Montepulciano, town prepares to celebrate Poliziano, and starts with an exhibition

2024 will mark the 570th anniversary of the birth of Poliziano (Agnolo Ambrogini; Montepulciano, 1454 - Florence, 1494) and the 530th anniversary of his death. To commemorate the great Renaissance poet and humanist, the Municipality of Montepulciano is launching a three-year program of initiatives: a journey of knowledge and approach to the man of letters and culture, characterized by a series of events and activities that will culminate precisely in 2024.The program experienced its first act on Saturday, December 3, with the opening at the Blue Room of the “Piero Calamandrei” Historical Archive Library in the Palazzo del Capitano, Piazza Grande, of the bibliographic exhibition Opera et alia quaderna, which displays works by Agnolo Poliziano printed between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The exhibition presents twenty-two works chosen from the approximately one hundred and fifty that make up the Polizianesca Collection, bequeathed by Carlo Minati to the City of Montepulciano in 1899. Minati, born in Montepulciano in 1824, already a protagonist of Risorgimento actions, was a distinguished physician and university lecturer as well as a politician, involved in public institutions, but he did not fail to cultivate his deep passion for the Poliziano, collecting works that he then left precisely to the community. Of particular interest are three pamphlets by Isidoro Del Lungo from the late 19th century, two of which have an autograph dedication. Other works on display include a valuable, rare incunabulum (the first form of movable type printing, on the model of medieval manuscripts), made in Florence in 1499 containing the Works of Poliziano; an edition, also of the Works, dated 1533 with a valuable 18th-century binding. There is also a curious seventeenth-century manuscript copy of the Stanze, two editions printed by such illustrious printers as Aldo Manuzio (1541 edition) and Bodoni (1792 edition), a copy of the first biography of Poliziano written by Federico Mencken (1736), and finally an Elogio del Poliziano delivered at the Liceo di Montepulciano in 1845.

Also on display is one of two volumes of the bound card catalog, compiled in 1901 by Carlo Zelli, former librarian of the University Library of Pisa and professor of literary subjects at the Liceo Ginnasio of Montepulciano. Enriching the exhibition is a portrait of benefactor Carlo Minati, a painting that is part of the collection of illustrious men held by the municipality.

Anniversary initiatives

Poliziano and Montepulciano are inextricably linked: already the young Angelo wanted to be called Poliziano by his contemporaries precisely to highlight his origin. Montepulciano has strong ties to the poet and equally strong traditions: a street in the center, that of the house where he was born, the Theater and the Lyceums are named after him, testifying to how Poliziano is a nationally and internationally recognizable cultural element; but business activities and products are also dedicated to him, a sign of a strong presence in the social and human fabric as well. The project, drafted with the support and collaboration of the Calamandrei Library and which will progressively avail itself of significant partnerships, real cultural “principals,” such as the Fondazione Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte - Istituto di Musica “Henze,” aims to publicize and enhance the vast cultural production of the protagonist through exhibitions and interventions aimed also at the school population. The aim is to bring citizens, young people, and tourists closer to the figure of Poliziano, an enormous cultural resource of Montepulciano, as a symbol of the territory as a place of letters, humanism and culture.

Among the first activities is the cataloging of some 250 books, of which 140 belong to the Poliziano collection, from which the exhibition was taken, and the remainder belonging to the Poliziano shelf. In this way researchers and scholars will immediately be able to find useful, valuable, and in some cases unique bibliographic sources on the web from all over the world.

Montepulciano, town prepares to celebrate Poliziano, and starts with an exhibition

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