Italy Risorgimento (1840s - 1900)
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Giustina Rocca of Trani: The World’s First Woman Lawyer?
As we near the end of the nineteenth century, in country after country, we see women breaking through gender barriers. This was true in the law as much as in other fields. Giustina Rocca lived in the fifteenth century. Some say she is Italy’s, or indeed, the world’s, first woman lawyer. She was a native of the beautiful coastal city of Trani in Puglia. The city and local legal profession still celebrate her story. They are not the only ones to honour her. The European Court of Justice has named one of its three buildings the Rocca tower in her memory. However the real story is always more involved than…
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The Dragon the Witch and the Daughters by Luigi Capuana (English Edition)
From a master of Italian verismo comes a classic short story of the genre, but with a twist. As characters come into conflict with each other, and “the Dragon” with himself, Capuana weaves together the grimness of real life with threads of subtle fairytale. For the first time translated into English by Michael Curtotti, The Dragon the Witch and the Daughters, transports us into the life of a nineteenth century village. Don Paolo Drago, “dragon by name, dragon by nature,” appears to dominate this world, yet he barely controls his own thoughts and feelings. Despite himself, he is drawn into the destiny of two orphans. Yet tragedy stalks the life of Don Paolo.…
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The Flag without a Country: the Origins of the Italian Flag
The red, white and green of the Italian flag is well-known as a symbol for Italy. The Margherita pizza celebrates its colours. Its colours are displayed at every national celebration. But where does the flag come from and how did it come to be the national banner of Italy? As with many good stories, the story of the Italian flag has a backstory. Sure it was carried by Giuseppe Garibaldi and his thousand red-shirts when they landed in Sicily in 1860, but the flag was already more 60 years old by then. The backstory indeed doesn’t start in Italy at all. The resemblance of the Italian flag to the French…
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When Malaria in Italy was a National Disease
At the end of the 19th century, up to 20,000 Italians died every year from malaria and millions were infected. Even the word is Italian: “la mal’aria” – the bad air – a phrase to describe the mysterious and then unknown causes of the disease, which was attributed to the “bad air” of swampy ground. Malaria arrived in Italy in ages past, and was there when the ancient Greeks began to build their cities on Italy’s shores. The story of the effects of malaria is recorded in the collapse of the once flourishing city of Posaedonia (today Paestum). Founded about 600BC, its ancient Greek temples still draw tourists from around…
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Giosuè Carducci and Miramar Castle
Mexico gifted Italy the tomato. Italy sent back an Emperor. It wasn’t a fair exchange. And it wasn’t welcomed. The story begins in Miramar Castle and Giosuè Carducci is our story teller and his poem Miramar can be read below. Carducci came to the castle when it was already a place where ghosts whisper of the past. However the journey that took him to the castle passes through one of the most turbulent eras of Italy’s history. Carducci was born in 1835 and lived to see the birth of the new country of Italy. However he was not just a passive spectator. He was a passionate advocate of the Risorgimento.…
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Prendiamo un caffè? Italian Coffee Culture
Let’s face it without the caffè this morning (yes, made with a traditional Italian caffettiera), I wouldn’t be writing this. Names like espresso, cappuccino, latte, and the now ubiquitous Italian espresso machines are a standard part of Australian cafe culture. So it’s natural to assume there is something quintessentially Italian about coffee. As Simona Lidia, a blogger on Italian culture jokes “an Italian will always believe deep inside that coffee grows spontaneously in Italy, and only in Italy, since the Lower Paleolithic.” Living Italian Coffee If my experience is anything to go by Italians, even in diaspora, can’t escape Italian coffee culture. Growing up, the tiny white cups were there…
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Matilde Serao and the Life of Cristina
Matilde Serao was unusual. In 19th century Naples, she was a successful journalist, writer and newspaper proprietor. Her fiction was widely published and quite a few of her works were translated into English in her own lifetime. Cristina is the main character of Matilde Serao’s short story of the same name. But Cristina lives in another world. The story’s opening words begin to sketch its nature. While Cristina leant over to gather a fragrant clump of basil with which to flavour her tomato sauce boiling in the kitchen, she heard a brief and sweet whistle. Mentre Cristina si chinava a cogliere un ramoscello di basilico odoroso, da mettere come aroma…
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Alessandro Manzoni and the Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi)
Alessandro Manzoni is a talented story teller and a perceptive observer of character. His novel, the Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) has been celebrated as a gem of Italian literature ever since its publication. It is readily available as a physical, ebook or audiobook (see below) and several movie and serial versions have been made. The novel’s main characters, Renzo and Lucia are in love and they are to be married. Yet achieving this happy and unexceptional outcome turns out to be far from easy in Lombardy of the 1600s in which the historical novel is set. Manzoni wrote his book in the early 1800s, two hundred years later, so we see a more…
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Commentary – Who am I to Speak to You of Italy
This article is the promised commentary on: “Who am I to Speak to You of Italy“, which I wrote in April. In part a commentary recognises that our words never really leave us. They travel along with us and reveal new unimagined meanings and inspire new departures as they speak to us from memory. Much is communicated in Who am I to Speak … by allusion; and many unwritten and written words lie under those that were set down, and a commentary may enrich communication. However, it is not necessary to read the commentary and you may choose not to do so, as commentary (even by writer) may also confine…
