Venezia: la città che ha inventato il futuro | Alberto Toso Fei | TEDxVenezia
Translator: Arianna Bonazza Reviewer: Michele Gianella (Video) Today, I'll tell you the story of a city that has nourished a lot, our sense of wonder. A city that had a gift: to transform everything it touched, that absorbed cultures, ideas, inventions, sounds, knowledge, flavors; and gave them back to the world, improved. The stones of its houses, the faces of its inhabitants, many of its beauties and its customs have come from elsewhere; and in this city everything has found a new form, everything has become Venetian. Because this city is called Venice: and you, even if you don't know it, speak Venetian. You don't need to be born here, nor to understand what gondoliers say when they meet in the canals. You speak Venetian when you say words like ‘Arsenale’, ‘ghetto’, ‘regatta’, 'lazaretto' or 'quarantine'. You do it when you say 'hi' to someone. You do it because Venice, throughout its history, has been able to welcome the best that came from the world and has been able to mix it, transform it and make it more beautiful, more ingenious, more human. Trade, spices, intuitions, wisdom and dreams have passed through here. An encounter so fertile that all these signs, big or small, have since become the heritage of the whole of humanity. They have crossed borders and time; and they have entered the language, the gestures, the thoughts of the world. Here, much of what we consider normal today has come to light. You also write, in Venetian: when you close a sentence with a period, use a comma, an apostrophe, an accent, you are using a Venetian invention. The press? An idea from Gutenberg! But modern punctuation, the one that gives rhythm and breath to words, was born in the workshops of Venetian printers where indexes and page numbering were also developed, where Aldo Manuzio invented cursive - which the whole world calls “Italic” - and perfected the pocket book so that stories could walk with people. Since then, reading has become a portable, intimate, everyday gesture. Another extraordinary invention also came to life in Venice: the patent. It was March 19, 1474, and the Republic decided that whoever invented something deserved protection. An idea, for the first time in history, became “the property of the intellect.” Human thought entered into law: and precisely the law, in Venice, knew how to look ahead. In 1396, almost a century earlier, the Council of Forty had already prohibited the exploitation of boys and girls in what is the first law against child labor in history. In 1540, Vincenzo Redor discovered how to make his own image reflect perfectly. The mirror was born. From that moment on, we could really see each other: and our perception of ourselves and ourselves changed forever. Every morning, when you look in the mirror, you admire the reflection of a Venetian invention. But Venice is also freedom, play, fun. In 1638, with the 'Ridotto Grande', the first authorized gambling house in history opened. The previous year, the Teatro San Cassiano opened its doors for the first time to a paying audience to listen to an opera. From that day on, the music changed forever. He began to bow to the public's taste: to play not only for the nobles, but for the people, for everyone. But Venice was not only men, ships and merchants: it was also, and above all, a city of women. Already in the Middle Ages, here, a woman could hold assets, choose the guardians of her children, dictate her will alone, sign contracts, manage activities, live freely: things unthinkable, elsewhere. Because Venice was a mercantile civilization, where the family mattered: and in the family, the woman was an active part. For this reason, right here some of the first female voices in history were born: Uliana and Caterina, two widows of the 13th century. They founded a perfume company, one of the first all-female businesses. Marietta Barovier, in the 15th century, managed her own furnace; and she invented the “rosette pearl”, which would become a bargaining chip in the world. Then, in the Renaissance, the word becomes an idea. Moderata Fonte, Lucrezia Marinelli, Veronica Franco, Arcangela Tarabotti: poetesses, writers, courtesans and nuns. Rebels: women who shout centuries in advance that intelligence has no gender, and that freedom is a right, not a privilege. Everything is ready for the Revolution: and the revolution broke out, at nine in the morning of June 25, 1678, when Elena Lucrezia Corner Piscopia, the first woman to be able to do it in history, becomes the world's first graduate. In the following century, Elisabetta Caminer founded and directed one of the most important periodicals of the Enlightenment, its first director. Rosalba Carriera conquers European academies, with her miniatures. Giulia Lama dares to paint naked bodies, defying the judgment of the male painters and moralists of her time. In the 19th century, when the Serenissima was buried, a woman kept her memory alive, against everything and against everyone: Giustina Renier Michiel, who was also the first translator of Shakespeare into Italian. Women who showed the path to emancipation long before the word existed. Venetian women: and therefore, universal. Because Venice has always been able to welcome the new, transform it, make it its own. At the same time, it was a place where ideas met, where curiosity crossed borders, where knowledge became a gift. It was the place to dare. And perhaps, after all, this is precisely the secret of Venice: having been able to open up to the world without ever ceasing to remain itself. This is why you too, every time you write, think, create, greet, speak Venetian, even if you don't know it. Because every time a dot closes your sentence, every time you say 'hello', every time you look into each other's eyes in the mirror, Venice speaks through you. A legacy that is pure wonder, and that lives not only on its beauty, or on its art, but is nourished by its restless, generous, eternal and universal soul. Venice is not just a city: it is a way of being in the world. (Applause)