«Videmus nunc per speculum, in aenigmate»
From sign to sound: reflections on a topsy-turvey world
Enrico Correggia
Abstract
One of the greatest errors that an historian can commit is to refer to sources without placing them in their context, applying the criteria of reading with regard to his own times. Even if this seems self-evident, it is in reality the fundamental premise for undertaking valid research.
Why repeat it on this occasion? Everyone has his own image of the medieval period, whether epic, chivalric, millenarian, dark, or luminous. And it is the first great historical epoch to undergo this process. That which has survived from the Romans, the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians has come to light through the archeological disciplines, and has been transformed into an open air museum. This is not so for the medieval period, which still lives today: its structures are still being used, whether churches, banks or palazzi. Much of that which it has left us – material or immaterial – still functions. And this is a fact which we must never forget.
