“Education is not the filling of a pail,

but the lighting of a fire.”

– W.B. Yeats

The first installation of our exhibition path illustrates the Canticle, the seed that generates in Francis’s disciples the spark from which centuries of reflections, studies, and speculations develop, through an inspired and profound attitude. First, illumination and intuition, then dedication, quiet repetition, and passionate study.

The Canticle becomes an imaginative installation in which the elements of nature, brothers and sisters of man, represent the infinite cycle of life. The seed of the Canticle generates the tree of knowledge and a different way of understanding life and culture. In each section of the exhibition, the use of multimedia takes us on a figurative journey through the pages of ancient manuscripts and books to understand the gestures and habits of the scholars who created them. Drawings, annotations, formulas, and imaginations provide a visual counterpoint to that world work of the Italian language that is the Canticle.

The melodious harmony of Creation is accomplished with the contribution of all creatures, animate and inanimate. Our journey through the manuscripts of the Sacred Convent is a polyphony in which we listen to each individual track and to which each note provides its contribution. The music of Laudato Sie, nine different voices corresponding to the themes and sections of the exhibition, finally intones a choral voice to immerse us in the polyphony of the Canticle, in which we recognize the uniqueness and beauty of the universe.