Le immagini della storia. Le fonti iconiche fra ricerca, divulgazione storica e spettacolo

Images, both moving and fixed ones, have an important role in Niccolò Zapponi’s heterogeneous production. The scholar used graphic, photographic and cinematographic images as research tools for his suggestive historical analysis of different cultures and myths. Zapponi expressed his deep interest for iconic sources not only in his scientific texts, but also in his collaboration with the Italian television Rai for the fiction Il giovane Mussolini (Benito. The Rise and Fall of Mussolini). He also wrote some screenplays and storylines for cinema and television, which remained unpublished. These works focused on relevant historical figures as Bernard de Clairvaux, Martin Heiddeger and Hannah Arendt, Pio IX and Edgardo Mortara, Giorgio Perlasca. These works as a whole show Zapponi’s peculiar approach to history, free from methodological boundaries, and reveal his understanding of iconic sources: of their polysemic nature and their utility to highlight the past and tell it into the present.