Matteo Brera

Un dannunzista tra due ‘Indici’ : Guido da Verona, il Sant’Uffizio e la censura di regime

The works of Guido da Verona were proscribed in the Index of Prohibited Books in 1920, thus receiving unexpected publicity from the Vatican’s ban. In 1930, on the contrary, the controversies which followed the publication of the irreverent parody of Alessandro Manzoni’s I promessi sposi marked the rapid decline of Da Verona’s career. This essay discusses Guido da Verona’s struggle with both ecclesiastical and fascist censorship, thus highlighting the effects of book forbiddance on the Italian literary canon of the early twentieth century and of its impact on the definition of an Italian national literature. Finally, the article reflects on the central role played by book censorship in the context of the tense political relationship between Pius XI and Mussolini in the wake of the Concordat of 1929.

Il concilio in diretta: Il Vaticano II e la televisione tra informazione e partecipazione

chapters that focus on language and terminology, by Pietro Maturi and Cirus Rinaldi respectively. Although all three scholars make specific reference to Italy, their focus is more on trends in international scholarship, particularly the emergence of queer theory. Questions of the visibility (or otherwise) of homosexuals and homosexual communities in Italy are not tackled head-on by any of the chapters, with the possible exception of Corbisiero and Salvatore Monaco’s closing chapter on ‘Città arcobaleno’ (‘Rainbow cities’). This makes reference to Italy’s low rank in terms of social and civil rights for homosexuals, compared to the broader European context. The chapter emphasizes the increasingly significant role of local and regional governments in creating auspicious contexts for increased visibility, and some key Italian cities such as Milan, Turin, Rome, and now Naples, have recently carved their places into Europe’s ‘rainbow map’. However, collectively the volume notably fails to observe, let alone interrogate, at least two large elephants in the room of the Italian polity. First, the attitudes and influence of the Catholic Church, especially important in the context of a recent sense of Italy’s ‘reCatholicization’, receive no direct analysis. Second, analysis of the effects of nearly two decades of Berlusconi’s government is curiously absent. Finally (and this relates to Berlusconi of course), a further potentially useful topic conspicuous by its absence is the question of representation of homosexual attraction and love in the Italian media. Discussion of homosexuality in the media and the incorporation of homosexual characters in Anglophone TV programs since the 1990s has had a major effect on popular acceptance by breaking silences and questioning stereotypes. Arguably such innovations have helped pave the way for the acceptance of same-sex marriage in many nations, and it seems a vital piece of the puzzle in Italy as well. If the laments raised in Anna Paola Concia’s preface are to be addressed, such questions must be tackled more directly. The volume helps to fill an obvious lacuna in Italian social studies, but it also signals that there is much more work to be done.

The Holy Office Against Fascism: Book Censorship and the Political Independence of the Church (1928–1931)

Studies into the activity of the Congregation of the Index and of the Holy Office have examined extensively the history of Vatican’s practices of book censorship. While up until the sixteenth century the Church imposed substantial modifications to literary texts, mainly in order to moralise them, in the seventeenth and eighteenth century it used book censorship to preserve ecclesiastical doctrine and its own power. In the nineteenth century the Roman Inquisition aimed to discredit noxious literature – and the dangerous ideas it contained – through its inclusion in the Index of Prohibited Books . In the twentieth century, when the Church’s secular power was fading, the Holy Office reacted against modernism thus intensifying its campaign against pernicious literature, seen as the main medium through which modernist ideas could infiltrate public opinion. During the papacy of Pius XI, in particular, the policies of the Holy Office mainly aimed to support the interventionism of the Holy See and its attempts to ‘catholicise’ public opinion and society. The Italian case renders a clear picture of a transformed Roman Inquisition: analysing the proceedings against Gabriele d’Annunzio ( Opera omnia , 1928) and Mario Missiroli ( Date a Cesare , 1929) this paper will demonstrate how the Roman Index and literary censorship stood out as the core of the Church’s relentless attempt to forge a ‘catholicised’ society between the two wars and to regain – through the forbiddance of authors and books closely linked to fascism – the political and social influence that Mussolini threatened to take-over before and in the aftermath of the Concordate of 1929.

‘Non istà bene in buona teologia’: Four Italian Translations of Paradise Lost and the Vatican’s Policies of Book Censorship (1732–1900)*

Abstract This essay considers the interference of the Roman Inquisition and, in particular, of the Congregation of the Index, with the circulation of Italian translations of Milton’s Paradise Lost. It examines the means used by translators to elude ecclesiastical prohibition and describes the procedures of censorship of the Congregation of the Index. The main focus is on the two most successful Italian translations of Paradise Lost: those by Paolo Rolli (1730) and Lazzaro Papi (1811). Also considered is the case of two other minor translations — those by Felice Mariottini (1813–14) and Giovanni Francesco Cuneo D’Ornano (1822) — which were involved (or simply mentioned) in the inquisitorial procedures of the Congregation of the Index. This paper will demonstrate how, on the one hand, the fear of censorship influenced the translators who tried to adapt their renderings of Paradise Lost in order to appease the Holy See. On the other, it will highlight how the system of ecclesiastical censorship impacted on the circulation of these translations over the span of two centuries. Finally, the Vatican’s ideological position regarding faithfulness in translation is examined. In support for the thesis proposed here, I will unveil previously unpublished documents preserved in the archive of the Congregatio Pro Doctrina Fidei, the former Congregation of the Index. Through an analysis of these documents, I will give a complete picture of the inquisitorial policies adopted against selected translations of Paradise Lost, filling a lacuna in previous critical contributions that could not benefit from the study of such sources.

At the Court of Kublai Kan: Storytelling as Semiotic Art in Le città invisibili by Italo Calvino

Italo Calvinos Le città invisibili (1972) is a receptacle of semiotic acts. Focusing mainly on the dialogues between Marco Polo and Kublai Kan—considered as stages in a semiotic encounter—this essay studies a specific aspect of the book: the engagement of the author and the reader and the ways they communicate and tell (each other) stories. The roles of the two protagonists are examined and contextualized within the realm of communicative strategies to demonstrate that storytelling lies at the core of this “open text.”