Ferdowsi’s enduring legacy resonates with Italian academia
Italian and Iranian studies scholars gathered at the Vivarium Academy in Rome to honor Persian poet Ferdowsi and examine the enduring influence of the ‘Shahnameh’ (Book of the Kings) on European Iranology and Iran’s cultural identity.
The event placed ‘Shahnameh’ at the center of a widening cultural dialogue between Iran and Europe, with academics describing the epic as a living archive of Persian language, justice, mythology and historical memory, IRNA reported on Tuesday.
Professor Simone Cristoforetti characterized the work as a vast tapestry interweaving cosmology, ethics, philosophy and heroic narrative, stretching from the reign of Keyumars, regarded in Iranian tradition as the first king, to the Arab conquest of Iran in the seventh century.
He said the poem’s legendary cycle, dominated by the heroic figure of Rostam and the House of Sam, remained one of the pillars of Persian literary consciousness, while its historical sections chronicled the Parthian and Sassanian eras with sweeping narrative force.
Mario Mazzari of the University of Rome traced Italy’s scholarly engagement with Ferdowsi back to the Medici Press in the late sixteenth century, highlighting the role of Giovanni Battista Raimondi and the Vecchietti brothers in collecting Persian manuscripts and laying the groundwork for Oriental studies in Europe.
Speakers said the ‘Shahnameh’ had preserved the bond between Persian language, wisdom and historical continuity across centuries, retaining a singular place in global epic literature and intercultural scholarship.