Publisher's Synopsis
The great international exhibition that Padua has recently dedicated to the explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni, the initiator of the rediscovery of Pharaonic Egypt in the early 19th century, has reignited a spotlight on the dawn of Egyptology and on the fervour that, during that period, set in motion politicians, scholars, diplomats and adventurers intent on discovering a millenary and forgotten civilisation. The exhibition has also offered an opportunity to confront experts with different disciplinary skills on topics related to ancient Egypt. The significance of the Padua Lessons is the following: a series of meetings aimed at investigating, through the voice of Egyptologists and Scholars of Antiquity, the fervour that animated the rediscovery of that buried world, but also specific aspects of Egyptian culture and its repercussions throughout Mediterranean culture. In the middle of all this, in the Spring of 2020, the COVID 19 pandemic struck, interrupting activities, sometimes irretrievably. However, it was decided that the virus should not have the last word. The writings of all those who were scheduled to speak to the public at the Padua Lessons were thus brought together in the form of essays, to which was added a surviving Marciana Lesson (from the Library of St. Mark), held in Venice on similar topics, which would otherwise have been lost.
