The cycle of conferences begins in Rome, on Wednesday 16 April at 4 p.m., with the first presentation dedicated to Alchemies of Colour, issue 1 of the Journals, which presents the results of diagnostic analyses on the pigments used to miniate and illustrate the manuscripts and incunabula in the Collection, as well as an in-depth historical analysis of their production, marketing and circulation. Leading the meeting, hosted in the Spazi900 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, is Andrea Cortellessa, literary critic and literature historian, curator of the first three issues of the Journals, accompanied by art historian Bernardo Oderzo Gabrieli, one of the authors of the issue, collector Giuseppe Garrera, who anticipates the contents of the second issue, Morality of the collection, and art historian Elena Inchingolo, for the Cerruti Collection. 

Curator Andrea Cortellessa conceived the idea of approaching the topics from a dual perspective: ‘physical’, with an analytical and philological approach, at times genuinely scientific; and ‘metaphysical’, to support a vision of a narrative and philosophical nature. A tribute to Giorgio de Chirico, the father of Metaphysics, one of Cerruti's best-loved artists and of whom ten paintings are preserved in the Collection.

The title of the series, ‘Journals of Physics and Metaphysics‘, is due to this approach. Each issue deals with a theme explored in depth by scholars of various backgrounds, starting from the material characteristics of the works in the Collection, and moving on to more conceptual reflections. Each publication brings together the contributions of a writer and an artist, invited to interpret the proposed themes through their point of view.

Alchemies of Colour presents the ‘physical’ perspective of Bernardo Oderzo Gabrieli, with the essay On the market of colours: examples of quality and cost in book ornamentation spanning the middle ages and the renaissance, and the paper by chemists Maria Labate, Angelo Agostino, Patrizia Davit, Elisa Calà, Francesca Robotti and Maurizio Aceto, entitled The ornamented books of the Cerruti Collection under the diagnostics lens, the result of diagnostic analyses carried out over the course of a year on the precious volumes of the Cerruti Collection. On the ‘metaphysical’ side, the Journal is completed by the unpublished short story An artis of the skin by Tiziano Scarpa, written for the occasion, in which the disturbing historical and social effects of colour emerge, and a project by English artist Mark Leckey, winner of the Turner Prize in 2008.

April's appointment is followed by two conferences in May: the first on Thursday 15 at 6.15 p.m. on the occasion of the 2025 Book Fair, in Turin; the second, entitled On the physical and the metaphysical, led by Andrea Cortellessa, on Friday 16 at 6 p.m. at Villa Cerruti in Rivoli.