2023-12-15 22:46:09
by Ernesto Galli della Loggia
Alberto Manguel’s volume on the history of reading; that of Attilio Tamaro on fascist Italy and finally a volume born from Alessandra Sardoni’s interview with Sabino Cassese
We never stop discovering things and facts almost always unknown to most people in the pages of this somewhat messy but very interesting book by Alberto Manguel (A history of reading, Vita e Pensiero Editrice, pp. 376, €25): where of course it is not of reading on a screen, which is burning the brains of the young generations today, but of reading the written page, the only one that serves to develop the intellectual-verbal neurological network: that is, the essence of our human nature. Of what has revolved around the world of books for millennia, nothing is missing here: from the invention of glasses to the introduction of illustrations with related stratagems to circumvent the religious ban on drawing human figures, from the prohibitive cost of books before the invention of printing to the grandiose universe of libraries and the thousand methods of cataloging written texts, to the invention of capital letters and punctuation (where curiously, however, the role played by a certain Pietro Bembo in this regard is not remembered).
What a bold idea to publish, in the sea of books on fascism and anti-fascism, almost all of them useless, very useless, a 1,066-page brick like this one by Attilio Tamaro, Diario di un italiano 1911-1949 (Rubbettino, pp. 1,072, euro 49), edited by Gianni Scipione Rossi who also provided a very long, very informative and necessary introduction. A Trieste native of Istrian origins, an irredentist and then a fascist but more of a Mussolinist because in reality he always remained a monarchist nationalist, then a diplomat, opposed to anti-Semitism and expelled from the PNF, Tamaro had the opportunity for twenty years to get to know him closely, often from within the institutions, men and things of the regime. His is the point of view of a conservative and intelligent Italy which, while recognizing itself in fascism, knows how to distinguish well in the jagged Mussolini archipelago, certainly without giving up its freedom of judgement. The pages on the Anglo-American occupation of Rome are uncommon, and therefore of great interest even in their heated and heartfelt partiality.
Instead of an anodyne The Structures of Power (Laterza, pp. 208, €15) it should have been titled For a history of the elite in republican Italy, Alessandra Sardoni’s interview with Sabino Cassese. Because that’s actually what it’s about. The highly informed journalist accompanies her very knowledgeable interlocutor in an overview of people, problems and behind the scenes of half a century or so of political, economic and administrative public life which have always seen him present where decisions were made: advisor, friend and teacher of those who decided or he directly to do so engaged in countless prestigious positions. An amazing career, excellent skills, an unparalleled network of relationships starting with those established in the small Pisan Athens of the Normale. Even a communist in his youth, just to understand what it was about but then a left-wing democrat and today a bitter enemy of the judicial satrapy. In short, absolutely worth reading to understand what a ruling class should be: with a dozen Sabino Casseses we would be a different country.
December 15, 2023 (changed December 15, 2023 | 9.45pm)
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