Annual Balzan Lecture 2025 in Lugano
Piero Boitani spoke about ‘Roma Aeterna’ at the USI
On 24 September 2025, Piero Boitani 2016 Balzan Prizewinner for Comparative Literature, delivered the 2025 Annual Balzan Lecture at the Auditorium of USI – Università della Svizzera italiana, entitled Roma Aeterna.
The Lecture was organized by USI and the International Balzan Foundation “Prize” under the patronage of the City of Lugano.
Rome is the “Eternal City” par excellence: of course, from a literal point of view, this is not true. Rome has just turned 2,778 years old, only 2,000 years older than me, and there are older cities in the world. But it is the only one that has maintained extraordinary historical relevance over time, thanks to the continuity between the Roman Empire and the Church.
However, Rome is eternal in another sense too: it marks, in history, the threshold between the earthly present and heavenly eternity, that for which, as Dante writes, each of us is potentially «senza fine cive / di quella Roma onde Cristo è romano».
