La parabola dei tre anelli. Migrazioni e metamorfosi di un racconto tra Oriente e Occidente

This book addresses the history of the famous Parable of the Three Rings, the classic version of which is found in Boccaccio’s Decameron, the source that was later used by Lessing in his Enlightenment drama Nathan the Wise. As known, the tale concerns the three Religions of the Book (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and comprises important implications about dialogue, recognition and tolerance between the different religious cultures. It bears a message that is of great significance today.
The author (professor of Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Interreligious Dialogue at the University of Genoa) starts by examining and analysing the story as it appears in Boccaccio’s Decameron. He then goes on to trace the history of the tale and its metamorphoses between East and West, passing through Baghdad, Andalusian Spain, France and Italy.
Finally the author analyses Lessing’s Nathan the Wise, which gravitates around the Parable of the Rings, further enriched with modern resonances and implications.
This is the only recent monograph in Europe to reconstruct the entire history of the parable and, above all, its meaningful message for the present.
The book has met with enormous success in Italy, as testified by the numerous invitations extended to the author to speak about his research and this book, as well as by an extensive press review.