Reading Raymond Klibansky’s biography, from his lecture at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences on a fragment of Proclus back in 1929 until the present day, it is possible to notice a thread that does not only go through his extremely high quality theoretical work, but also his tireless activity of critical editor, that’s to say the continuity of the Platonic tradition from the Middle Ages to the present days. Think about his profitable collaboration with the late Ernest Hoffman, for the edition of the works of Cusano, his edition of the Latin works of the German mystic Maestro Eckhart, his great edition of Plato Latinus, as well as his interest in David Hume’s thought and in the theme of tolerance and human rights, just to mention a few titles of his very rich bibliography. Masterly is the work “Saturn and Melancholy” written in collaboration with Erwin Panofsky and Fritz Saxl, which has become a classic of history, philosophy, science and art.

The Prize wants to be a small accent to honor in this world personality the scholar of the relations between the absolute and the contingency in the human experience where tradition and change can be reconciled only with a cognitive effort that equals the love for the freedom of mankind.

The prize will be delivered by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie