Ligabue Magazine 44
Primo semestre 2004
Anno XXIII
Se n’è andato in silenzio per sempre, il nostro Ettore Della Giovanna. Giornalista ironico, brillante, diplomatico, distinto gentiluomo, una carriera di tutto rispetto e di grande valenza.
Scrittore, corrispondente di guerra, inviato speciale agli incontri internazionali sulle crisi in Oriente, intervistò personaggi come Papa Giovanni, Churchill, Nehru, Einstein e Chiang-Kai-shek. Diresse numerose riviste illustrate approdando al Ligabue Magazine nel 1982 della cui svolta culturale fu l’artefice. Soprattutto un grande Amico, che sottovoce, com’era nel suo stile, ci ha lasciati dopo più di vent’anni di preziosa collaborazione creando un vuoto incolmabile, ma anche un stimolo a continuare, a migliorarci. Buon viaggio Ettore!
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.
Our editor Ettore Della Giovanna has gone in silence for good. An ironic, brilliant journalist and a distinguished diplomatic gentleman, he enjoyed a colourful and significant career. A writer, war correspondent and special reporter at international meetings on Eastern crises, he interviewed leaders like Pope John XXIII, Churchill, Nehru, Einstein and Chiang Kai-shek. After having been editor of several illustrated magazines, he came to Ligabue Magazine in 1982 and made a real cultural change. But above all he was a great friend. And now with his customary understatement, he has left us after twenty years of invaluable collaboration. He leaves an unfillable gap but also the inspiration to continue and improve. Bon voyage Ettore!
Ettore’s place as editor of the Ligabue Magazine has been taken by Viviano Domenici, an expert journalist on the international scientific publishing scene. And, of course, another friend! He began his professional life as a graphic designer in 1960, and aesthetic leanings have always also informed his cultural choices. His deep interest in scientific topics, but especially his curiosity, drove him to the furthest-flung corners the world and a job as scientific correspondent for Corriere della Sera. He has also taken part in many Ligabue Study and Research Centre scientific expeditions A careful observer of social and human phenomena; he has now joined us and we are delighted to be able to continue to travel together. Welcome aboard Viviano!
Taking the helm of a such an important vessel as the Ligabue Magazine is a far from easy task. This is so for various reasons. The first difficulty is picking up the legacy of a professional and true gentleman like Ettore Della Giovanna. To convey an idea of who he was and what he wished to express through his commitment to the magazine, you only need to glance back at his editorials. For twenty years he introduced readers to the articles, always finding the mot juste, the right tone and a touch of courtesy. Those introductions always seem to be a reassuring viaticum, an authoritative stamp of approval – a guarantee. Now that I have to tackle this task, I realise how tricky writing the editorial can be. An apparently short and conventional text, it is crucial in establishing trusting relations between the editor, the writers and the readers. In short, it won’t be easy.
The second difficulty is finding the right words to express what I felt when president Ligabue, or rather my friend Giancarlo, offered me the editorship of Ligabue Magazine. I had a feeling like a sudden burst of west wind, I didn’t think I could still be so emotive. But this feeling was immediately swept aside by the desire to leap on board and set sail. Maybe it won’t be so difficult after all, I thought. I know the people I am travelling with, and I love the topics dealt with in the magazine. I’m used to editing and above all I know Giancarlo as well as he knows me. He thinks I don’t have an “easy” character (but I think the same of him). I’m convinced that we can travel together on this venture, as we have already done so many times around the world.
For all of these reasons I willingly accepted this appointment. My commitment to you readers is simple: I’ll do my best so that you can travel with us. So, let’s up the anchor and go. Adriano Favaro will take us on the route of the first European merchants who for centuries travelled the world carrying in their luggage not only goods, but also ideas and cultures from distant lands. This unsung pioneering epic meant that merchants formed a circulation system which for centuries transported goods, wealth and innovations shaping the world. Giandomenico Romanelli, the director of the Venetian Museums, describes Antonio Canova, a genius of 18th-century sculpture He had a rare ability for bringing marble to life, and his female figures even appear charged with emotion and unrivalled eroticism. Romanelli describes this beauty with great insight and infectious passion as he narrates how Canova was welcomed home by his fellow citizens with honours and celebrations worthy of a pagan divinity.
Cristina Del Mare almost invites us to have coffee with her. She does so by retracing the history of this beverage first used by hermits and mystics to keep awake when praying and meditating. Coffee then went on to conquer the world, after first arriving in Europe in Venice, where the earliest coffee-house was later to become the famous Caffè Quadri. Mirella Delfini accompanies us into the microscopic world of the radiolaria, tiny creatures with extraordinary “architecture”, verging on sheer beauty. We wonder why so much beauty is practically invisible. What is its evolutionary function?
In the salt desert of Iran the archaeologist Mansur S. Sajjadi takes us to the excavations at Shahr-i Sokhta. Here work has begun again on the protohistorical city which so many years ago saw the participation in the earliest excavations of Italian archaeologists from the IsMEO and the Ligabue Study and Research Centre.
We go even further back in time with the palaeontologist (or rather palaeoichnologist – expert on fossil animal footprints) Paolo Mietto, who takes us to the province of Caserta, and the discovery of the footprints of hominids, who 350,000 years ago fled from volcanic eruptions. In addition to the main articles there are also two short items (“Library Discoveries” and “Protagonists”), basically illustrating the power of images. From this issue on, with various titles, we will propose other similar items with the aim of presenting an unusual document – a whole world in a photograph
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