Le Décades di Pontigny: cronaca familiare di un’avanguardia culturale

Founded in Pontigny Abbey, the Décades de Pontigny have represented one of the most important philosophical symposia and cultural sodalities of the twentieth century, an encounter between intellectuals from the most disparate disciplinary fields. A place of debate and cultural confrontation, Pontigny realized the ideal of an intellectual community and an international and European exchange of opinions. An often-overlooked chapter in the history of philosophy, this avant-garde enterprise was conceived and managed by a Parisian family, from 1910 to nowadays, managing to overcome the hostilities of the 1900s and ensuring a leading role for the female figures in the family itself. To take up the history of the Décades and their intellectual legacy means not only to recover a significant chapter in the cultural history of the last century, but also to tell the stories of the female protagonists who were able to innovate the cultural life of the French and European twentieth century.