10 Giugno 2011: English Version.

June 10, 2011.

LA COMPAGNIA DELLA STELLA.

PRESENTATION IN FLORENCE

The Lily, the Star and Three Crowns.

From Lucca to Florence: the three wise men begin their pilgrimage.

The Kings began their pilgrimage? Yes, but this time they are driving the star, or rather, the Compagnia Della Stella.

The Compagnia della Stella was founded in Lucca in July 2010 on the initiative of a group of intellectuals, friends interested in many aspects of the theme of the Three Kings. They are Franco Cardini, Giovanni Macchia, Alessandro Bedini. Giovanni Macchia has been appointed President. Franco Cardini, in addition to the distinguished professor of medieval history known to all, is the leading expert on the history and traditions connected with the Kings, and in this capacity he is the animator and the reference point of the Society.

Less than a year after its founding, the Society of the Star took place also in the city of Florence, and in the evening of June 10, 2011, at the Seat of the Florentine Cultural Club of Florence, "La Gabbia Matta" it was held the "Conference Dinner" for the presentation of the book "The Lily, the Star and Three Crowns. The Kings, a Christian legend and a Florentine festivity " by Franco Cardini, published by LEF, in which the author describes the project of the re-issue of the "True Florentine Feast of the Epiphany" and accompanies it by an interesting historical analysis on the subject of the Kings.

The characters of the Kings, although they are mentioned in the Holy Scripture only once in the Gospel of Matthew, had a large fortune. Since the first centuries of Christianity, these figures have been enhanced with details and characteristics derived in part from the Apocrypha, partly from traditions or legends. For example, Matthew does not specify how many they were, or which were their names, but soon after their number was identified with the three gifts they were bringing, and their names (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar) were established on the basis of information contained in unrevealed texts.

The fact that they were kings did not derive from Matthew (who speaks only of Wise Men), but by subsequent interpretations of the Scripture, and by an ancient solid tradition.

The fascination exercised by these Wise Men, especially in popular devotion (but not only), was enormous. Around them, for example, has developed a rich iconography that represented them according to the categories with which the sensitivity and the culture of different times have imagined the Orient from where, according to the testimony of Matthew, they were coming: with the Phrygian cape and the cap of the ancient Persians, as they were seen in earlier centuries, with rich and sumptuous clothes and mantles as they were handed by the great art of the Late Middle Age and of the Renaissance.

Interesting is also the story of their supposed relics: found by St. Helena during the excavations in the Holy Land, they were brought to Byzantium and then to Milan, where in 1164 Rainald of Dassel, by order of Frederick Barbarossa, seized them and moved them into the cathedral of Cologne, where they are still. Countless are also the popular and folk traditions related to the three Kings: religious plays, processions (well known those of Milan and Florence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), songs, liturgies. They remain in names of places and even in gastronomic field there are cakes and biscuits that are linked to their names.

In ancient times there were even families that claimed to be descent from one of the Kings and their symbols were inserted in their coats. Furthermore, with the Christianity, the tradition of nativity scenes started, and their permanent presence in those representations of the Nativity has increased their popularity and the number of devotional images in all sorts of materials (papier mache, plaster, clay, wood, porcelain).

The literature, especially poetry, has often been inspired by these characters, from the ancient Latin hymnody, to the most recent texts of Eliot, D'Annunzio, Heine, Rilke, Pasternak and many others. There are also some film adaptations inspired by their stories.

What Compagnia Della Stella proposes us as a goal is well explained at the beginning of article N. 2 of the Statute:

Article 2: Purpose of the Association of Compagnia della Stella, in compliance with applicable laws, is to promote all kinds of cultural, social, recreational, tending to the enhancement of the studies, research and other activities related to the topic of the Kings history, religion, culture, folklore, and any other field.

There are in fact in the planned programs, in addition to the historic ride of the Kings in Florence, conferences, exhibitions of iconographic materials, film reviews, finding of bibliographies and of specific lists of websites, trips to historical and cultural destinations like Florence, Lucca, Siena, San Vivaldo, Volterra, Milan and Cologne on the traces of famous works of art or even little-known but significant ones, pilgrimage routes, that with the help of specialists and intellectuals as well as of technicians and craftsmen, will reveal their innermost secrets for us to delve into the history and traditions of our culture.

The day June 10, 2011 marked, therefore, the official "start of works" of the Company in the city of Florence.

In the cozy and elegantly furnished rooms of the Palazzo Pucci, Seat of the Cultural Circle "La Gabbia Matta," the Marquis Giannozzo Pucci, President of the Cultural Club and of the LEF Publishing House which published the book of Franco Cardini, "The Lily, the Star and Three Crowns. The Kings a Christian legend and a Florentine festivity ", did the honors of the House and gave the start to the first official florentine event of Compagnia Della Stella: an evening of culture and conviviality.

The evening was attended by all Members of the Board of Directors of the Company of the Star, of which is Honorary President Franco Cardini, and by many distinguished guests.

After a dinner of the highest quality, Franco Cardini took the word and at the beginning he showed the gift that the Group of Rebuilders of the Prayer had created for him: a magnificent icon representing the Journey of the Kings [Photo n ° 1]. It will be housed in the Florentine Headquarters of Compagnia Della Stella, as soon as the Cultural Association will have a permanent home in the Tuscan capital.

The author recalled the birth of Compagnia della Stella, its purposes, the activities so far, and the many projects that are also described in the first pages of his book.

The central part of the publication - which is the largest - traces a broad outline of the historical interest of Cosimo de 'Medici and his heirs in the Florentine Signoria for the Kings. An interest that was embodied in several forms, from the cycle of paintings commissioned to Benozzo Gozzoli in the family chapel in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the patronage of the ancient Society of the Magi, to the promotion of sumptuous processions and demonstrations in commemoration of the episode of the evangelical Adoration of the Kings and of their Journey (that in the iconography became the famous "Ride").

The main body of the book is preceded by two chapters that frame the subject from the general point of view: The "Kings" wise men. An historical and cultural profile and Notes on a specific "case": the worship of the Kings in Lombardy. After the extensive discussion of the events of Florence, the last two chapters, with reality, put forward true proposals for renewing the traditional Festival of the Kings in Florence, the Event that has been called the Florence Festival for excellence, and, with a hint of ambition, for organizing in 2014 (550^th anniversary of the death of Cosimo the Elder), a major Exhibition on the theme with a program that may enhance, in addition to abundant and important iconography on the Kings, also products of craftmanship related to the main theme like jewelry, fabrics, heraldry, botany, food, costumes, weapons, etc..

The appendix is a list of more than 200 works of art with the theme of the Kings, spread throughout Italy and Europe.

The book can be purchased directly at the Libreria Editrice Fiorentina, Via de 'Pucci No 4, 50122 Florence, telephone and fax 055-2399342. (Editrice@lef.firenze.it - www.lef.firenze.it)

Who will order the book directly from LEF, indicating that it has been recommended by Compagnia Della Stella, will get a 15% discount off the cover price.

Closing out the evening, the author has presented another gift made by the Florentine painter Anita Gironi (which could not attend the dinner because out of Florence): a magnificent Parchment on style of medieval illuminated manuscripts, bearing at the top, inside the drop-cap "L", the depiction of the Adoration of the Kings, and at the bottom the logo of Compagnia Della Stella, a weapon of Heraldry of one of the Kings found in a German manuscript of the fifteenth century. [Photo n° 2]

This Parchment, Franco Cardini said, will be represented graphically in various formats and will be the basis for all official documents (such as ID cards and diplomas) that Compagnia Della Stella will release.

"Starting from the Kings and their Star, and re-proposing them to the city of Florence we shall follow their journey of wisdom involving educated people, people able to spread culture and people acting in the production world. We will find again the pleasures of Knowledge and of Working.

Franco Cardini and a wonderful team of intellectuals, cultural trainers, managers and entrepreneurs, politicians and prelates, artisans and professionals, following the symbolic journey of the Kings will be able make it real to enrich each other with peacefulness and boosting Excellence, to result in a modern Renaissance. "