, he has worked on the creation in Padua of the Giardino dei Giusti del Mondo, which was inaugurated on October 5, 2008 and honors those who made a stand against the genocide of the last century..

Plutarch' studies

• Edition, with Greek text, Italian translation, introduction and notes of Moralia
Moralia I - «La serenità interiore» e altri testi sulla terapia dell'anima, La Biblioteca dell'Immagine, Pordenone 1989, pp. LIX-508 1989, pp. LIX-508
Moralia II - L'educazione dei ragazzi, La Biblioteca dell'Immagine, Pordenone, 1990, pp. XXXVIII-451
Moralia III - Etica e politica, La Biblioteca dell'Immagine, Pordenone 1992, pp. XLIII-490
• Plutarco, Vite di Lisandro e Silla, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, 1997
• For the Mondadori Oscar he published the following texts:
• Consigli politici, 1994, pp. V-XL, 1-148
• La serenità interiore, 1995, pp. 1–95
• L'arte di ascoltare, 1995, pp. 1–90
• Come educare i figli, 1996, pp. 1–127.
• Come trarre vantaggio dai nemici, 1996, pp. 1–89

Arena Chapel's studies

• L’ispirazione filosofico-teologica nella sequenza Vizi-Virtù della Cappella degli Scrovegni, «Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova», XCIII, 2004, Milano 2005, pp. 61–97.
• Terapia umana e divina nella Cappella degli Scrovegni, «Il Governo delle cose», dir. Franco Cardini, Firenze, n. 51, anno VI, 2006, pp. 97–106.
• L’iconologia di Cristo Giudice nella Cappella degli Scrovegni di Giotto, «Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova», XCV, 2006, pp. 45–65.
• Le allegorie della sovrapporta laterale d’accesso alla Cappella degli Scrovegni di Giotto, «Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova», XCV, 2006, pp. 67–77.
• Il miracolo della Cappella degli Scrovegni di Giotto, in Modernitas – Festival della modernità, Spirali, Milano 2006, pp. 329–57.
• Una nuova interpretazione del ciclo giottesco agli Scrovegni, «Padova e il suo territorio», XXII, 125, 2007, pp. 4–8.
• I volti segreti di Giotto. Le rivelazioni della Cappella degli Scrovegni, Rizzoli, Milano 2008.
• Il programma della Cappella degli Scrovegni, in Giotto e il Trecento, a cura di A. Tomei, Skira, Milano 2009, I – I saggi, pp. 113–127.
• La Desperatio, ultimo vizio nella Cappella degli Scrovegni di Giotto, in Disperazione. Saggi sulla condizione umana tra filosofia, scienza e arte, a cura di G. F. Frigo, Mimesis, Milano 2010, pp. 209–232.

I volti segreti di Giotto (The secret sides of Giotto)

“A wonderful intellectual adventure into the core of Giotto's inspiration and the amazing world of the Italian 14th century”
This book is a journey into the symbolic universe of the painter who revolutionized the concept of space. The 14th century in Italy begins with the creation of two masterpieces: the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy, devoted to Hell, and the fresco cycle of the Scrovegni Chapel or Arena Chapel, both works marking the start of a new era. There are works that never stop challenging our minds; works that are not forgotten with the passing of time. In his book Giuliano Pisani takes us into the heart of one of the great masterpieces of Western art: the symbol-laden frescoes of the Scrovegni Chapel. The book is a journey of discovery aimed at finding out again the pieces of a mosaic whose original meaning had been lost; deciphering the meaning of the allegories, and correcting some commonly accepted interpretations. In his frescoes Giotto shows man's salvation, a very complex project, following the guide lines from a hitherto unknown theologian who worked in the shadow: Alberto da Padova. New figures have been identified in a fundamental point of the cycle : a centaurus, a she-bear, a pike fish finally take the place of the figures that were formerly believed to symbolise the evangelists .

Other studies

• First modern edition of Marsilio Ficino, De vita libri tres, in collaboration with Albano Biondi, Biblioteca dell'Immagine, Pordenone 1991, pp. XXXV-501.
• Platone, Repubblica, in collaboration with Franco Sartori, Biblioteca Filosofica Laterza, Laterza, Bari 1995, pp. 1–301