Oscar-winning film director, script-writer and actor Roberto Benigni will be visiting Malta for four days next week.

Benigni will be honoured with a doctorate honoris causa for his contribution to humanities on Tuesday. Prof. Domenic Fenech and Dr Gloria Lauri Lucente, Dean and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts at University yesterday gave details of this programme at a press briefing.

During his visit to Malta, Benigni will be accompanied by Professors Robert and Jean Hollander, authors of the new illustrated translation of Dante’s Divina Commedia. The Hollanders too are an award-winning couple, who have been awarded with, among others, the Gold Florin of the City of Florence (1988) and the Dante Society of America (2005). On 30 May, the couple will receive the Gold Florin of Florence for their translation of the Commedia.

The highlight of the programme will be the Serata Dantesca which the Italian actor-scholar will be conducting together with Robert Hollander on Wednesday at the Sir Temi Zammit Hall, University of Malta. During this evening, Benigni will be delivering a recitation from the Divina Commedia. This will be preceded by a discussion on Dante between Benigni and Robert Hollander. A number of tickets were made available to students and academic staff free of charge. All those interested in the subject may watch this event on a big screen which will be set up at the University Quadrangle, just outside the main hall. Such an event will commence at 6.30pm and will not be aired on local TV stations.

Professor Hollander will be giving a seminar entitled Dante’s Sympathetic Sinners on Thursday 24 April on campus. An exhibition of illustrations of the Divina Commedia by artist Monika Beisner will be held at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Valletta on 25 April at 6.30pm. Jean Hollander, a scholar in her own right, will also be giving lectures and seminars to University students.

Roberto Benigni has managed to successfully fuse the study of literature and the cinematographic aspect. It is interesting to note that he has been researching Dante and studying how his writings can be portrayed in modern ways for a very long time. In 1990 Maestro Benigni gave his first Dante lecture in Siena. He also acted out Dante reaching superb levels in his Tutto Dante Serati aired on Rai.