The agreement recently signed between the “Aldo Moro” University of Bari in Italy and the Custody of the Holy Land was presented on Wednesday 24th October at the university’s Department of Humanistic Studies. Thanks to this agreement, which joins and develops previous collaborations between the two signees, students from the University of Bari will be able to spend a period of study and research at the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Custody of the Holy Land in Jerusalem.
In line with their specific training, the selected students will take part in the cataloguing of the Custody’s historic collection coordinated and supported by the Department of Cultural Heritage. Precious objects, liturgical vestments, paintings and icons will be examined and recorded according to their historical-artistic components. Thanks to visits to the shrines of the Custody, the students will also be able to get to know the context the works studied come from and their material conditions of preservation.
Fr.StéphaneMilovitch, Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, has highlighted how studying this heritage, unique for its historic importance and artistic quality, is an opportunity for growth and reciprocal enrichment for the Custody and for the young scholars.Thanks to this, the Custody gains full knowledge of its collection while the University of Bari students have access to original material which can, if necessary, become the object of personal research to be developed in articles or theses.
Prof. Paolo Ponzio, Director of the Department of Humanistic Studies of the University of Bari, stressed the exceptional nature of this educational experience which he hopes can involve many students from Bari in the coming months.
Elena Barile
