Ricerc@Sapienza

Images, both moving and fixed ones, have an important role in Niccolò Zapponi’s heterogeneous
production. The scholar used graphic, photographic and cinematographic images as
research tools for his suggestive historical analysis of different cultures and myths. Zapponi
expressed his deep interest for iconic sources not only in his scientific texts, but also in his
collaboration with the Italian television Rai for the fiction Il giovane Mussolini (Benito. The Rise
and Fall of Mussolini). He also wrote some screenplays and storylines for cinema and television,
which remained unpublished. These works focused on relevant historical figures as Bernard
de Clairvaux, Martin Heiddeger and Hannah Arendt, Pio IX and Edgardo Mortara, Giorgio
Perlasca. These works as a whole show Zapponi’s peculiar approach to history, free from
methodological boundaries, and reveal his understanding of iconic sources: of their polysemic
nature and their utility to highlight the past and tell it into the present.