THE INTERVIEW
NoonApril 20, 2022 – 10:56 am
Claudio Romano, one of the editors of the voluminous text on the Bourbons, speaks
from Gabriele Bojano
«The third volume in two volumes on the Bourbon Navy, relating to the period from 1830 to 1861, has been ready since 2012. There are 1238 pages with 1030 illustrations and 18 tables outside the text, which should only be printed. Collectors, homeland history enthusiasts are waiting, they ask us when it comes out, but it seems that the Historical Office of the Navy is no longer interested in our work ». He doesn’t know whether to be more angry or embittered Claudio Romano (photo)co-author with Antonio Formicola, both from Portici, of the History of the War Navy of the Bourbons of Naples whose two powerful volumes were released in 2005 and 2010 without the constraint of a publishing contract. There is no two without three, popular culture would warn, but this time it is not so obvious e we found out by looking for the third volume at the National Library. Romano feels betrayed because he has been working for the Navy for 40 years as a civilian. And such a treatment was not expected.
Budget cuts
But let’s go in order: “When we published the first and second volumes in a total of four volumes, after having consulted 600,000 documents, mostly unpublished, between public archives and private collections – says Romano – we received certificates of keen appreciation from the top management of the Navy. The then Chief of Staff Bruno Frangiforte spoke of a historical masterpiece. Not only that, already in the preface to the first volume it was specified that the work was divided into three volumes plus one as an appendix and thus was presented in the catalog of publications ». In 2012 the first sensational setback arrives: “The head of the historical office of the time, ship captain Francesco Loriga, informs us that” due to the well-known cuts to the Defense budget and in particular to the assignments destined for the publishing sector, it was not possible to include the printing of the aforementioned works (third volume plus appendix) in the five-year program (2013-2017) nor, at the moment, it is possible to hypothesize whether there will be sufficient funds in future programs “». A bad blow for the two authors forced to wait for better times. “Even if – underlines Romano – from 2012 to today the historical office has nevertheless published dozens of other texts”.
The 250 pages less
In 2018 Formicola and Romano return to the office pressed by dozens of readers left with an incomplete work in the library. But at the historical office the post of director is vacant and every meeting is postponed. After two years of pandemic, finally in 2021 the DVD with the third volume is delivered. “The new head of the historical office, ship captain Gianluca De Meis, asks us to prune the work of the Time.news part on the Garibaldian enterprise, about 250 pages that we eliminate without problems”.
A fee of one euro
But the problems come precisely from De Meis who in an email dated 21 December 2021 writes without too many words that “your editorial proposal is not effectively matched by the current guidelines of the editorial production of the Usmm” and that “it does not find space in the 2022 editorial plan “. Total silence ever since. «We are willing to sell our work at the symbolic price of one euro, we are keen not to disappoint the readers – concludes Romano who also announces that he is ready with Formicola for a hunger strike in order to complete the publication of the work.
April 20, 2022 | 10:56
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