PROGRAMParticipation is reserved for those who have booked by Oct. 2. The Prezzolini Prize was born in 1983 out of the donation to the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze by the author, Maestro Luciano Guarnieri, of a collection, entitled “Prezzolini: the man and the writer in his workshop,” consisting of forty-five drawings, pastels and watercolors depicting the late writer as he worked already a hundred years old in his home in Lugano, alternating with glimpses of places, such as Vietri Sul Mare, where he had spent part of his existence.
The result of these moments of affection and confidence of the elderly writer, scholar, animator and protagonist of many cultural battles could not be dispersed.
Instead, it had to remain in Florence, the city of which Prezzolini was a son by character and culture and therefore a refugee, as is the tradition of other great Florentines who have loved this contradictory city of theirs at times with grudging passion.
This donation that saw, albeit in effigy, Prezzolini’s return to Florence constituted for the Cassa di Risparmio the occasion for the establishment of a Fund to be used to periodically award a prize to Italians and foreigners who had distinguished themselves in the fields of literature, arts, sciences and crafts.
A prize not to signal the value of individual works, but to recognize the entire work of men and women who have enriched culture and thus civilization with love and intelligence.
A prize in the name of Prezzolini inspired by the example and intentions of a man who until the last days of his life always fought, with his writings and his words, to prove that the search for truth, against all dismay and hypocrisy, with the virtue of ingenuity, and with the effort of perseverance in enlightening oneself and others, are the highest manifestations of the human soul.
The first awarding of the Prize was in 1984 and it continued with biennial editions, until 2003, then, as all of Prezzolini’s friends and acquaintances gradually passed away, it was decided to discontinue it, but the Bank reserved the right to continue, autonomously and without constraints, all the initiatives it deemed appropriate to remember the figure of Giuseppe Prezzolini.
In 2012, Fondazione Biblioteche Cassa Risparmio Firenze was established to continue the cultural purposes of Banca Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, now incorporated into Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. In 2023 it was decided by the Fondazione Biblioteche Cassa Risparmio Firenze, the Fondazione CR Firenze and Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. to reactivate the Prize, according to its original terms, by awarding two prizes, to an intellectual who has distinguished himself or herself in the field of literature, the arts or the sciences, and to an artisan who has honored the ancient tradition of craftsmanship with his or her trade.
A technical committee composed of Francesco Perfetti (Chairman), Aureliano Benedetti, Bernabò Bocca, Stefano Lucchini, Tito Nocentini, Giuseppe Morbidelli, and Sandro Rogari was then formed and awarded the two prizes of the 2024 Edition to Ambassador and Historian Maurizio Serra, Member of theAcadémie française, and Paolo Pagliai noted Florentine silversmith.
The new edition of the Prize also includes the “Witness of Time” award, which this year is given to Carlo Messina, Managing Director and CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo.