Luca G. Manenti at èStoria 2025 with two talks on borders, identity, and Freemasonry

The cultural association “Manlio Cecovini Study Society” will take part in the èStoria 2025 festival, with its Scientific Director, historian Luca G. Manenti, featured in two events scheduled for Friday 30 May at the Trgovski dom in Gorizia.

At 11:00 a.m., Manenti will participate in the presentation of La questione di Osimo. Storia di un confine 1945–1975(LEG, 2025), the latest publication by writer and essayist Giuseppina Mellace. The event will offer the public an opportunity to reflect on the definition of the eastern border between Italy and Yugoslavia, formalised in 1975 with the Treaty of Osimo, thirty years after the end of the Second World War. It is a subject of great historical and symbolic significance, particularly relevant in the context of Gorizia and Nova Gorica as European Capitals of Culture 2025.

In the afternoon, at 3:00 p.m., Manenti will be joined by Fulvio Conti, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Florence, for the talk Andare per città massoniche (“Exploring Masonic Cities”). The discussion will offer a journey through the places of Freemasonry in Italy—an opportunity to explore three centuries of Masonic presence in the country and to understand the role of the lodges in building intellectual, social, and political networks.

As part of the afternoon event, there will also be a discussion of L’alabarda e il compasso. La rinascita della massoneria a Trieste (1947–1954) (Antilia, 2024), the posthumous work of historian Michele Valente. The book explores the role of Trieste’s Freemasonry within the complex framework of the Free Territory of Trieste in the immediate post-war period. Using previously unpublished documents, Valente reconstructs the efforts of Freemasons to bring the city back under Italian sovereignty, at a time marked by tensions between the Western and Soviet blocs. The work also analyses the internal dynamics of local Freemasonry, the strategies adopted to establish a Grand Lodge in a complex international setting, and the interactions with Yugoslav, British, and American lodges. Enriched with diagrams and original sources, the volume provides a clear and detailed account of this crucial chapter in the city’s history and stands as the intellectual legacy of Michele Valente, who passed away in July 2023.

Both events are free to attend, subject to availability. A portion of seats is reserved for members of the Friends of èStoriaprogramme, who can book from 15 to 26 May 2025 via the official website: www.estoria.it. The full regulations are available at this link.

Luca G. Manenti’s participation in the èStoria festival reaffirms the Manlio Cecovini Study Society’s commitment to promoting historical awareness and critical reflection on the past, with a particular focus on themes that continue to resonate in our collective memory.