As usual the traditional Historical Studies Seminar will be divided into fi ve sessions over three days. The morning of 8 May will be devoted to several speakers’ personal accounts of Vittore Branca. The topic has
been included in this year’s programme because Branca always supported the idea of these seminars during his time at the Foundation.
This year’s topic Il pane e il companatico (“Bread and something”),will be addressed from a number of points of view: the advent of maize, feeding the hungry peasants in the 17th and 18th centuries with
polenta, especially in the Veneto countryside, nutrition on ships and galleys, bread in Jewish festivities and stocking cereals and fl our. Bees and honey also put in an appearance in the explorations of further implications and metaphorical signifi cances.