" Those who steer a ship are accustomed to cramming into a page the conditions of the seas, the distance from ports and coastline, in order to foresee and understand the crossing that still needs to be sustained. I'll do the same for the books I still have to perfect ". These were the words of Ange Politien in his Praelectiones. Our journey is still long, and the port uncertain. I have put together my travel notes in these pages, hoping to find us all at the feast of knowledge, at the appointed hour, after so many battles, storms and adventures(Novellino, XIX).

Contents

• The crisis of the ordinary
• The way out of terror
• Bedside books
  • Marcus Aurelius
  • Ovid
  • Dante
• The classics, again
• Europe, our mother, our future