Historical Reissue Highlights Salò Riviera Manuscripts and Scholarship
The Provveditore’s Hall was packed the other evening in Salò for the presentation of the publication, or rather the reissue, of the volume by Bongianni Gratarolo “History of the Riviera of Salò.”
Within the same publication, printed by the ateneo of Salò in collaboration with “Il Sommolago,” the manuscript of Rodomonte Domenicetti titled “Description of the Riviera of Salò” was published for the first time.
Documents and authoritative contributions
These particularly important documents have been collected and reprinted in a single volume because they “tell us, with meticulous detail, the history and state of affairs of that period: 1599.”
Presenting this publication, besides the president of the Ateneo salmodiano, Vittorio Pirlo, were Hon. Mario Pedini and Mario Arduino.
Historical analysis and scholars’ comments
Mario Arduino, with great expertise as a scholar, unlike few others, unfortunately, on Lake Garda, outlined the personal history of the two authors, who lived five hundred years ago, and their two works.
Most notably, the editors of this volume—Piercarlo Bellotti, Gianfranco Ligasacchi, and Giuseppe Sbarazzini—were praised for making readable, and thus accessible to all, two texts that in their original form were extremely difficult to understand, if not solely to a very narrow audience of scholars.
Thus, with notes and counter-notes, the history of the past of Benàco (with the emphasis on the “a,” as Mario Arduino carefully remembered) has become, and will in the near future be, easily interpretable.
Memories and reflections of Mario Pedini
“When I was Minister of Cultural Heritage,” recalled Hon. Mario Pedini, “I promoted youth cultural volunteer work. Now, seeing what these curators have accomplished, if I were still minister, I would definitely support the creation of an elderly volunteer organization—comprised of capable individuals, thanks to their experience, who can relate past writings and documents to contemporary times.”
A past that, as was repeatedly recalled, concerns our history, the history of our ancestors.
The importance of historical texts and notes on the publication
Thus, historical books of notable importance are now able, through the efforts of local scholars, to become very enjoyable reading materials.
“A work (by Grattarolo) that two centuries later” (from its first publication in 1599) “Brunati defined more as a statistic than a history of the Riviera, even though it is enjoyable ‘for that much it contains of homeland news, for its variety, for the honesty of its narratives, for a style sufficiently pure.’”
Dedications and details of the Domenicetti manuscript
As Vittorio Pirlo and Selenio Joppi, president of Il Sommolago, write in the presentation, Grattarolo— in his dedication to Provveditore Giustinian—stated that he had used his efforts not so much for erudition, but to give “knowledge of this beautiful part of the world to those who do not see it; and also so that those who do see it find here a reasoned account of its forms and traits.”
Regarding the Domenicetti text, it should definitely be read carefully, as only a very few have had access to and understood it so far.
Just a few initial lines are enough to approach our history: “The Riviera produces all the wine and all the oil needed for two years, but it does not produce wheat for four months of the year”—we were nearing the end of 1500!
