The Reggia di Venaria, a monumental complex at the gates of Turin, is hosting from October 19, 2024, to February 16, 2025, the major exhibition dedicated to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, the creator of the famous Middle-earth saga that has shaped a new imaginary world for the contemporary world and made him one of the most widely read authors on the planet.

TOLKIEN. Man, Professor, Author tells the human journey, academic work, narrative power, and poetic strength of the famous novelist through a unique journey, allowing enthusiasts and the public to be introduced to the greatness of this author and understand how his extraordinary knowledge of the ancient world is at the core of his creative process.

Following the major exhibitions held in Oxford (2018), Paris (2020), and Milwaukee (2022) that highlighted specific aspects of the literary works, TOLKIEN. Man, Professor, Author is the first exhibition of this size ever organized in Italy, placing the English writer at the center of everything and allowing visitors to discover the various facets of his life: the man, father, and friend, academic, author of essays and publications still fundamental in the study of ancient and Middle English literature, the storyteller and sub-creator of Middle-earth. There is also space to explore the relationship he had with our country and the Italian editorial history of his works, as well as what inspired in art, music, and the world of comics.

Understanding his life and immersing in the universe he created is achieved through a structured exhibition path featuring autograph manuscripts, letters, memorabilia, photographs, and artworks born from the literary visions of a unique and multifaceted author.

A man of his time, novelist, linguist, and philologist, the Professor from Oxford is portrayed in his artistic and human complexity through three sections:

THE MAN - which narrates, through photographic reproductions, autograph letters, objects, and informative panels, the private life of the writer, from his relationships to his studies, to his experience in the First World War.

THE PROFESSOR - where you can learn about his role as an important academic, one of the youngest to obtain a chair at the University of Oxford, author of studies and publications still fundamental in the study of ancient and Middle English literature.

THE AUTHOR - a broader section that tells the storyteller and his two most important works: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It also includes some first editions, the original watercolors created by Piero Crida for the first edition of The Silmarillion and two unused ones for Unfinished Tales and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil; about 900 editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings from 51 different countries, and finally the reconstruction of a corner of Tolkien's private study at his residence at 20 Northmoor Road, Oxford, where he wrote The Hobbit and part of The Lord of the Rings.

At the end of the exhibition project, a section tells the legacy of the writer who has represented a unique cornerstone of the fantasy literary genre, for all that he has inspired in art, music, and the world of comics. There is also room for old and new film adaptations, from Ralph Bakshi's animated film to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, capable of bringing one of the most ambitious and popular sagas in world literature to the big screen, winning 17 Oscars.