The chosen reading for March is Marguerite Yourcenar's"The Work in Black."
Scheduled for commentary on Monday, April 3, 2023 at the Gilberto Rovai Community Library in Incisa.
THE PLOT.
Zeno was born in Bruges in the early sixteenth century into a merchant family. As an illegitimate son, he was initiated into an ecclesiastical career under the guidance of Canon Bartholomew Campanus. The boy, spurred on by the canon's love of literature, devoted himself passionately to books and study, finding in the classics useful tools for reasoning and the development of thought, but moving further and further away from Christian doctrine. After his early days at the school of theology, where he has no trouble getting excellent results, Zeno decides to set out on an endless journey around the world in search of himself. To support himself he does a little bit of everything, but his main activities were medicine and, secretly, alchemy and philosophy, which is why he travels from city to city and court to court in search of new knowledge. He wrote about science and alchemy, suffering suspicion and condemnation because of his theories, which were considered atheistic and heretical. He lives, moreover, at a time when, between Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Europe is torn by strong religious tensions and the mere suspicion of heresy can lead to burning at the stake; an entire chapter of the book is devoted to the Anabaptist revolt in Münster, which took place between 1534 and 1535.
Now in his fifties, Zeno decides to retrace his steps and spend some time in Bruges under the false name of Sebastian Theus. There he meets the educated and far-sighted prior of the Cordiglieri, who offers him a position as a doctor at his order's hospice. The still and monotonous state of his new job does not make him regret his eventful life up to that time; on the contrary, it is the beginning of a new season in his life. Zeno continues his fervent intellectual activity, which, however, no longer turns to major themes, but to reflection on the relationship between the body and the world. The result is a radical detachment from his own human particularity; Zeno plunges into the ocean of forms, abandoning all philosophical preconceptions. It is at this moment that Zeno realizes that the opus nigrum ((LA) "black work") is being accomplished in him, that is, the alchemical phase of the stripping away of forms, the dissociation of elements and the purification of matter: he himself is his own work, and he must go through the phase of 'nigredo' in order to purify his own substance from the imperfect philosophies and theologies of his century and thus access a different cognition of the world and himself.
THE AUTHOR.
Marguerite Yourcenar was born in Brussels on June 8, 1903.
She made her debut as an author in poetry, with the collection "Le jardin des chimères", published in 1921.
Drawn to the novel of historical settings, in 1951 she published the "Memoirs of Hadrian.".
In 1980 she became is the first woman to join the Académie française.
Marguerite Yourcenar died, on the island of Mount Desert, on December 17, 1987.
The reading group is organized by the municipal libraries of Figline and Incisa Valdarno to enable local readers to share thoughts, emotions and reflections arising from a reading chosen in common with other enthusiasts. In fact, these are not group readings but shared readings that will be held until June 2023. Books read so far with the group: "Everything Calls for Salvation" by Daniele Mencarelli, "The Golden Glasses" by Giorgio Bassani, "Fried Green Tomatoes at Whistle Stop Coffee" by Fannie Flagg, "The Black Opera" by Marguerite Yourcenar.
For information and reservations, contact the biliotechs directly:
Marsilio Ficino Municipal Library (Figline):
Tel: 0559125290/0559125291
E-mail: biblioteca.ficino@comunefiv.it/g.fanfani@comunefiv.it
Gilberto Rovai Municipal Library (Incisa):
Tel: 0559125445/0559125446
E-mail: biblioteca.rovai@comunefiv.it/g.fanfni@comunefiv.it
