Giancarlo Zappa: Brescia Judge, Writer, and Scholar on Prison History

Sometime ago, the book “La Città esclusa” by Dr. Giancarlo Zappa was presented in Brescia. The volume discusses the Brescia community’s perspective on the penitentiary issue in the 19th century. We do not intend to delve into the publication’s details, as experts in the field have already done so; we wish to focus on the Man Giancarlo Zappa, since we had the honor of knowing him and enjoying his friendship.

Giancarlo Zappa, from Brescia: his family hails from Lodrino, and he spent his youth in Pozzolengo, where his father Pietro has been the Municipal Secretary since 1938. The storm of war that shook Europe has subsided; in the small hilly town of Pozzolengo, life remains mainly agricultural and proceeds peacefully.

Childhood and Education

Giancarlo attended the Classical Lyceum in Desenzano del Garda, then enrolled at the Università Cattolica in Milan. His free time was spent with friends at Don Severino Pezzini’s house, who was the coadjutor (in local jargon, the curate) of Parish Priest Don Emilio Zoppi. Don Severino’s home, shared with his mother Albina, was not just a simple residence, but especially in the evening, a kind of gathering place for the boys frequenting the church.

There was no cinema (if there was, it was not as easy for a boy to go see a show as it is today), nor was there an youth center. So everyone gathered there at Don Severino’s, including workers, farmers, students. Among them, Giancarlo Zappa, Ugo Mulas (who would become a great photographer), Franco Piavoli (the creator of Pianeta Azzurro, Voci nel tempo), and others.

Sports and Recreational Activities

There was even no sports field: they played football on a small plot of land where the market was held. Don Severino bought six jerseys for a small seven-a-side team: the goalkeeper was dispensable, and Giancarlo Zappa took on the roles of trainer, referee, and team manager as needed.

He was also passionate about theater: many comedies (for boys only, as mixed-gender performances were forbidden then) performed with his brother Alberto, Lorenzo Pederzoli Guglielmo dal Corso, and others, on that small stage of the Biolchi Kindergarten theater. Later, there were mountain hikes: a week wandering on foot, backpack on, from refuge to refuge.

Career and Profession

Then came university graduation, a judicial career, and the magistrature: in 1974, he was the Deputy Prosecutor of Brescia, involved in one of the first high-profile kidnapping cases with a tragic ending, that of industrialist Lovati, found burned in the trunk of a car in the countryside of Pozzolengo. Subsequently, he rose through the ranks to become a judge and then the president of the surveillance court.

But Giancarlo Zappa, an exceptional mind, scholar, journalist, and writer, has always been at the same time a simple and humble person, always eager to help others—a noble soul who has always viewed even the most hardened criminals primarily as “persons.” As he rightly states in the preface of his latest work, “Experience, which is heavily influenced, as is obvious, by all uncertainties, difficulties… has driven me to study the past, without which it is impossible to analyze the present or build the future.”