This week, Mariupol State University hosted the visit of famous Italian scholar, professor of the University of Rome Tor Vergata Carlo Illuminati. Within the framework of the Ten-day Student Research event, the professor delivered 5 lectures in English for students of all majors from March 19th till March 23d.

His research focuses on the works of famous Italian writers Francesco Petrarca and Dante Alighieri. Lectures of the scholar touch upon the issues of love lyrics in the compilation of sonnets Canzoniere, of mortal sins (hypocrisy, flattery, betrayal) and special vision of hell and purgatory by Dante.

MSU and the University of Rome Tor Vergata is bounded by the agreement on cultural and scientific cooperation which foresees the exchange of professionals, scientific information and publications, joint research, seminars and workshops. It is worth mentioning that it is not the first visit of Carlo Illuminati to Mariupol State University. In 2012 the honorary professor visited the University with his lectures that attracted the attention of students majoring in Italian language and culture.

Students liked this year’s meeting with professor Illuminati as well.

Olha Kolodiazhyna (third-year majoring in Language and Literature (Italian)):

«These were not just lectures, professor Carlo Illuminati has thoroughly analyzed best works of the world literature. Speaking about “Divine comedy”, in particular about mortal sins, he provided examples from history and mythology that was very interesting. As a lecturer he was ready for a dialogue, he was emotional, artistic, invited students to have a dialogue and what we liked the most is that he noted our high level of English language proficiency. I have attended all the lectures and now I can tell that it is a great opportunity to practice conversational English and Italian. When professor Illuminati was not delivering lectures he spoke with students studying Italian language, helped improving Italian language skills by reading Petrarca’s sonnets or fragments from Dante’s “Comedy”. We know him as a broad-minded man, he is fluent in Italian, English, German and French and travels a lot. By the way, he told that he liked our trains and hospitality of the locals, however he was not satisfied with the quality of our roads».