Ligabue Magazine 15
Second semester 1989
Year VIII
In October 1982, when the first issue of «Ligabue Magazine» came out, our Publisher knew exactly what he wished to achieve, but in the grand tradition of political prudence cultivated by the Most Serene Republic of Venice, he arranged for the beginnings to be of an experimental nature, making a quiet, sotto voce initial contribution to the world of popular scientific journalism. We could have adopted Hippocrates’ aphorism as our own – vita brevis, ars longa, occasio praeceps, experimentum pericofosum, judicium difficile – for that first issue of just sixty pages came out in a print run of no more than 5.000 copies. Now, after seven years, it will be printed to an order for l00.000 copies.
Also included in the price is the digital version *
* Digital versions from no. 1 to 57 are obtained from a scan of the Magazine. They may therefore have imperfections in the display of texts and images.
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Now, after seven years, it will be printed to an order for l00.000 copies. Constant progress from year to year has been confirmed by our ever-growing readership, and though boastful bellowing has never been our style, we might be allowed a touch of pride at the success we are enjoying. Moderate pride, of course (adelante, Pedro, con juicio), for though our enthusiasm has in no way diminished – on the contrary, it flourishes as never before – reason urges us to persevere in our attempt to produce a magazine of which we can always say that the latest issue is better than its predecessor.
Newspapers and magazines are not symphonies, they are not the creations of a single artist, and if «Ligabue Magazine» has become what it is, we are well aware that we owe our good fortune to the quality of our contributors’ articles, photographs, drawings and documents and to the fact that we can draw for ideas and material on the Ligabue Research and Study Centre, which serves us as a veritable source of second sight.
To enter the Centre is like passing into a wonderland, where the only risk is that one might get lost in the labyrinth of astonishing surprises and simply surrender to the inexhaustible claims on one’s curiosity; when one meets Professor Federico Kauffmann Doig, for example, who leads us into the great cave called Hatunmachay, in the Peruvian highlands of the Pampa de Lampa.
The journey involves climbing to an altitude of over 4.000 metres along rough tracks to reach the pasturelands of the sky where until a year ago only shepherds ventured with their herds of llama, and where this huge cave was transformed into a sanctuary in the remote past.
After its chance discovery by three hunters, the exploration carried out in the short time available between the winter snows and the rainy season by the men of the Ligabue Research and Study Centre and the Institute of Amazonian Archaeology resulted in the first accurate records of the decorations, the traces of indecipherable writing and the sacrificial stones, all in the awe-inspiring atmosphere evocatively conveyed to the reader on page 60 by Federico Kauffmann Doig, Director of the Museum of Art, Lima, and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia y Arqueologia, Lima.
Having mentioned the abundant nature of the activities of the Ligabue Research and Study Centre earlier, let me just finish this paragraph by reporting that the Centre is at present engaged in six excavation campaigns – in Botswana (Southern Africa), in the Cordilleras del Condor in Peru, in the Rio Beni region in Bolivia, in Bushman territory in the Kalahari Desert (Bechuanaland), in Egypt and in Oman.
Once upon a time the name of that beautiful cephalopod mollusc called Nautilus, from the Greek word for «sailor», conjured memories of the amazing adventures of Captain Nemo, while nowadays it is perhaps more likely to bring to mind the first atomic submarine, but the shellfish itself, which has been around for millions of years, is still the source of fascinating revelations, and on page 24, Giancarlo Ligabue describes the phenomenon of the growth of the Nautifus pompilius; you will see that I was not exaggerating when I spoke earlier of our flourishing enthusiasm.
Just think – and I mention only one detail: this cephalopod rise and sinks through 4-500 metres every night in the Pacific Ocean by means of a mechanism which pumps gas into and from its shell, and every time it performs this cycle a fine layer of calcareous secretion is added to the shell. The recent, astonishing discovery Ligabue reports shows that this growth follows a lunar rhythrn with astronomical precision!
Our heroes must never be left to slip into oblivion: Vittorio Bottego (1860-1897) who was awarded a gold medal for valour displayed during military action and who was killed when his party was ambushed by the River Omo, between Lake Margherita and Lake Rudolph was the central figure in the great adventure recounted on page 78, by Willy Fassio, a member of the Ligabue Research and Study Centre, traveller and explorer and associate of the Camel Trophy.
Willy Fassio also offers a description of the present-day peoples of the Omo basin, with the male warriors naked, their bodies whitened with ash, and the women with discs stretching their lower lips, both sexes still just as Bottego had described them almost a century ago.
Massimo and Lucia Simion are two doctors who have devoted themselves to the study of nature (regular readers will remember Lucia Simion’s article on insect eyes, dedicated to the myth of Argo). This time, on page 36, Massimo and Lucia take us into the «forests of the sea», the dense mangroves that grow in the waters of tropical coasts and which survive their saline environment by means of special respiratory organs; mangroves offer an ideal habitat for an infinite variety of animals, a perfect refuge for thousands of species of insects and fish, and the plants themselves are the world’s richest source of tannin for use in leather-dressing.
Earlier I mentioned Captain Nemo, who excited our childhood imaginations with descriptions of the mysterious depths of the sea; later, after the fantasy of Jules Verne, the reality of William Beebe and Otis Barton who took their famous bathysphere to a depth of 923 metres in 1931; and finally, much more recently, Piccard’s bathyscaphe «Trieste», which reached a depth of 12,000 metres.
It is this dark, cold, ghostly, awe-inspiring world that is the setting for the article on page 106. Its author, Roger Luckenbach, received his Ph.D in Ecology from the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in desert vertebrates. He has collaborated in establishing the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
And lastly, the results of my own highly enjoyable research into curious aspects of «minor» Venice. In the days of the Serenissima Republic, one of the glories of the city was its coffee houses, which also inspired one of Goldoni’s finest plays; and of those botteghe del caffè, one which is still flourishing superbly after two hundred years, has a history that would have fascinated even the famous Don Marzio of Goldoni’s play.
The Gran Caffè Quadri in St. Mark’s Square has served the most distinguished personalities to visit Venice since 1775, and once you have finished reading the article on page 130, you could do a lot worse than go and spend an hour or two seated in comfort overlooking «the finest salon in the world».
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