Product Description
TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Format: 33 x 45 centimeters Pages: 272 Paper: 220 grams, specifically created at the Cartiere Miliani Fabriano with a particular composition enriched with vegetable fibers that reproduces the characteristics of antique paper. This process guarantees that the work will last for centuries. Binding: entirely sewn by hand and bound in leather with embossments and gold leaf insignias. Case: wooden sleeve with walnut finishings and embossed leather trimmings. Iconography: 100 illustrative plates in color.
CONTENTS
This volume is the first Italian translation of the Romanzo di Alessandro, the legendary version of Alexander the Great’s exploits. Written in the Hellenistic age, the “Romanzo” was found throughout antiquity and the Middles Ages in an infinite number of versions and in every language of the world. The good fortune of Alexander’s fantastic story, which influenced art and literature for centuries, began to wane after 1500 when it was replaced by the historical version of his adventures. The original text was rediscovered and translated only a decade ago. Following the volume’s integral text of the Romanzo di Alessandro is the original version of Plutarch’s biography of Alexander the Great. The iconographic display consists of miniatures borrowed from the following sources: Armenian, Bizantine, Persian and neo-Greek versions of the “Romanzo”; antique geographic maps, in which it is possible to reconstruct Alexander’s itinerary; images of incredible animals and monsters from medieval codex drawings and bestiaries. The selection of images that accompany the text represents the most extraordinary and marvelous episodes of the Macedonian adventure, right up to the borders of the known world: the prodigious birth, his flight into the sky with griffins, the exploration of the bottom of the sea in a glass submarine, and an encounter with amazing monsters from the Orient. The text of the “Romanzo” is preceded by an essay written by Monica Centanni, which reconstructs the text’s story and the wealth of images that evoke a medieval voyage, just as Marco Polo explicitly recounts on many occasions in Il Milione. Alexander’s Coins An accompaniment to the volume is a silver reproduction of a rare, private - collection original coin of Alexander the Great.
AUTHORS
Monica Centanni, teacher in the department of Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice and Hellenist who studies Greek tragedies and the history of classic translation in particular.