Ligabue Magazine 80

This was the first major expedition organised by the Ligabue Research and Study Centre, the first of a line of paleontological expeditions after that, going on from this desert in Niger to explore dinosaur fossil deposits in Mongolia and South America.
This first undertaking is also the one that has stayed with us most to this day, considering that two important finds from the Ténéré Desert – the only full dinosaur skeleton in Italy and an alligator skeleton – are exhibited in the National History Museum of Venice, which was named after my father Giancarlo three years ago. This image is especially emblematic because the expedition was organized precisely because of a Tuareg legend about stone serpents in the desert. My father and the French palaeontologist Philippe Taquet actually found those stone serpents in the Ténére. Guided by the Tuareg people, they found fossil deposits emerging in the southern Sahara.

Less than a decade had gone by since that dramatic discovery when Ligabue Magazine was born and accompanied me throughout my life, there even since I took my first steps. When it came into existence, we met at my home. Giancarlo proudly carried it with him under his arm wherever he went and gave out copies to his friends, interested people and clients, not knowing at the time what a long, adventurous life this beloved magazine of his would have.

Over the years, bit by bit, I also grew more and more interested in what would become the true scope of our cultural and publishing undertaking. The first issue, which was published in the fall of 1982, was about the sea and travel, closely linked to the company business, and the next issue already bore the clear mark of the Study Centre’s work. Today, we are publishing Ligabue Magazine 80, and we can sum up our accomplishment with a few impressive numbers: 40 years, 4,600 articles in Italian and English versions, over 4,000 authors, more than 20,000 images, many thousands of subscribers in over 30 countries, distributed on 5 continents.

These numbers make us proud of our great undertaking, one of hard work driven by passion and the intent to create a tool that tells archaeological and paleontological stories and discoveries, presenting them in always fresh, refined forms. We seek to raise our readers’ understanding of ethnographic and environmental issues, as well as to remind everyone of the importance and fragility of Venice. This city was our starting point and where we always re-turn, the city of Marco Polo, and the birthplace of modern publishing thanks to the great humanist Aldo Manuzio.

Our magazine’s style has always been constant, issue after issue with top quality in content and graphic design – even the choice of font with the elegant Garamond since 2011 – with a well-developed, dynamic layout that highlights the visual works that supporting each article. Scholars, historians, directors, researchers, and journalists have all written for us; in this issue, we seek to make a representation of them with a selection of articles published in past issues, spanning the fields of knowledge that we have focused on from the start: archeology, human and animal paleontology, natural sciences, history and Venice.

We have chosen authors to do so who are important for the public and for us specifically because we have a strong connection to them, with shared life experiences and events that brought us together at such significant moments.
I would like to extend my thanks to all those who have contributed to building the solid pillars of this extraordinary edifice including people who are no longer with us.
To the readers, I wish you an exciting journey that will take you to always look beyond the horizons of the ordinary.

Enjoy the reading!
Inti Ligabue