Italian Journal

STRAPLINE 1

ITALIAN JOURNAL VOLUME 20. NUMBER II. 2009

The Art of Science

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GIACAMO PUCCINI. COURTESY PUCCINI FOUNDATION.

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The Italian Academy Foundation

Saint Valentine’s EveConcert LOVE CONQUERS ALL “Omnia vincit amore et nos cedamus in illis.” - Virgilio

February 13, 2010 Carnegie Hall Weill Hall

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ITALIAN JOURNAL

IN THIS ISSUE ON THE COVER: Galileo’s drawings of the moon, as seen through his telescope. page 27 PAGE 47

CLAUDIA PALMIRA ACUNTO Editor LAURA GIACALONE Contributing Editor THALIA STAIKOS Editorial Assistant GENNY DI BERT Contemporary Art Columnist MICHAEL DISABATO Contributor MAURO BENEDETTI Photography DANIEL CARR Advertising Director

STEFANO ACUNTO Chairman The Italian Academy Foundation, Inc. (IAF), established in 1947, is a non-for profit 501©(3), tax-exempt corporation that pursues a unique form of cultural diplomacy, presenting Italian realities to U.S. audiences. The Italian Academy Foundation, Inc. produces concerts, symposia and special events year-round in the United States and Italy.

Hudson Cliff House 131 Alta Avenue Yonkers, NY 10705 914 966 3180 ext.110 via Marcantonio Colonna 60 Rome 00193 +39 06 325 05 490 WWW.ITALIANJOURNAL.IT

EDITOR’S JOURNAL 5 CONTRIBUTORS 6 NOTABLE 9 ITALY’S MISSION IN THE U.N. 16 NEW AMBASSADORS IN ROME 17 TECHNOLOGY SAVING VENICE. 19 INSTALLATION OF INTERVIEWS 22 “ITALIAN-TYPE” FOOD 25 NO FEAR OF FLYING 27 Galileo-Gazing 29 EXTRAORDINARY VISION 30 MEN WHO “SEE” STARS 33 PROPRIETARY DISCOVERY 35 GALILEO, ENGINEER 38 THE EXQUISITE EXPERIMENTALIST 41 REFLECTIONS ON MOTIVATION 42 PATRIMONY AND DISCOVERY 44 MEDICEAN “STARS” OF PATRONAGE 45 FILM: “AND YET IT MOVES...”

48 FASHION: FOUND CHIC 51 ARCHITECTURE: LIVE BUILDING 52 ART: SCULPTURAL CHEMISTRY 54 PHOTOGRAPHY: PAGE 49 HIDDEN GEM OF VENETO 57 LITERATURE: PRIMAL EMOTIONS 59 SOCIAL JOURNAL 60 FACE FILE: FEDERICA PELLEGRINI 65

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EDITOR’S JOURNAL

GRAVITY’S HERO

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alileo was a great marketer, said the head of the Medici Project Martha McGeary Snider, when we met at the American Academy of Rome.

Contemporary marketing gurus and branding experts could not dispute that the 16th-century astronomer-physicist had something more than technology to have transcended four centuries and still be known by his first name. After all, his peer, Giordano Bruno, had both a similar scientific philosophy and a similar, unfortunate end, but not the lustrous legacy.

Galileo’s then-radical theories have since been proved by instruments evolved from his initial designs. But the wonderful content of his discoveries doesn’t fully explain his success.

It has to do with his published works, the three compendia he wrote recording in illustrated detail the results of his observations, experiments and ideas–– excerpts of which can be seen on these pages.

In this issue, we present Galileo’s particular mark, not just on science, but on thinking, experimenting and, even marketing, as recounted by contemporary scientists and writers.

Claudia Palmira Rome, Italy

6 CONTRIBUTORS

CONTRIBUTORS Mario BIAGOLI

Mario Biagioli is Professor of the History of Science at Harvard and Chair of Modern Thought, History of Science and Law at the University of Aberdeen. After studying computer science at the University of Pisa (Italy) and receiving an MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester, NY), he was awarded a PhD in history of science from UC Berkeley in 1989. His work has focused mostly on the place of science and discovery in the baroque court, and the uses of instruments, imaging techniques, and the tactical uses of print, spectacle, and display in the making of knowledge (Galileo Courtier (University of Chicago Press, 1993) and Galileo’s Instruments of Credit (University of Chicago Press, 2006)). More recently, his research has turned to the history and philosophy of intellectual property and the author function in science from 1600 to ‘big science’. He has edited (with Peter Galison) Scientific Authorship (Routledge, 2003) and is working on Making IP – a book on intellectual property in science. He is the editor of The Science Studies Reader (Routledge, 1998), and (with Martha Woodmansee and Peter Jaszi) of IP Worlds -- a collection on contemporary trends in intellectual property (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming 2010). Prior to joining Harvard in 1995, Biagioli was a member of the history department at UCLA and co- director of the Center for Cultural Studies of Science, Technology, and Medicine.

Genny DI BERT

A graduate of Art History and professional art critic and journalist, Genny Di Bert is a lecturer on the subject of “The Phenomenology of Contemporary Art and Art History” for the Accademia Belle Arti of Milan, Accademia Belle Arti of Palermo, NABA of Milan, Catholic University of Milan and the RUFA Academy of Rome. She is also the curator of Libera Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome and of the Eleutheria Art Foundtion, Prague. She has authored several non-fiction books, among them: Socialistický Realismus Česckoslovensko 1948-1989; Acqua che cade, Antoine-Jean Gros; Oltre l’Occidente-Nuova iconologia e nuova sensibilità dagli inizi dell’800 alla New Age. She has collaborated with galleries, museums, publishing houses and international institutions. She is a member of the National Association of Journalists (Italy) since 1987. Most recently, she has published articles about art, costume and society in various publications, such as: Next, Follow me, Contemporanea, Arte Service, D’Ars, L’Arca, Titolo, Archeo, L’Indipendente, L’Ora, Il Mediterraneo, Europa, Progetto Repubblica Ceca.

Laura GIACALONE

Laura Giacalone is Project Editor for the Italian quarterly publication Filmaker’s magazine, and works as a Contributing Editor and Editorial Consultant for various art magazines and publishing houses. In London she has worked as a Writer and Editorial Assistant for Phaidon Press, contributing to the three-volume book Phaidon Design Classics. She has translated into Italian the novel Paper Fish, by Tina De Rosa, and a variety of academic papers, film subtitles, screenplays and feature articles. Her world is made of words, and she loves it.

CONTRIBUTORS

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CONTRIBUTORS Piergiorgio ODIFREDDI

Piergiorgio Odifreddi has studied mathematics and logic in Italy, the United States and the Soviet Union, and has taught it in Italy (University of Turin) and the United States (Cornell University). He writes for many newspapers and magazines, from Repubblica and L’Espresso to Le Scienze. In 1998 he received the Galileo Prize of the Italian Mathematical Union, in 2002 the Peano Prize of Mathesis, and in 2006 the Italgas Award for the Popularization of Science. Among his books translated into English: The Mathematical Century (Princeton University Press, 2004).

Paolo PALMIERI

Paolo Palmieri is Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh where he teaches history and philosophy of science. He earned his PhD from the University of London. Before becoming a historian and philosopher he worked as an engineer for Fearrari Formula One. His research publications and more about him can be found at www.pitt.edu/~pap7/ .

Matteo VALLERIANI Matteo Valleriani is Research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. His present projects include:

• Professional Knowledge of the Practitioners

• Galileo as an Engineer

• CRC 644: Transformations of Antiquity (Founded by the DFG)

• Reception and transformation of Ancient Hydromechanics

• Ancient Pneumatics in the early modern garden of Pratolino

• Jesuits on Statics, Dynamics, Mathematics and Astronomy between Galileo and

Newton (In collaboration with the University of Tel Aviv)

• The figure of the Jesuit practitioner

To contribute to the ITALIAN JOURNAL, please send an email with your CV to editor@italianacademyfoundation.org

8 ADVERTISEMENT

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NOTABLE

Notable NYU Casa Italiana Celebrates its 20th Anniversary I

N its 20th year, the New York University’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò is celebrating in its usual, high culture style. From rare musical performances to precious art shows to readings and lectures, the rich anniversary schedule reflects deep dedication to their founding purpose.

Since its inception, the mission of the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, is to spread Italian culture outside of Italy. Founded on the belief that Italian culture does not just belong to Italians, but to anyone who has an interest and passion in it. The Casa Italiana considers Italian culture an integral and necessary part of universal culture. Thus the institution, which is also the home of NYU’s Depart-

ment of Italian Studies, includes a spectrum of American culture, addressing in particular university students studying Italian and Italian-American issues.

The programs offered by the institution span all aspects of Italian culture, from artistic to philosophical: literature, cinema, art, music and politics.

This fall, the New York Landmarks Conservancy bestowed its “Living Landmarks” award to six outstanding individuals for their contributions to New York. Among this year’s distinguished recipients is Baroness Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò, whose generous 1988 contribution provided the means for founding what is one of New York City’s most prominent Italian cultural and intellectual hubs.

Nonna...du jour

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò 24 West 12th Street, NYC www.casaitaliananyu.org

NYU CASA ITALIANA ZERILLI-MARIMO’ BENEFACTOR BARONESSA MARIUCCIA ZERILLI-MARIMO’ AND DIRECTOR STEFANO ALBERTINI

Enoteca Maria 27 Hyatt Street, Staten Island (718) 447-2777 www.enotecamaria.com

For most Manhattanites, Staten Island might as well be off the Aegean Islands instead of across the New York Harbor. However, a group of Italy-born women, nicknamed the “grandmas,” call it their home –– and now everyone is invited to dinner.

But a reservation might be required. That’s because their dining room is actually a restaurant, Enoteca Maria. Each day, the cook of the day prepares the dishes, one by one, all by hand, all using techniques she learned growing up in (depending on the day and the chef) Napoli, Villasanti, Marcianisi, Milano, Salerno, Chieti, Agrigento, Bari, or Sciacca, Italy.

Founded by the son of “Maria,” Joe Scaravella along with Denise Ingrassia-Scaravella, the restaurant celebrates Italian regional “slow” cooking. As of recently, the owners have developed a Biodynamic garden that helps stock the kitchen with fresh ingredients. The menu changes daily, with the nonna of the day, who cooks up plates from her native town with the flavors and methods inherent to her background. If Staten Island were indeed one of the Aegean, perhaps a restaurant like this would merit the trip.

Photo by Glen DiCrocco

ALARIE, NINA PICARIOLO, CARMELINA PICA AND TERESA SCALICI PREPARE OMELETS.

Photo courtesy Enoteca Maria

DINING AT THE ENOTECA MARIA

Photo courtesy Enoteca Maria

ADELENA MASANA TALKS WITH RESTAURANT GUESTS

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10 NOTABLE

Notable Dustin Hoffman, the New Face of Le Marche T DUSTIN HOFFMAN AND STEFANIA SANDRELLI IN THE 1972 FILM ALFREDO ALFREDO

wo-time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman, 72, will start filming the ads in November to promote the Marche region, the regional tourist board said.

Hoffman, who won his Oscars for Kramer vs Kramer in 1979 and Rain Man in 1988, made the Italian comedy Alfredo Alfredo in

the Marche city of Ascoli Piceno in 1972.

The relatively unspoilt Adriatic region, Marche is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to Tuscany and Umbria for American and British expatriates and is eager to show the wider world ‘’the extraordinary beauty and quality of life in our region,’’ said regional governor Gian Mario Spacca.

Marche (the ‘Marches’) lies between Romagna to the north and Abruzzo to the south and boasts cultural splendours such as the Renaissance town of Urbino, birthplace of Raphael, hilltown Recanati, birthplace of poet Leopardi, and little-known Ascoli itself.

Other attractions include seaside towns like Pesaro, where tenor Luciano Pavarotti had a holiday villa, Mt Conero promontory and natural wonders such as the snow-capped Sibillini mountains and the limestone caves of Frasassi.

The region is known for its hearty cuisine and the world-famous Verdicchio wine.

As well as Raphael and Leopardi, famous ‘Marchigiani’ include opera greats Gioachino Rossini and Beniamino Gigli, composer Giovanni Pergolesi, education refosrmer Maria Montessori and motorcycling ace Valentino Rossi.

Hoffman’s promo pieces will run on ‘’Italian and international networks,’’ the tourist board said.

Mother, Good Daughter on Off-Broadway A

ntoinette LaVecchia’s solo show, How to Be a Good Italian Daughter (In Spite of Myself), explores the relationship between a mother and her daughter in contemporary New York. Directed by Ted Sod, Italian Daughter, according to press notes, is a “funny and touching portrait of mothers and daughters, centering on the classic struggles between an immigrant Italian mother and her Americanized daughter, a hearty blend of humor, vivacity and family history — Italian style.”

LaVecchia, who wrote and stars in the show, was seen last year Off-Broadway opposite Emmy winner Daniel J. Travanti in A Touch of the Poet.

The production features scenic design

by Michael V. Moore, costume design by Daniel James Cole and lighting design by Traci Klainer.

Cherry Lane’s Studio Theatre 38 Commerce Street (800) 432-7250 www.jonesstreetproductions.com

Tourism Site has no Regional Favorites T

he Minister of Tourism has created the www.italia.it website with a contribution from ACI (Automobile Club d’Italia), a non-for-profit agency controlled by the Ministry of Tourism.

The website’s purpose is to promote the Italia “brand” throughout the tourism business. Thus the site transcends regional focus and maintains a broad outlook on the entire country.

Through this resource, tourists and travel agents can plan their trip using their foremost travel priority, whether it is a regional preference, or the mode of transportation desired. For those with a less specific vision for their vacation, the travel website provides ideas based on the interests of the traveler.

Local events, sites and virtual tours are featured.

www.italia.it

NOTABLE

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Notable CARAVAGGIO. THE CALLING OF SAINT MATTHEW (DETAIL), 1599-1600. OIL ON CANVAS. 127 X 134 INCHES. SAN LUIGI DEI FRANCESI, ROME.

Caravaggio in the “Darkroom” A

rtistic genius Caravaggio seemed to have utilized a primitive form of photography described by DaVinci to help create his masterpieces, two art experts said. Discussing details of their research at a workshop in Florence, Susan Grundy and Roberta Lapucci explained his process.

The artist probably converted his entire studio into a camera obscura to project images onto his canvas. The painter then used a self-designed compound of mercury, salt and Venetian ceruse (a lead-based cosmetic skin-lightener) to temporarily “hold” the images on the canvas. This would produce a short-lived, fluorescent image, similar to a photograph, which he could then convert into a permanent sketch that formed the basis of the eventual painting.

After the earlier image faded, Caravaggio could remove the canvas from the

camera obscura and continue his work.

Caravaggio converted his studio into a kind of darkroom by filtering light through a hole cut in his ceiling, and using a biconvex lens and a concave mirror to reflect the image he planned to paint directly onto the canvas.

The use of a camera obscura to sketch the subject was not a new technique among artists, having gained prominence thanks to Leonardo da Vinci’s writings.

The device works by projecting reverse images of outside objects onto the flat wall of a closed box through a lens in an aperture. By attaching a mirror to the apparatus, artists were able to trace the exact dimensions of the image onto a piece of paper.

Caravaggio spent months refining his technique, adjusting the light and the size of the models.

However, by turning his entire room

into a camera obscura, Caravaggio found himself working in the dark.

The experts believe this led him to create his own version of the faintly luminous, lead-based paint.

But the technique could sometimes give rise to distortion, said Grundy. ‘“In Boy with a Basket of Fruit, photographic discrepancies emerge with the lengthening of the subject’s head and neck as a result of the projection,’’ she explained.

The size of the area being projected in the paintings depended on the size of the room, and Caravaggio was able to paint his subjects from ‘’far away’’ by altering the mirror and lens arrangement.

The many techniques pioneered by Caravaggio (1573-1610) have confirmed his reputation as one of the most revolutionary artist of his time, although he is probably best known for his mastery of chiaroscuro lighting.

GUGGENHEIM PRIZE AWARDED TO ITALIAN CONTEMPORARY ARTIST

B

ologna-born Federico Solmi is one of the recipients of the Guggenheim Fellowship, awarded annually by the Guggenheim Foundation to artists who have “demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts,” according to the Foundation’s website. Solmi lives a nd works in New York. His exhibitions often combine installations composed of different media such as video, drawings, mechanical sculptures and paintings. His works portray a dystopian vision of society in vivid colors and satirical, provocative imagery.

INSTALLATION VIEW AT PALAZZO DELLE ESPOSIZIONI, ROME, ITALY, 2008 OF SOLMI’S WORK KING KONG AND THE END OF THE WORLD, 2005. MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER.

12 ADVERTISEMENT NOTABLE

Notable Italian Power Corporation Awards Annual Art Prize

STEFANO CAGOL. DISSOLUTION OF LIGHT. LIGHT BOX USING DURATRANS. 59X39 INCHES. OREDARIA CONTEMPORARY ARTS. ALBERTO GARUTTI. STORMS. DIGITAL PRINT. 74X96 INCHES.

FRANCESCO SIMETI. EXERCISE #2.

COMPUTER-GENERATED GRAPHIC PRINTED ON CARDBOARD. 31X35 INCHES. FRANCESCA MININI GALLERY.

T

he winners were announced for the second www.premioterna.it annual Terna Prize for Contemporary Art, sponsored by the Terna power company, Italy’s major electricity transmission grid operator. The 2009 theme is called “Energy:Mankind = Future:Environment. Proportions for new aesthetics,” in an effort to promote the creation of eco sustainable developments. The competition provides opportunities for contemporary artists to showcase their work, vie for scholarships to create art while residing in Rome or New York, win their own gallery exhibition, and earn various cash prizes. It is open to all artists working in Italy, and to Italian and foreign artists working in New York City. This is the first year that the competition is open to New York as well, with the purpose being that the exchange of creative ideas will transcend ItalianAmerican cultural lines, while still promoting Italian Contemporary Art. The winners are: Alberto Garutti, Simone Bergantini, Stefano Cagol. Francesco Simeti, Michele Manzini (Online Prize), Mauro Folci and Giulio Delvè (Gallery Director’s Prize).

Sicilian Bread Earns EU “Protection” Seal I t’s called Pagnotta del Dittaino, and it’s from Sicily. A humble loaf of bread has now joined over 180 Italian specialty foods approved by the European Union Protected Denomination of Origin (PDO) seal.

Naturally-leavened, the Pagnotta is known for its long-lasting properties. It is described on its application as “a round loaf weighing between 500 and 1 100 g or as a sliced, half loaf. The crust is between 3 and 4 mm thick and medium hard. The crumb is pale yellow, elastic, fine-grained, compact and uniform. The bread has a moisture content of no more than 38 % and maintains its organoleptic properties, such as its aroma, taste and freshness, for five days from the date of production”.

The bread is made in several towns and villages between Enna and Catania in east-central Sicily, stretches Italy’s lead in the EU ‘protected name’ speciality rankings over France and Spain.

There are three protected origin laurels that the EU rewards: PDO, PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) and TSG (Traditional Guaranteed Speciality).

Italian culinary glories like Parmigiano, buffalo mozzarella, mortadella, lardo di Colonnata, Ascoli olives, pesto sauce and Pachino plum tomatos have been protected for some time but lesserknown edibles like Mt Etna prickly pears and Paestum artichokes have also swelled the ranks along with saffron from San Gimignano and L’Aquila.

A range of salamis, rices, honeys and

nuts are also on the protected list.

PDO identifies a product whose characteristics are exclusively dependant on a geographical origin and whose productive phases all take place in the specified area. PGI defines a product whose characteristics can be connected with its geographical origin and that has at least one productive phase located in the specified area.

TGS distinguishes a product, whose raw materials, composition or recipe, production method or transformation, are of a traditional type.

More than two-thirds of the EU’s protected food specialities are Italian.

NOTABLE ETHICS

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Notable Roadwork as Export T

he “Made in Italy,” label has the reputation of superior quality, usually in fashion, furniture or food. Recently, however, the prestigious “Made in Italy,” reputation has begun to refer to construction of roads, ports, bridges, and various other forms of infrastructure.

Luisa Todini, one of the owners of the Italian construction company Todini Construzioni Generali S.p.A., explains why this cultural reputation for high-quality work is now being applied to the building industry, and her company’s role in the process.

Todini, whose company has one billion orders in their portfolio in 12 different countries, says, “In many parts of the world, an Italian product is synonymous with a good product. In large works this means quality work, excellent execution. But our true uniqueness is an intangible means; it’s the ability to integrate different cultures. Compared to Chinese or Korean competitors who use only the workforce of their country, we are working with local workers. It means teaching them a trade, and creating development. It makes us very competitive.”

The Italian press asked her why she is moving away from national projects to pursue global infrastructure projects, since her focus seems to be in the countries of the former USSR. Her response was that the reason is obvious. She said that in Italy, “The bureaucracy, the vetoes, the appeals are slowing the development of infrastructure. We are oppressed by bureaucracy, and often by unnecessary steps that should ensure transparency and cost, but some do not.”

While outsourcing her talents, Todini still desires to help spark the Italian economy through a call to restart untouched construction developments. She feels that even though the current government is moving in the right direction, their insufficient funds are starting to constrict their investments. She says that building and construction can greatly help economic growth. Just a one billion dollar investment in a project can create 25,000 jobs, which Todini, and many others, believe is cause enough to revive large scale construction programs. For now, though, she will continue to advertise the Italian name, whenever opportunity arises.

TODINI CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ARE GREETED IN ALBANIA AT THE OPENING OF THE LEVAN-DAMES ROAD WORKS

DANIEL DAY LEWS AS GUIDO CONTINI

NICOLE KIDMAN AS CLAUDIA JENSSEN

SOFIA LOREN AS MAMMA

81/2 inspires Nine, the Film The Tony-award-winning Broadway musical Nine has been adapted to the screen thanks to director Rob Marshall, best known for the film Chicago. The glittering musical film cast interprets the story of a world-famous film director and his creative and personal problems, especially his relationships with the women in his life. Mixing black and white and color scenes, the director weaves the plot line, which echoes that of Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2, with the music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, along with choreographed dance scenes.

As in 8 1/2, Nine’s main character, Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), must balance the many women of his life, including his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his film star muse (Nicole Kidman), his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench), an American fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), the whore from his youth (Fergie) and his mother (Sophia Loren).

The film is in theaters December 2009.

14 NOTABLE

Notable Armani 717 Fifth Ave 212 339 5950

CARAVAGGIO. SELF-PORTRAIT AS BACCHUS, 1593-94. OIL ON CANVAS. 26 X 21 INCHES. GALLERIA BORGHESE. FRANCIS BACON. JULY 1971 STUDY FOR A PORTRAIT, 1971. OIL ON CANVAS. 78 X 58 INCHES.PRIVATE COLLECTION, LONDON.

CARAVAGGIO-BACON Galleria Borghese, Rome thru January 24, 2010

From curator of “Caravaggio-Bacon,” Michael Peppiatt: “Bacon can be compared to Caravaggio especially in terms of intensity. Both artists were highly dramatic: both created extreme conditions in which the human figure is transformed into a hub of excitement. Both were constantly aware of the brevity of life and human frailty dellessere and both transpose it into their art with the maximum power.

“Both were extremely conscious of the tragic aspects dellesistenza. And no doubt in both cases, their sensitivity was heightened by their sexuality “Both can be considered innovators. What makes them such in relation to their historical contexts?

“The internal pressure in the two painters, their instinct to express a radical vision of life has brought them, almost forcing them to experiment with new styles and new models. Both express what ever spoken before in the history of art and therefore had the need for new techniques to express it. And the time span centuries because they were both conscious of both the joy and pain of being innovators of being radically.

“Both were hypersensitive compared to the uniqueness of human beings and life: there is an extraordinary vitality that emerges from their paintings. They were extremely conscious not only be in their time but also the continuity of the past that flowed through them. ” “....The novelty of this exhibition is all in its location at the Galleria Borghese. Coming here, Bacon entered the Parnassus of artists: you can admire not only next in Caravaggio, but also to Titian, Raphael, in one of the world’s most beautiful interiors in the heart of the Eternal City”

NOTABLE

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Notable Exhibitions of Particular Note GALILEO SPECIFIC EXHIBITIONS Astrum 2009: Astronomy and Instruments through January 16, 2010 Vatican Museums, Vatican City/Rome Exhibition dedicated to the 400th Galileo anniversary celebrating his inventions, tools, and discoveries.

Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Worlds, through January 3, 2010 Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin More than 40 rare editions of works by famous astronomers, Galileo included.

Florence

Amsterdam

Manipulating Reality through January 17, 2010 Palazo Strozzi, Florence This has 23 artists’ photography and video work to show how images change our perception of the world.

David by Donatello through November 28, 2009 Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

Italian Open through December 19 Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

The oratory of Santa Caterina all’Antella and its painters through Dec. 31, 2009 Oratory of Santa Caterina delle Ruote, Bagno a Ripoli outside of Florence

Rome

New York

Caravaggio Bacon through January 24, 2010 Borghese Gallery and Museum, Rome

Rome after Raphael January 22 - May 9, 2010 The Morgan Library and Museum, New York

Rome: The Picture of an Empire Scuderie del Quirinale through January 17, 2010

Futurism: Four exhibitions through December 30, 2009 The Italian Cultural Institute, New York

Gino Marotta through January 10, 2010 Macro, Rome

London

Macrowall: Alessandro Pessoli through January 10, 2010 Macro, Rome

Terra Incognita: Italy’s Ceramic Rival through December 20, 2009 Estorick Collection of Modern Art, London Valerio Adami: Postlude through November 27 The Mayor Gallery, London

Paris Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese… Venetian Rivalry through April 1st, 2010 Louvre, Paris Francesco Clemente: Pastels and Watercolors through November 14 Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris

Palazzo through March 2012 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Ontario Il Bellisimo Panorama: Views of Italy through November 22 Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario Scultori Italiani February 7, 2009 - February 14, 2010 Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario Giovanni Battista Piranesi: Vedute E Capricci, Now through December 13, 2009 Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario

Ferrara, Italy & Williamstown, MA Boldini nella Parigi degli Impressionisti through January 10, 2009 Palazzo Diamanti, Ferrara and...

Sterling and Francine Clark art Institute, February 14, 2010 - April 25, 2010 Williamstown, Massachusetts

Prato The Style of the Tsar through January 10, 2010 Prato Textile Museum, Prato Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Italian Glass Now through December 27 Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs

University Park, PA Italian Old Master Prints from the Permanent Collection February 16–May 23, 2010 The Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University

16 U.N.AMBASSADOR RAGAGLINI

ITALY’S MISSION IN THE U.N. Remarks by the Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations, Ambassador Cesare Maria Ragaglini, to the Gruppo Esponenti Italiani (GEI) in New York New York, November 18, 2009. could not be more happy to speak about two of the issues we are currently dealing with at the Italian Mission to the United Nations. One of our top concerns in the past year has been Italy’s leadership of the Group of the Eight Most Industrialized Countries, whose work we have tried to correlate more closely with the agenda of the United

I

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a working dinner focused also on another upcoming international meeting, the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change.

Photo courtesy America Oggi

I am sure you are all well aware of the various obstacles to reaching a binding global agreement on climate in December. This is unfortunate, especially considering the grave impact that climate change could have on the fight against hunger in the world and on the achievement of the Millennium

PRESIDENT OF GEI LUCIO CAPUTO, PRESENTS THE GEI FRIENDSHIP AWARD TO AMBASSADOR RAGAGLINI

Nations. The other is the Lisbon Treaty, which enters into force on December 1, and promises to affect the role of the European Union at the United Nations. I promise to be brief.

Let me start with the present. Today is the concluding session of a three-day Summit on food security organized by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The world leaders gathered in Rome have renewed their commitment to eradicate hunger and to promote new investment in agriculture. Italy took advantage of this occasion to host, with

The L’Aquila Summit was of course dominated by the number one issue on the international agenda this year, the worldwide financial crisis. To address the issue of reforming and regulating the financial markets, Italy launched an initiative on transparency, integrity, and proper functioning in the markets. On the whole, L’Aquila helped set the groundwork for the debate on the reform of the international economic system that was resumed at the G20 in Pittsburg.

The impact of the economic downturn on developing countries and on the

“ITALY’S SUPPORT FOR THE UN IS NOT MERE LIP SERVICE. WE ARE THE SIXTH TOP CONTRIBUTOR TO THE REGULAR BUDGET AND THE TOP G8 AND EUROPEAN CONTRIBUTOR OF TROOPS AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES TO UN PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS.”

Development Goals. In the three weeks leading up to Copenhagen, Italy will do its utmost to gain concrete pledges from all countries to finding common ground. This is consistent with the objectives of our Presidency of the G8. At the L’Aquila Summit, the Italian presidency succeeded in obtaining approval of the World Food Security Initiative, and in getting both the developed and the emerging Countries to endorse the objective of limiting global warming to a maximum of two degrees centigrade by comparison to 1990 levels.

Ambassador Ragaglini achievement of the Millennium Development Goals cannot be underestimated.

To help curb these effects, the Italian Presidency also organized meetings of the G8 Ministers of Development and Agriculture in the lead-up to L’Aquila, and launched new initiatives in the areas of schooling, water, health care, and the fight against infectious diseases and hunger.

The third big issue at L’Aquila was security, particularly nuclear non-proliferation (especially in Iran and North Korea), CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

ROME AND VATICAN RECEIVE NEWLY APPOINTED AMERICAN AMBASSADORS sional relationship with U.S. President Obama are something that will be utilized to cement the ties between Italy and the U.S. “Italian immigrants have brought a wonderful heritage of success here- Italian food, clothes, and innovative design have permeated our culture,” said Thorne. Thorne, who resided in Brookline, Massachusetts prior to his Rome appointment, graduated from Yale University in 1966 and received a Masters degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1971. The Ambassador served in the U.S. Navy from 1966-1970 and is author of The New Soldier (Macmillan 1971).

Judge Arthur J. Gajarsa (United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit), who also grew up in Rome, administered the Oath of Office. Present at the ceremony were a multitude of important figures to the realm of Italian-American relations including Giovanni Castellaneta, Italian Ambassador to the U.S., Liborio Stellino, the Italian Consul General of Boston, Thomas Menino,the mayor of Boston and Congressman Michael E. Capuano.

I

n addition to Thorne’s appointment, Doctor Miguel Humberto Díaz was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See (Vatican). Díaz serves as a Professor of Theology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Minnesota. He has written numerous acclaimed books about explorations of the Catholic faith, and has taught at other esteemed universities and seminaries such as The University of Notre Dame, Barry University, the University of Dayton, and

Photo courtesy Reuters

T

he swearing in of the new U.S. Ambassador to Rome, David Thorne, 64, marks new era for U.S.-Italian relations. Investor, entrepreneur, author and supporter of the arts, Thorne is the cofounder of Adviser Investments one of the U.S.’s top firms specializing in Vanguard and Fidelity mutual funds and exchange trade funds. He is a former President and current Board member of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and led the design oversight team for its new building in Boston. Additionally, he has participated in a variety of other undertakings including marketing, consulting, and real estate.

His love of Italy is a part of both his professional career, as well as his personal life. One of his favorite pastimes that have remained with him since his days as a boy living in Italy is playing soccer.

Thorne continues to play league soccer in New England, and is an avid fan of the Italian national team especially during the European and World Cup. “The Italian-American partnership is a long one, and our alliance is strong.

But I am committed to finding new ways to build upon this legacy and nurture a living, two-way dynamic partnership, un rapporto vivo, said Thorne. “I want to ensure that Italy ansd the United States continue to work together to address the global challenges we face.”

This will not be Thorne’s first experience in Rome. He lived in Rome for the majority of his childhood, the son of Landon Thorne Jr., a U.S. administrator of the Marshall Plan in Italy. His father then established and directed the Italian branch of the Banker Trust Company.

Senator John Kerry, Thorne’s former brother-in-law and close college friend, gave the new Ambassador’s introduction at the official swearing in ceremony.

Thorne’s close ties with Kerry, who is the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as his profes-

Photo courtesy Voce Italiana

AMBASSADOR TO ROME

TOP: DAVID THORNE, ACCOMPANIED

BY HIS WIFE ROSE, SON WILL AND DAUGHTER EMMA, IS SWORN IN BY FEDERAL JUDGE ARTHUR GAJARSA. BELOW: MIGUEL HUMBERTO DIAZ WITH POPE BENEDEICT XVI.

St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida, where he served as Academic Dean.

“I welcome the opportunity to deepen and expand upon the special relationship that has evolved between the United States and the Vatican over the past 25 years of formal diplomatic ties,” he said. The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See and the Vatican work closely on issues ranging from religious freedom, and interfaith dialogue to security issues such as human trafficking and human rights.

Now that Ambassador Díaz has presented his credentials to Pope Benedict XVI, his work begins with the Vatican on these religious and social issues.

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TECHNOLOGY SAVING VENICE

19

ITALIAN TECHNOLOGY TO SAVE VENICE An interview with Dr. Maria Teresa Brotto, head of the Department of Design of the M.O.S.E. Project

Reprinted with permission from i-Italy.org

T

he fifth Annual Conference of the Italian Language Inter Cultural Alliance (ILICA) in New York was called: “Saving Venezia & Protecting New Orleans.” The leaders of the M.O.S.E. project (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico or Experimental Electromechanical Module) were in New York to demonstrate how the technology designed to save Venice can be applied to New Orleans.

Here, Dr. Maria Teresa Brotto explains how this Italian high-tech project will work.

It is widely accepted that without human intervention, Venice would eventually be abandoned to the tides. The M.O.S.E. will temporarily separate the lagoon from the sea. How will it work and why is this—according to you—the right answer to Venice’s flooding problems?

MARIA TERESA BROTTO: Yes it is, the Venice Lagoon survived to nowadays thanks to a series of interventions during the centuries (as the diversions of the rivers in order to avoid the silting up of the lagoon).

The objective of the Italian legislation to safeguard Venice is to guarantee the complete defence of all areas in the lagoon from high waters of all levels, including extreme events. Ever more frequently, Venice, Chioggia, and other historic towns and villages in the lagoon are flooded, and the lowest lying zones usually the oldest and most valuable - are flooded almost daily, particularly during the winter. The risk of an event representing a danger to the city, such as that of 1966, is ever greater.

The M.O.S.E. system includes mobile flood barriers (realized at the lagoon inlets in order to isolate temporarily the lagoon from the sea during the high water events) and local defences, carried out by “raising up” the lagoon banks and public

pavement in the lowest areas of the city.

The mobile flood barriers are made up of rows of flap-gates built into the inlet canal beds. They are “mobile” in so far as during normal tide conditions they are full of water and lie flat in their housings built into the inlet canal bed. When tides exceeding safeguarding level are forecast, an emission of compressed air empties the flap-gates of water until they emerge.

In this way, it is possible to temporarily isolate the lagoon from the sea thereby blocking the flow of the tide. The inlets remain closed both for the duration of the high water and for the time it takes to manoeuvre the flap-gates (on an average a total of 4.5 hours).

The gate-opening manoeuvres follow precise procedures, taking into account the possible increase of water in the lagoon due to input from rivers, rain, local rises caused by wind, and/or the passage of water between one gate and the next.

The M.O.S.E. can protect the lagoon and the urban centres from a tide level of about 10 feet and with a sea level rise of 2 feet.

Management of M.O.S.E. is flexible enough to cope with an increase in high waters in various ways, depending on the characteristics and scale of the tidal event. Depending on the situation, the defence strategies can involve simultaneous closure of all three inlets in case t of an exceptional event or alternatively and according to the winds, pressure and amplitude of the forecast tide, differentiated closure of the inlets, or again, partial closure of each inlet, as the gates are all independent.

The integration between the mobile barriers and the raising up of the banks and pavements defines a system of defence that is extremely efficient and functional, and that not only guarantees the

20 TECHNOLOGY SAVINGVENICE

VENICE (LEFT) AND NEW ORLEANS (AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA)

total defence from high waters, but also guarantees port activity, water quality, and the safeguarding of the lagoon environment. This is a vital environmental program being undertaken by the government as a response to the body of special legislation introduced to safeguard Venice and its lagoon.

the transfer of knowledge on operational and functional management of large movable storm surge barriers in order to optimize the management of barriers by innovative technology. In this network public administrations co-operate and collaborate on issues of common interest, forming a community of practice.

M.O.S.E. is the product of long and detailed studies carried out by private companies and research institutes in Italy and around the world. The technology however is essentially Italian. Who are the main scientific-technological actors behind M.O.S.E.?

MARIA TERESA BROTTO: For many years now, the Consorzio Venezia Nuova on behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure - Venice Water Authority has been implementing an extensive system of measures throughout the Venice lagoon area, designed to provide complete protection from flooding and sea storms and safeguard the ecosystem.

Since it was set up, Consorzio Venezia Nuova has carried out extensive studies and experiments aimed both at understanding the phenomena and processes affecting the ecosystem of the lagoon, and at planning projects and implementing real protective measures, involving many Italian and foreign universities and research centres. It avails itself also of many American experts from the M.I.T. university in Boston, the SCRIPPS Institute of San Diego, the University of California and, since 2006, it has taken part in an international network for Storm Surge Barrier Managers, done by Dutch, English, Russian, and Italian Countries.

The goal of the international network is exchanging and sharing experiences and

What is the relationship between private bodies and state institutions in the work of projecting and realizing M.O.S.E.?

MARIA TERESA BROTTO: Playing the leading role in safeguarding Venice, each within their particular area of responsibility, are the Italian State (measures to physically safeguard the lagoon and restore hydrogeological balance), the Veneto Region (abatement of water pollution), and the Venice and Chioggia local authorities (urban restoration and maintenance and measures to promote and encourage socio-economic development). The body responsible for policy, coordination and control of the objectives established by the special legislation is the Committee as per art. 4 of Law no. 798/84 (the “Comitatone”), which is composed of the competent ministers (Infrastructure and Transport, Environment and Territorial Protection, Cultural Heritage and Activities, University Education and Scientific Research), the Chairman of the Water Authority, the Chairman of the Veneto Regional Authority, the mayors of Venice and Chioggia, Treporti-Cavallino Local Authority, and two representatives of the other local authorities along the lagoon boundary. It is chaired by the President of the Council of Ministers.

Because the complexity of the Ven-

ice problem, the “reciprocity” of every action in the lagoon environment and the highly experimental nature of the safeguarding interventions delegated to the State require the preparation and implementation of an “integrated plan” of interventions to tackle the various aspects of the physical and environmental safeguarding of the lagoon ecosystem in a unitary and organic fashion and with a systematic approach. Special Law no.

798/84 thus established that the State administration could nominate a single body to take on responsibility for the interventions as a whole.

To carry out the measures aimed at safeguarding Venice and its lagoon in accordance with Law n. 798 of 1984, the Venice Water Authority avails itself, like its concessionaire, of the Consorzio Venezia Nuova. It consists of a group of leading Italian construction companies of international importance and local cooperatives and firms with considerable experience of operating in the lagoon.

The Consortium acts, of course, under the direct control of the Venice Water Authority and on the basis of a general plan of interventions defined and approved by the “Comitatone” (and therefore by the institutions represented on the committee) and by Parliament which, in Special Law no. 139/92, adopted it as a reference for the development and financing of interventions programmed, implemented and underway.

Consorzio Venezia Nuova has developed a structure able to plan, organise, manage and control the safeguarding measures during the various phases of implementation, while at the same time acting as the operational interface between the granting administration (the

TECHNOLOGY SAVING VENICE

Venice Water Authority) on one hand and those carrying out the work on the other (designers, experts responsible for studies and experiments and companies carrying out the work).

Why is M.O.S.E. so controversial in Italy and especially in Venice? Many say that it is “surgery before medicine” and that less radical, softer measures should be tried first to avoid the environmental disruption and skyrocketing costs that M.O.S.E. seems to bring with it.

MARIA TERESA BROTTO: Well, it was controversial in Venice, like any big project is and not only in Venice or in Italy!

The opposition was more noisy than substantial: the majority of Venetians was, and it is, in favour of the M.O.S.E. project. If a few years ago, the M.O.S.E. project was defined as too “huge” and not necessary by the opposition, now the same people say that it is not sufficient, and that Venice will need something bigger! The M.O.S.E. project is the best solution for solving the problems of high water now and in the future, in presence of a bad sea level rise, as well. It is an important measure for the lagoon environment, not against it.

Nothwithstanding its uniqueness, Venice faces challenges that have some similarities with those affecting other cities: London and Rotterdam, in Europe; New Orleans in the U.S. The international conference under preparation in New York is entitled “Saving Venezia, Protecting New Orleans”. To what extent and in what ways could MO.S.E.’s approach and know-how offer useful suggestions for these other cities?

Consorzio Venezia Nuova is part of the International Network, that is a great unique opportunity for each country for building effective parternships, for sharing organizational aspects, for improving the current management, for exchanging products, services and for innovating services and competencies.

THE GOAL OF AN INTERNATIONAL NETWORK IS EXCHANGING AND SHARING EXPERIENCES AND THE TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE ON OPERATIONAL AND FUNCTIONAL MANAGEMENT OF LARGE MOVABLE STORM SURGE BARRIERS IN ORDER TO OPTIMIZE THE MANAGEMENT OF BARRIERS BY INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY.

21

22 INSTALLATION OF INTERVIEWS

Installation of Interviews A hub of interviews with diverse, world-renowned “visionaries” provides a platform for exchanging insights on the most pressing topics of our time

It began as an interactive installation at the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, before moving on to Milan and Shanghai.

Now the content lives on a dedicated website, one of the thousands of voices, bloggers, news portals and homepages.

The Stock Exchange of Visions transcends the usual opining by presenting the viewpoints of the world’s best thinkers – visionaries – in a clean and uncluttered format. Each speaker presents his “vision” on a variety of topics, from art to consumerism to houses to sex. Visitors are invited to rate the visions and, thus, a kind of “index” is born, mapped by graphs throughout the site, along with numerical listings next to each vision.

The result is a highly interactive catalog of voices that together create a “conversation” about the future. Created

by Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research center, as part of their ongoing mission to grasp “what is next” through supporting creative research in a variety of fields.

The contributors to the site are from diverse backgrounds. There is no set profession, either: Youssou N’Dour (musician), Massimo Vignelli (designer), Al Gore (environmentalist), Bruce Mau (artist), and Herman Daly (economist) are just a few of examples of dozens. The only criteria is that the participants be a “leader[s] and a visionar[ies] in their field of knowledge.” Each participant speaks in his or her native language, with subtitles provided.

Following are some quotes and photos excerpted from the video interviews by The Stock Exchange (www.stockexchangeofvisions.org).

INSTALLATION OF INTERVIEWS

on Technology

on Consumerism

“From

“New York supermar-

my point of view – but I know very well it’s a utopia that is totally impossible – obviously, I’d prefer technology with a purpose, with a logical plan laid out for it: political maybe, but especially scientific, that would try to address what people need. If, as we said, there are 800 million people in the world below the poverty line, perhaps technology should first of all think about producing food and environmental conditions that will enable those people to live decently. Instead of that, technology is often used to produce rubbish goods that flood our markets and shops and of course are intended to produce and go on increasing growth.”

Piergiorgio Odifreddi Mathemetician

on Energy

“I believe we are mov-

ing towards a progressive mixed use of energy systems that are in some way complementary. I don’t think that the superpower of oil and of its derivatives will suddenly disappear. No, it certainly won’t, thanks to vanguard technologies, it will probably remain a residual form of energy to which other forms of energy will be combined and here I’m talking about energy resources connected to hydrogen, wind and solar energy and marine energy. It’ll be a mix and thanks to this mix, each country will find its own position, its own strategy.”

Stefano Boeri Architect

on Natural Resources

“This is the right epi-

taph, in the sense that I think that the waste material of one industry is sure to become the raw material of another.

Onofrio Catacchio Cartoonist

kets are brim full of organic products. They cost more than other products but people now expect and want organic products.

This represents a step forward in a new awareness against consumerism, against false products, against so called “square” products.”

Massimo Vignelli Designer

on War and Peace

“Peace

is something that lies beyond the phenomenon of war or absence of war.

It’s a new and different attitude and it’s not the one held high by pacifists but by those who want in some way to live creatively, without attacking, without killing. Those who are unable to solve one’s own actions creatively end up by creating conflicts.”

Michelangelo Pistoletto Artist

on Responsibility

“I have a rather pecu-

liar view of social responsibility, as I think of social commitment in terms of one’s work.

I know of no other manner to manifest social responsibility if not through my work. So if there is a political value in my work, a political value to look for, it must be looked for in my work. From this point of view I think that, to quote Walter Benjamin, the political value of a literary work is its literary value.”

Mario Botta Architect

on Earth

“Until today, our re-

lationship with the world, with our Planet Earth has only been one of systematic exploitation; we’ve acted as real scavengers of all its resources.

Today, there is the growing awareness that we can no longer continue as we’ve

23

done in the past, also because the planet will rebel on account of pollution and of all the climatic changes, that undoubtedly, we, ourselves have caused and for which we are paying the consequences.

However, it must, nonetheless be pointed out that a new ethical conscience is slowly on the rise, one that didn’t exist before and that is starting to emerge today and that involves the idea that we have to experience our reality even, I would dare say, at a spiritual level, , almost a form of pantheism: we are really only temporary tenants on this earth and we should never forget this and tenants have no rights of ownership, also because tomorrow others will inherit the earth.”

Roberto Pinotti Sociologist on Technology

“I’m

afraid of technology, as I said, but I’m also hopeful, because I think there are so many things, that we haven’t realized to their potential. For instance, just the technology of harvesting hydrogen from algae. It’s very simple and it’s not needing super computers. But it is a technological process. What I’m excited about is that people will shift their priorities and more money will be spent on innovative, renewable energy solutions. That’s something, which I think will be positive.”

Amy Franceschini New Media

on Natural Resources

“We’re now in a mil-

lennium, in which natural capital is the limiting factor to our development and no longer man-produced capital. Thus classic economy no longer has the right answer to all this.

Only studies on the extreme importance of natural capital that is worth 10 to 20 times more than man produced capital can do so even in pure economic terms.”

Enzo Tiezzi Chemist

America’s

FAM709_EmpStateReportFINAL:FAM_EmpStateReport7.5x10

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THE NAMING OF FOOD 25

“ITALIAN-TYPE” FOOD Artful naming can fake the authenticity of food origins

by Efthalia STAIKOS

A

s consumers, we fight a battle every time we enter a supermarket. Do we buy or do we not buy? Is it healthy or unhealthy? Will it be tasty or disgusting?

A burden is placed on us to utilize the wealth of knowledge at our disposal so that we do not make ignorant decisions.

Between the internet, books, and magazines about every topic imaginable, we become handicapped by knowledge. We assume we can trust food companies because clearly they would not trick us if it’s so easy for us to research into the truth about their products. The only problem is that this assumption makes us lazy and we do not end up doing our research. We trust that if a product says it is “Authentic Italian Tomato Sauce,” then it must be.

Clearly the company would be penalized for lying. Unfortunately, this is not the case and we buy into food counterfeiting scams every day.

Brand name food companies pay more make us familiar with their name so that we have the preconceived notion that the company is more reliable when we walk into the supermarket to do our shopping. Thus, we avoid researching into their products. We don’t realize that good marketing does not necessarily ensure a good product.

Food products that are labeled “Italian” or “French” are generally trusted because both cultures’ favorable gastronomic identities. Tradition and reputation causes most to select Italian olive oil to American. This leads us into an assumption that if a product is from a certain country it must automatically be excellent quality. Counterfeiters have started to utilize these very assumptions

to their advantage. In fact, there is a word for their scheme in Italian, called “Agropirateria,” meaning the counterfeiting of food products by exploiting the reputation and trademarks of a country.

In America, for instance, Italian food products constitute 17.7 billion dollars of the market, but of these producs only 1.5% are actually Italian-made. It might shock consumers to know that 94% of “Italian Olive Oil” is actually an imitation Italian product, along with 76% of canned tomatoes.

The real problem for us as we enter the battle of differentiating authentic food products from the fakes, is that the counterfeiters are well-informed of what characteristics make a product appear more legitimate. The only solution is time consuming and in depth research.

This is the reason that the Accademia Italiana della Cucina has created a way to combat the 52.6 billion-dollar counterfeit industry by publishing a book called, “Il Falso in Tavola” (Giovanni Ballarini and Paolo Petroni, Accademia Italiana della Cucina, 2008).

The book pinpoints the countries that most commonly imitate products; these countries being Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Examples of the foods that can really trick us up would be a brand of ham marketed as “Parma Ham.” Definitely made in Parma Italy, right? This is actually made in the United States. Wisconsin produces “All’Asiago,” which is clearly very Italian sounding.

“Tinboonzola,” cheese is an Australian product, “Parmesano,” is a product of Brazil, and “Reggiani” is a product of Argentina. This illustrates what most would expect, that the markets most vulnerable to the counterfeiters are the cheese, sausage and olive oil markets. The counterfeit market for these three goods alone

reaches a size of 8.8 billion dollars, and has approximately 300,000 employees.

Grano Padano, an authentic Italian cheese company is particularly harmed by the counterfeiting, with estimated annual damages at 200- to 300- million Euros. Clearly this poses a huge strain on Italian companies by flooding the market with inferior tasting products, with a superior price. Most consumers would choose the cheaper one. It’s not just cheese and tomato sauce that are the problem; even the symbol of Italian wine can be counterfeited, with a particularly common mix up between wine of the Chianti region and its “clone” in Napa Valley, California.

The Academy of Italian Cuisine claims that there are simple measures to combat counterfeiting. For example , cheese companies should specifiy whether their cheese is regionally produced, or whether it uses milk or milk powder for production. These types of measures of authentication are only being pusher by 6 or 7 countries of the EU, with France and Italy being the most in favor. The problem is that taking on such a massive counterfeit industry would be incredibly expensive. Both the Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE) and the Chamber of Commerce of Parma, Italy estimate that it would cost about 54 billion Euros to sufficiently penalize and damage the industry. The funds and resources needed are immense due to the rapid rate at which the counterfeit industry is growing. After all, who can blame consumers for wanting to avoid a bit of research and trust a label that’s both cheaper and convincing?

It looks as though until these measures are put in place, however, we will need to do some extra reading so that we can ensure that we have the “real deal” on our dinner tables.

26 ADVERTISEMENT

REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR CESARE MARIA RAGAGLINI

continued from page 16 counterterrorism, peacekeeping, conflict resolution in regional crises, and fighting piracy. The “global security” agenda of the G8 coincides more and more closely with that of the UN. At the same time we strengthened the partnership between Italy and the United Nations, establishing a close relationship with the Secretary-General, who has been to Italy three times in the past year alone.

Italy’s support for the UN is not mere lip service. We are the sixth top contributor to the regular budget and the top G8 and European contributor of troops and financial resources to UN peacekeeping operations. The largest contingent of the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon is Italian and the commander of the operation is an Italian general. This “boots on the ground” involvement in peacekeeping has shaped our pragmatic and constructive strategy in the G8 framework, which rests on three pillars: Building an African capacity for crisis management. Through a G8 initiative, Italy has created a Center of Excellence in Vicenza, which to date has trained more than 2,500 foreign police officers, mostly from Africa, to be deployed on peacekeeping operations; Strengthening the regional dimension, particularly in Africa; Prioritizing rule of law, justice, and law and order in countries emerging from conflicts.

Let us now take a look at upcoming ap-

pointments. On the first of December, the Lisbon Treaty will enter into force. In terms of foreign policy and what the experts call the EU’s “external projection,” nowhere will the Treaty’s effects be more visible than at the United Nations. And the Treaty will indeed change the way the European Union participates in the activities of the United Nations. First and foremost, the EU will no longer be represented in the General Assembly by the rotating President of the Council. A new standing figure, the EU Representative, will do the job. In addition to chairing the coordination meetings of the 27 EU member countries, where the common positions on UN issues are forged and drafted, the Representative will also have the prerogative of taking the floor in the GA on behalf of the 27.

Italy is particularly concerned by the implications of the new rules for the Security Council. Italy has long worked for a more unified European voice within the Council, and during our latest term as a non-permanent member (2007-2008), we tried to promote an “EU use” of our seat, primarily through the creation of a strengthened, standing consultation mechanism with EU countries that were not members of the Council. In the framework of the exercise on Security Council reform, we presented a new proposal last April that calls for the establishment of a seat that would have a longer term than the present two years and be

shared, on a rotating basis, between the Western and Eastern European groups.

This seat could be the embryo for a future European seat on the Council.

According to the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU Security Council members should request that the EU Representative be invited to participate in meetings on issues of interest to the EU. Although there are differences of interpretation, the Treaty also provides for the Representative to coordinate the positions of the European members of the Council. These new regulations may not be revolutionary but they are a significant step forward in the EU’s presence in the Security Council.

But the biggest step forward that Italy believes we need to take is a reform of the Security Council that would establish a genuine European seat, so that Europe could truly speak with one voice, and realize the quest for a common foreign and security policy.

Whether in our leadership of the G8, our term on the Security Council, or our role as a founding member of the European Union, the vocation of Italy in the international arena is not the realization of national ambitions but rather the achievement of the common good. This is a role that our history, our culture, and our destiny have thrust upon us, and one that we seek to fulfill with dedication, vision, and perspicacity.

www.tiroasegno.us

ITALY’S ASTRONAUT

27

NO FEAR OF FLYING Milanese air force pilot is first female Italian astronaut

S

SAMANTHA CRISTOFORETTI, ITALY’S FIRST FEMALE ASTRONAUT, PICTURED IN HER AIRFORCE UNIFORM (ABOVE) AND BELOW IN AN OFFCIAL PORTRAIT.

amantha Cristoforetti bacame Italy’s first woman astronaut this year when a 32-year-old Italian Air Force pilot became the European Space Agency’s first female pick.

She is one of six individuals who will become Europe’s new astronauts. The new recruits will join the European Astronaut Corps and start their training to prepare for future missions to the International Space Station, and beyond.

Samantha Cristoforetti was born in Milan, Italy, in 1977. She studied at the Technische Universität Munich, Germany, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace in Toulouse, France, and the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technologies in Moscow, Russia. Samantha Cristoforetti, 32, an air force lieutenant with an engineering degree and a passion for scuba diving, was among the six new members of ESA’s astronaut team. ‘’It’s hard to say what I’m feeling, even in Italian,’’ said Cristoforetti, who speaks several languages. ‘’Space flight has always fascinated me,’’ she told a packed press conference in Paris. ‘’I feel lucky to be here,’’ she added, thanking all those who supported her through a final year of gruelling training. ‘’I think we’re going to be a good team,’’ Cristoforetti said of the ESA flight force whose numbers have been boosted from ten to 16.

Another Italian, 33-year-old air force test pilot Luca Parmitano, was among the happy six. ‘’It’s an incredible moment,’’ he said,

thanking his parents and wife ‘’without whom I don’t think I would ever have been able to reach this goal’’.

The final selection from thousands of aspiring space cadets was announced by ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and personnel chief Simonetta Di Pippo.

A Milan native, Cristoforetti attended scientific lycee’ in Trento before getting a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Munich.

She graduated from Italy’s Aeronautical Academy in 2005.

Cristoforetti speaks fluent German, English and French and has a good working knowledge of Russian.

As well as scuba diving, she lists her hobbies as reading, yoga, swimming, skiing, mountain biking and caving.

The six new astronauts were selected from some initial 9,000 applicants from ESA’s 17 member nations.

ESA launched its recruitment drive last year, its biggest since 1992, to boost the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in light of new projects, especially at the International Space Station (ISS).

Two of ECA’s team are already Italian, Roberto Vittori and Paolo Nespoli, who are both set for more spells aboard the ISS in the near future.

Cristoforetti holds a master’s degree in engineering, as well as a master’s degree in aeronautical sciences from the University of Naples Federico II in Italy.

Lt. Cristoforetti is a fighter pilot with the Italian Air Force. In her leisure time, she enjoys mountaineering, scuba diving and caving.

GALILEO SHOWING MEDICEAN PLANETS. OPTICS, ASTRONOMY AND MATHEMATICS. PUBLISHED IN OPERE, BOLOGNA, 1656.

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This Year of Astronomy commemorates 400 years since astronomer-philosopher Galileo Galilei showed off his new invention in 1609, a telescope – the device that led to his scientific immortality and his short-term trouble.

From contemporary scientists and writers, a selection of stories, essays and ideas inspired by the great Renaissance astronomer Extraordinary Vision, page 28 Men Who “See” Stars, page 31 Proprietary Discovery, page 33 Galileo, Engineer, page 36 The Exquisite Experimentalist, page 39 Reflection on Scientific Motivation, page 40 Patrimony and Discovery, page 42 The Medicean Stars of Scientific Patronage, page 43 “And it Moves...” page 46 A RENASSIANCE POLYHEDRAL DIAL, A SUNDIAL WITH NINE FACES, ALL SHOWING THE EXACT TIME.

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SIMPLE LIFE, PROFOUND IMPACT

by C. BENEDETTI

Galileo Galilei, one of history’s most influential astronomers, may have started from humble beginnings, but by the end of his life he had produced some of science’s most significant discoveries.

Galileo was born in Florence in 1520 to Vincenzo Galilei, a music teacher, and Guilia Ammannati. He and his family spent most of his early years in Pisa, before returning to Florence. When it was time to begin his education his father sent Galileo to the Camaldolese Monestary at Vallambrosa, southeast of Florence. It was a school run by the Camaldolese Order of Monks (having split from the Benedictine Order), and thus they implemented a strict and pious form of student life that greatly resembled monkhood. This suited Galileo (who had every intention of joining the Order) but not his father who wished him to become a medical doctor. His father had him return to Florence for the remainder of his schooling, and then sent him back to Pisa so that he could apply to the University of Pisa.

Throughout his time at the university Galileo pursued his passions of mathematics and philosophy, instead of focusing on his medical courses. It was

through these courses for which he was so passionate that he met his teacher, Ostilio Ricci who ultimately persuaded the young scientist’s father to allow him to study mathematics and the works of Euclid and Archimedes instead of medicine.

Within the following two years, however, Galileo gave up pursuing his degree altogether and left the university, to become a private mathematics teacher in Florence and Siena, and, eventually, a teacher at the University of Padua.

In Padua he began an 18 year teaching career, and began to reveal his rebellious thinking. Here, he first challenged the widely-accepted, established theories of Aristotle’s regarding astronomy and philosophy. Not only was his polemic side revealed during his Padoan term, but his innovative side as well. Word reached Galileo that a Dutchman had created a rudimentary spyglass, inspiring him to perfect the invention himself.

Within a few months he had constructed a device with the magnification power of about eight of nine. The Venetian State immediately bought the rights to his telescope for a large sum–however, not before Galileo was able to prove that the Milky Way was composed of many tiny stars, and that there were at least four small bodies orbiting Jupiter. Later on, he also noticed what appeared to be lobes on either side of Saturn. These were not lobes, but the rings that encircle the planet. His telescope was simply not strong enough to distinguish the rings.

The conflict between Galileo and the Catholic Church began when Galileo began to publicly support Copernican theories over Aristotle’s theories, which stated that the planets in the galaxy, Earth

included, were heliocentric. He claimed that the Bible must not be interpreted so literally, because these facts were simply a physical reality.

Pope Urban VIII had invited Galileo to speak to Papal audiences about these theories on multiple occasions, leading Galileo to believe that his public admission of his theories was not going to creat controversy within the Church, despite the fact that the Copernican theories had been condemned during the 1616 by the Inquisition. Thus, he began to write Dialogue, the definitive book describing his ideas, which was to be published solely in Florence, as it was unprintable in Venice.

Following the publication of his ideas, Galileo was found guilty of the conditions stated in the Inquisition. He was sentenced to house imprisonment for life, and was not permitted to do any research-related work for months, even in the confines of his own home-turnedprison. Years later, still under house arrest, he demonstrated a great understanding for the pendulum, inclined planes and gravitational forces.

He died in early 1642.

Centuries later, on October 31st, 1992 Pope John Paul II gave a speech admitting the errors of the theological advisors who had worked on Galileo’s case during his trial. He declared the case closed, though never admitting the Church had made a mistake to convict the scientist for spreading his now long-proven discoveries (such as the Earth’s rotation around the Sun).

January 13, 2010 will mark the 400th anniversary of the completion of Galileo’s telescope, perhaps the first physical link connecting humanity with the vast universe.

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JUSTUS SUSTERMANS. PORTRAIT OF GALILEO GALILEI, 1636 (DETAIL). GALLERIA DEGLI UFFIZI, SPECIAL HOLDING FOR IL POLO MUSEALE FIORENTINO, FLORENCE Photos by Mauro Benedetti

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GALILEO GALILEI. DRAWINGS OF SIDEREUS NUNCIUS AS SEEN THROUGH TELESCOPE. NATIONAL LIBRARY, FLORENCE.

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MEN WHO “SEE” STARS

By Piergiorgio ODIFREDDI

O

n January 7, 1610, Galileo wrote a letter to Antonio de’ Medici where he briefly reported on the results of his first observations of the sky through a telescope exactly 400 years ago, late in the summer of 1609. The letter concluded with some news of the day: “Only this evening I have seen Jupiter accompanied by three fixed stars totally invisible because of their smallness.” With understandable and justifiable pride, he also noticed: “We can believe to have been the first in the world to discover something about the heavenly bodies from so nearby and so distinctly.”

It was the first historical hint of the discoveries that were to be announced in great detail to the entire world later on March 12, in his first great scientific treatise - Sidereus Nuncius, “The Starry Message (or Messenger),” where Jupiter’s satellites were given the name of Medicean Stars. As Galileo immediately understood, this discovery definitively disproved the centrality of the Earth in the planets’ movement, and therefore could, and should, open the way to the acceptance of Copernican theory.

Immediately, Galileo sent a copy of his Sidereus Nuncius to Kepler, asking for his opinion. Kepler received it on April 8, 1610. In only eleven days, he sent him back his Conversation with the Starry Messenger, where he defended and supported Galileo, even if he criticized the fact that Galileo pretended to have done everything all alone without even mentioning the names of his predecessors (except for Copernicus).

Ungrateful, Galileo did not even condescend to Kepler’s request for an instrument that would allow him to personally check his findings. Kepler had to wait until August 1611 before he could get one. As soon as he got it, in ten days of observation he confirmed the existence

of Medicean Stars, and profusely and immediately wrote his Narration about Four Satellites of Jupiter Observed in order to testify it.

Even before Kepler’s Narration, Galileo had been given significant scientific recognition from the mathematicians of the Jesuit Roman College, whom he had visited in the spring of 1611. They received him with all honours, and praised his Sidereus Nuncius in a public discourse. In Rome noblemen and prelates also acclaimed the Tuscan scientist: in particular, Prince Federico Cesi made him a member of his Lincean Academy, which he had founded in 1603, and Pope Paul V released him from the obligation to kneel down before him during an audience.

However, not everybody accepted these new findings so eagerly. In a letter sent out to Father Christophorus Clavius on May 27, 1611, a certain Ludovico delle Colombe, for example, clutched at straws claiming that the Moon seemed to be rough and uneven, just like the surface of the Earth itself, but in fact it was “a large crystal ball in which were contained many kinds of figures made of white enamel.”

In a letter written to Gallanzone Gallanzoni on July 16, 1611, amused, Galileo replied that if we still want to let anyone imagine whatever he pleases, and if someone says that the moon is spherically surrounded by transparent invisible crystal, then he would willingly grant this – provided that with equal courtesy it is permitted to him to say that this crystal has on its outer surface a great number of enormous mountains, thirty times as high as terrestrial ones.

In the meantime, he had already gone beyond his Sidereus Nuncius with his discoveries. In a letter from July 30, 1610, he informed Belisario Vinta that “the

star of Saturn is not a single one, but is a composite of three, which almost touch each other, never change or move relative to each other.” Galileo encoded his interpretation of this “very strange wonder” as a Latin anagram, which he posted to Giuliano de’ Medici and Kepler: smaismrmilmepoetaleumibunenugttauiras, which was to be unscrambled as altissimum planetam tergeminum observavi, meaning “I have observed the highest planet to have a triple form.”

Galileo was induced to believe that Saturn had a “triple form” because his 20-power telescope was not powerful enough. With a 50-power telescope, in 1655, Christian Huygens would discover that the planet is surrounded by a thin flat ring, and that it also has a satellite, which he would name Titanus. In 1671 Giovanni Cassini would also discover two other satellites, Iapetus and Rhea, and would realize that Saturn has more than one ring, and that these rings are concentric and coplanar. Hence the name of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004.

Going back to Galileo, in September 1610, he moved from Padua to Florence, where he was given the title as “Chief Mathematician of the University of Pisa and Philosopher to the Grand Duke,” holding a chair that all professors would dream about: he had not to hold lectures or carry out examinations, but he could entirely dedicate himself to his research.

Scrupulously, the scientist continued his observations, and on December 11, 1610, he announced his new discovery to Giuliano de’ Medici through another anagram: haec immatura a me iam frustra leguntur oy, meaning “these immature ones have already been read in vain by me,” that is, when rearranged, Cynthiae figuras aemulatur Mater Amorum (Latin:

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STEFANO DELLA BELLA . FRONTISPIECE AND TITLE PAGE OF GALILEO GALILEI’S DIALOGUE CONCERNING THE TWO CHIEF WORLD SYSTEMS, 1632, PUBLISHED BY GIOVANNI BATTISTA LANDINI. ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA LIBRARY, FLORENCE

“the Mother of Loves [= Venus] imitates the figures of Cynthia [= the moon]).

manner as the Moon revolves around the Earth.

Kepler tried to decode both this and the first weird announcement concealed by “transposed letters.” The solutions he proposed in both cases were wrong in Galileo’s perspective, but they proved to be correct in the light of further scientific developments. To be more precise, the first anagram – salve umbistineum geminatum Martas proles, meaning “Hello, furious twins, sons of Mars” – anticipated the discovery of the two satellites of Mars (Phobos and Deimos) in 1877.

Whereas, the second one – macula rufa in Iove est gyratur mathem etc., that is “there is a red spot on Jupiter, that turns mathematically” – anticipated the discovery of a “permanent spot” detected by Cassini in 1665 and visible until 1713, and of the Great Red Spot, which was (re)discovered in the 19th Century and is still visible today.

As for the phases of Venus, in a letter addressed to Giuliano de’ Medici in January 1, 1611, Galileo stated that it was not a proper discovery, but it was more like “seeing with his own eyes what his intellect had no doubt about”: according to the heliocentric theory, in fact, all planets revolve around the Sun, in the same

Both Galileo and Kepler were actually able to see, with the eye of mind, well beyond what they could with their physical eyes through the telescope. Neither of them had the chance to personally go to the Moon to see what the Earth looked like from there, but nevertheless they both described the sight of it in their books: respectively, in the first day of The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, and in the science-fiction novel Somnium (The Dream).

The multicoloured results of their imagination – which have been confirmed today by the observations and photographic records of the astronauts who set foot on the moon for the first time exactly forty years ago – go beyond any poetic invention. On the one hand, in fact, the Earth goes through phases in the Moon’s sky that are equal and contrary to those of the Moon in the Earth’s sky. On the other hand, since the Moon always shows the same face to the Earth, the Earth can only be seen from the part of the Moon that is visible to us, and from there it appears fixed in the sky. This means that whoever might happen to walk on the visible surface of

the Moon in a period of full Earth could observe “this fatal globe,” immobile in the lunar sky, rotating on itself every 24 hours. In front of such wonderful visual demonstration of the rotatory motion of the Earth, a self-conscious lunar poet would exclaim: “what are you doing, earth in heaven? Tell me? What are you doing, silent earth?”

The terrestrial poets of unconscious, instead, know only one thing about the moon: that it exists. Even the amateurs of astronomy do not know much more than that. In 1819, Giacomo Leopardi, who greatly appreciated Galileo, was still writing about the Moon that “no one’s ever seen it fall, except in dreams” (Canti, XXXVII, 17-18), even if in 1687 Isaac Newton had composed the verse “the Moon continuously falls in its path around the Earth” (Principia, III, 4), and had also calculated exactly how much it falls by: the very same force that makes an apple fall from the tree also keeps the Moon on its orbit around the Earth. This demonstrates that there is much more poetry in science books than in the anthologies of the men of letters, and that it is not enough to look at and admire the sky to really see and understand it.

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PROPRIETARY DISCOVERY Secrecy and intellectual property, beginning with Galielo’s telescope

by Mario BIAGIOLI

M

odern scientists have become increasingly aggressive in protecting their intellectual property by patenting their discoveries and, sometimes, by keeping them secret. Galileo anticipated this trend.

As soon as he observed the satellites of Jupiter (which he called Medicean Stars) and the irregularities of the lunar surface with his telescope during the winter of 1609-1610, Galileo acted as though the corroboration of his observations were easy, not difficult. His primary worry was not that some people might reject his claims, but rather that those able to replicate them could too easily proceed to make further discoveries on their own and deprive him of future credit. He tried to slow down potential replicators to prevent them from becoming competitors. He did so by not providing other practitioners access to high-power telescopes and by not including information about how to build them in the Sidereus nuncius – the report of his discoveries he published in March 1610.

Prior to the publication of the book, Galileo was secretive even with his Medici patrons, keeping them in the dark about the fact that the Medicean Stars orbited Jupiter -- most likely to prevent them from accidentally leaking any information that would have enabled potential competitors to precede him to print. He went so far as to ask the Medici secretary to treat his correspondence about the dis-

GALILEO GALILEI. DIAGRAM OF THE OPTICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE TELESCOPE. EXCERPTED FROM SIDEREUS NUNCIUS.

coveries with the same level of confidentiality he had for important diplomatic matters. Then, to avoid possible leaks by the printer of the book, Galileo provided him the section on the Medicean Stars (arguably the most striking of his discoveries) only at the end, when the rest of the book was already printed.

The Nuncius was carefully crafted to maximize the credit Galileo could expect from readers while minimizing the information given out to potential competitors. Although it was researched, written, and printed in less than three months, it offered detailed, painstaking narratives of Galileo’s observations and abundant pictorial evidence about his discoveries. In the case of the satellites of Jupiter, Galileo offered many pages of night-by-night diagrams of the changing positions of the satellites, trying to create a virtual ‘movie’ that could captivate and convince his readers without making them develop the desire to reproduce the observations on their own. In any case, it would have been very difficult for them to replicate the discoveries because, when it came to the telescope, the book declined to tell its readers how Galileo ground the lenses, the dimension of his telescopes, or the type of glass, size, and focal length of the lenses he used. While he promised a forthcoming book on the workings of the telescope, he never published it, nor do we have any manuscript evidence of such a project.

Galileo’s differential treatment of his various audiences proved successful.

He did take some short-term risk by relinquishing the credit he could have received from other mathematicians and astronomers through early widespread replications. But by the end of 1610 he had developed a monopoly on telescopic astronomy, which he then maintained with the resources available to him as mathematician and philosopher of the grand duke of Tuscany – the position he obtained by dedicating his discoveries to the Medici. It was that monopoly that turned Galileo into a “star”.1

(Endnotes) 1 For a fuller discussion, see Chapter II of my Galileo’s Instruments of Credit: Telescopes, Images, Secrecy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).

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GALILEO GALILEI. THE MOON, 1610. PUBLISHED IN SIDEREUS NUNCIUS. ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA LIBRARY, FLORENCE. JUXAPOSED WITH A PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE OF THE SAME VIEW.

READING ABOUT GALILEO Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel, Penguin Group 1999.

Galileo: Astronomer and Physicist by Paul Hightower.

(Enslow Publishers 2000.)

Thus Spoke Galileo: The Great Scientist’s Ideas and Their Relevance to Present Day, by Andrea Prova and Mariapiera Marenzana. (Oxford Univesity Press 1998)

Essays on Galileo and the History and Philosophy of Science by Stillman Drake. (University of Toronto Press 2000)

Galileo in Rome: The Rise and Fall of a Troublesome Genius by William R. Shea and Mariano Artigas. (Oxford University Press 2004)

Galileo Galilei (Article) by Peter Machamer, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2009.

Retrying Galileo 1633-1992 by Maurice A. Finnocchiaro (University of California Press 2005)

The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History by Maurice A. Finnocchiaro. (University of California Press 1989)

Discovery and Opinions of Galileo by Galileo Galilei with Notes and Intro by Stillman Drake. (First Anchor Books Edition, 1957)

compiled by Laura Giacalone

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ONE OF THE ENGRAVINGS PRESENTED IN GALILEO’S SAGGIATORE, 1623 SHOWING THE PLANETS SATURN, JUPITER, MARS AND VENUS IN ITS VARIOUS PHASES), AS THEY APPEARED THROUGH THE TELESCOPE. ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA, LIBRARY, FLORENCE. BELOW, A PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF THE MOON AND PLANETS.

GIACAMO PUCCINI. COURTESY PUCCINI FOUNDATION.

Image courtesy the Master and Fellows of Trinity College Cambridge

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GALILEO, ENGINEER The astronomer’s experiments appeal to an engineer’s mind

by Matteo VALLERIANI

T

he interested reader may have noticed how historians in recent decades have attempted to deconstruct the identity of Galileo Galilei. He is no longer just the great astronomer or even just the founder of the modern experimental method in science. Even the political value of his work and his life, systematically reconsidered in the frame of the debates about the relation between Church and research institutions or between religion and science, is no longer the single relevant perspective for approaching this kind of historical thread. Thanks to the work of historians of science of the last twenty years, readers are now used to very different interpretations. Galileo is now also a heretic, a revolutionary martyr, a mathematician, an Aristotelian natural philosopher, an artist – almost with brush and palette in his hand – and finally a gifted courtier. This, however, is only an apparent process of fragmentation. Historiographically speaking, a process of this kind tends to cancel categories such as “genius” from scientific activities and their histories. Such categories are used to justify the impossibility of explaining historical phenomena. In other terms, the actual history of science requires science and its history to remain

rational activities. For this reason, it is relevant to undertake an investigation of Galileo in all of his contexts.

A relevant part of this context is still missing: Galileo as an engineer. Looking from a perspective that takes his practical activities into consideration represents a more unifying approach. Many of Galileo’s theoretical developments found their origins in – and also integrated – the practical knowledge of contemporary craftsmen, architects and engineers.

The reconstruction of these practical activities and, in general, of the practical knowledge he shared therefore helps to build a unifying vision of his theoretical developments.

According to a historical thesis first formulated by Mario Biagioli and now commonly accepted, the practical mathematicians, engineers and architects of the XVI century were able to improve their social status in particular by addressing their efforts to meet the needs that emerged in the frame of the new and socalled geometric art of war. The appearance of heavy mobile artillery towards the end of the XV century forced a radical rethink of defense strategies. During the 1630s, the “bastion” was conceived, that is, the fundamental architectonic element of the fortresses and of the city walls which, if built according to accurate geometric calculation, were able to stop the new destructive power.

In analyzing Galileo’s apprenticeship as an artist-engineer between 1584 and 1589 and the work accomplished during his stay in Padova between 1592 and 1610, a Galileo emerges who devoted considerable time and effort to all manner of activities related to warfare. He conceived and designed mathematical instruments for military use, and opened a workshop to build them and various other instruments according to the mar-

ket model of business-on-demand (Fig. 01). He was interested in artillery, in defense and attack strategies and, above all, taught this “block of knowledge” to many pupils who were destined for highranking military careers. All of these activities took place at his house, which therefore resembled more of a military training camp than the tranquil home of an academic engrossed in theoretical speculation. When Galileo first succeeded in improving the magnifying power of the telescope in 1609, he was still involved in such an economy of discourse. His initial idea when developing the telescope was not to found telescopic astronomy, but rather to provide the Venetian navy with a new military instrument. From a social perspective, such behavior was consistent with the career model typically followed by contemporary architects, engineers and craftsmen.

Obviously Galileo was not simply an engineer. It is known, for example, that during his stay at Padova, he also formulated the law of fall which later became one of the fundamental theorems of classical mechanics. As mentioned, however, it is exactly the reconstruction of the practical knowledge shared by Galileo that allows one to understand why, despite his apprenticeship, he did not just become an engineer, and when precisely he began to follow other paths. Other historians, such as Jürgen Renn and Peter Damerow, have already demonstrated that the law of fall, for example, was formulated as a consequence of research he undertook with Guidobaldo del Monte concerning the trajectory of projectiles.

In light of the developments of the new art of war, this was an issue in the field of ballistics that was extremely urgent at that time.During his stay at Padova, Galileo developed a powerful mathematical instrument for analyzing the resistance to

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Courtesy Ms. Gal. 26. Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence, 13r.

[FIG. 01] FOLIO OF GALILEO’S MULTI-COLUMN HOUSEHOLD REGISTER FOR HIS ACTIVITIES IN HIS WORKSHOP AND AS A PRIVATE TEACHER OF FORTIFICATION.

fracture of materials (Fig. 02). Although he first published such a theory in 1638, its origins lie in the frame of a debate concerning the maneuverability of large Venetian galleys. This debate went on to become the central issue of an official inquiry of the Venetian Naval Committee, which took place between 1592 and 1593 and in which Galileo took part as an external consultant.When Galileo left the university in 1584, his further education followed the traditional path of early modern artist-engineers. He gleaned his further education from the practical mathematician Ostilio Ricci, who was employed at court, from the workshop of the famous Tuscan architect, artist and engineer Bernardo Buontalenti, and from the circle around the Accademia del Disegno of Florence. During the same period, Buontalenti was in charge of supervising the construction of the garden of Pratolino, close to Florence, which was conceived by Francesco I, the dux mechanicus. The garden of Pratolino became one of Europe’s marvels, especially because of its pioneer hydraulic and pneumatic system. A great number of local and foreign craftsmen and machine builders commuted between Florence and Pratolino between 1560 until the end of the century to work on this project. The construction of all the pneumatic devices of the garden took place at the exact time of Galileo’s apprenticeship in Florence. Later in his life, Galileo was considered to be an expert in practical pneumatics as well. He conceived new devices too, such as a glass able to control the temperature of the wine it held. Against the background of such experiences, Galileo was one of the first persons to apply the thermoscope to scientific investigations. The thermoscope was an ancient pneumatic device, mentally recycled at the beginning of the

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Galileo-Gazing XVII century into an instrument able for the first time in history to provide data concerned with temperature without relying on the human senses (Fig. 03). The search for an explanation of the functioning of the thermoscope finally drove Galileo to the formulation of a hypothesis according to which heat has a discrete nature. Although Galileo was never able to achieve a satisfactory theoretical explanation of the functioning of the thermoscope, he further developed this kind of heat doctrine until the accomplishment of a purely mechanistic and atomistic conception of heat that he then published in 1623 in Il Saggiatore.

These investigations clearly show that Galileo was not simply an engineer. Following his work in detail, it becomes evident that the theoretical apparatus on whose basis Galileo approached problems of a practical nature was fundamentally Aristotelian, in both the form and the terms it was known at the end of the XVI century. In conclusion, Galileo’s theories emerged also as a transformation of the Aristotelian doctrines according to the urgent needs and challenges manifest in the practical activities of his time. Galileo was not just an engineer, he was an Aristotelian engineer and, in more general terms, an engineer-scientist.

Courtesy of the library of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin.

TOP: [FIG. 02.] GALILEO’S CANTILEVER MODEL, THE MOST RELEVANT EXPLANATORY MODEL DEVELOPED IN THE FRAMEWORK OF HIS THEORY OF STRENGTH OF MATERIALS. SOURCE: GALILEI, GALILEO, DISCORSI E DIMOSTRATIONI MATEMATICHE, INTORNO À DUE NUOVE SCIENZE, ATTENENTI ALLA MECANICA, & I MOVIMENTI LOCALI. BOLOGNA. PER GLI HH DEL DOZZA, 1655, 86.

RIGHT: [FIG. 03.] GALILEAN THERMOSCOPE. REPRODUCTION OF THE INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE OF FLORENCE. Photo by Franca Principe - IMSS Florence.

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THE EXQUISITE EXPERIMENTALIST Galileo’s penchant for live “trials” of his ideas inspires the author to do the very same

by Paolo PALMIERI

GIUSEPPE BEZZUOLI. THE EXPERIMENT ON THE FALL OF WEIGHTS ON AN INCLINED PLANE, C. 1819. WALL FRESCO. MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA LIBRARY, FLORENCE. GALILEO IS SHOWN LEFT OF CENTER, POINTING TO A SHEET OF PAPER.

When Galileo Galilei was a student at the University of Pisa in the 1580s, physics was a loose bundle of ideas inherited from the Greeks, mostly from the philosopher Aristotle, via the mediation of the Latin Middle Ages. Projectiles keep going after being released by their projectors because air keeps pushing them for a while, as the most in vogue theory of the time would have it (though there were variations).

Theirs is a violent motion. Heavy things fall downwards because the centre of the earth is the natural place for them to achieve their natural state of rest. Theirs is a natural motion. Pendulums are constrained motions. Is the motion of a pendulum violent or natural? Why does it turn back after reaching a summit? Why do violent motions such as those of cannon balls cease? These were the questions a professor of physics would investigate at that time.

Half a century later, when Galileo published his masterpiece, the so-called Two new sciences (1638), the questions that he asked and successfully answered were of a completely different nature.

What is the mathematical law of falling bodies? What is the geometrically exact curve followed by cannon balls? Is the motion of pendulums isochronous (i.e., do pendulums swing really regularly)? These were questions belonging to a revolutionary new physics, a mathematical physics based on experiment, which Galileo had created during five decades of research.

Wat Galileo revolutionized was the very essence of scientific inquiry. To learn bout the trajectory of cannon balls, the motion of pendulums, and the law of acceleration of falling bodies, Galileo combined the power of mathematics with controlled experiment.

But there is lot of controversy surrounding Galileo’s experiments.

About the middle of the twentieth century some scholars

doubted that Galileo really built his apparatus and performed the experiments he famously reports. In 1961, historian Thomas Settle debunked this Galileo myth. Settle showed that Galileo’s allegedly thought experiments were not figments of Galileo’s imagination. Settle set up an inclined plane roughly similar to Galileo’s, let balls roll down it and measured the time they took to descend using a ‘‘water clock’’ as Galileo says he did. According to Settle, the measurements that Galileo hints at were plausible. Galileo, the exquisite experimentalist, had really existed.

More recently, I embarked on a similar project. I started a research program at the University of Pittsburgh aimed at reconstructing Galileo’s experiments. The reader can learn more about this program at www.exphps.org, a website supporting the project and publishing reports of our investigations. So, what is it like to learn anew from Galilean reconstructed experiments? I have answered this question in a new book.1 But the gist of my answer can be put simply as follows.

Revisiting a Galilean experiment is much more than replicating its purported original results; it is like an archaeology of early scientific knowledge; it is about learning a whole new science.

There is no such thing as a Galilean experiment in the sense of an event which has been accomplished once and for all. We must continue to learn from swinging pendulums and rolling balls down inclined planes, as Galileo did in the first place.

In conclusion, we must all become exquisite experimentalists.

This is the lesson I learned from my love affair with Galileo.

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REFLECTIONS ON MOTIVATION AND THE DURATION OF IDEAS Two revolutionary 16th-century thinkers both upended their contemporary scientific norms, an approach that could inspire innovative thinking even today

by Efthalia STAIKOS

B

reakthroughs, progress, solutions, new theories, modern research‌ all of these words conjure up images of discovery and contribution in the scientific world. Grasping the natural world and understanding what we cannot see provides a sense of satisfaction, even comfort, to most. Science, however, is

an example of a field where solutions and progress are actually driven by a certain dissatisfaction with what is already known. It is discomfort with the status quo that has motivated many scientists to push for new answers, alternative options; and to test and ponder persistently until they are satisfied with a new reality.

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PROGRESS [IS] ACTUALLY DRIVEN

BY A CERTAIN DISSATISFACTION WITH WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN.

Many scientists throughout history questioned the laws of nature that guide the movement of the stars and planets. It was previously believed that until Galileo, scientists never began to truly speculate on the theories put forth by Aristotle. It did not seem as though anyone had really questioned and researched into creation of the universal systems until Galileo came along. As everyone was frantically searching for an answer they could believe in, Galileo put forth solutions even though his research and his conclusions eventually led to his persecution.

More than 30 years before Galileo’s prolific theory, however, another scientist and philosopher named Giordano Bruno researched into the mysteries of the universe, and both questioned and doubted the generally-accepted Aristotelian theories. Bruno wanted to dismantle the Aristotelian distinction between terrestrial and celestial physics. Even before Galileo, Bruno wanted to create a theory explaining the rotation of the sun around its axis. His dissatisfaction with current theories and ideas lead him to tirelessly research and search for different answers that could explain the universe.

Bruno’s handicap was his inability to express his observations in a scientific manner. He was not a scientist in the modern sense of the word. Bruno never proved his hypotheses through experimentation, as the famous astronomer later did. Neither was he considered a mathemetician. In fact, he was denied the

mathematics chair at the University of Padua, awarded instead to his colTHE ITALIAN 2000-LIRA NOTE DEPICTING GALILEO ON league Galileo.

ONE SIDE AND AN HOMAGE TO ASTRONOMY ON THE Although Bruno OTHER. HIS LEGACY TRANSCENDED THAT OF HIS PEER could not provide BRUNO, WHO ACTUALLY PROPOSED SIMILAR IDEAS. OPconcrete research, POSITE: ONE OF THE MNEMONIC DEVICES OF his ignorance did GIORDANO BRUNO. not impede him in questioning the accepted scientific beliefs of his time. if the American, Edwin Hubble, had Like Galileo after him, his quest to fix not questioned the length of light waves the mistakes in the existing explanations through a prism as discovered by Martin of the universe, he offended the Catholic Rees, then the Hubble Telescope may not Church and suffered intense persecuhave been invented. The 20th-century tion. Bruno was ultimately burned at the Big Bang Theory is yet another example stake in 1600 for his heresy. of a hypothesis that challenges an existing (beloved) idea of the origin of life.

Besides the now-common premise Although it is controversial, and widely that the earth is not the solar system’s disputed, there are some scientists fercenter, these men of science demonstrate vently defend it, even without evidence. the fundamental idea that theory must be questioned to broaden our knowledge. One must refute accepted truths to either prove them right or uncover radical new information. If people allow themselves to be satisfied by simple, easy solutions, then the real explanations for life’s mysteries may never be solved.

True philosophers understand that each conquest of knowledge or truth is only temporary, until new ideas and truths emerge.

This “dissatisfied” approach espoused

by Bruno and Galileo is noted even in contemporary scientists. For example,

“I, personally, I would be willing to bet against everything we see has had its beginning in a ball of fire extremely compressed, much more hot than the sun,” (Raffaelo Cortina, pp.382, 25) wrote Martin Rees. It is this burning desire to prove a new theory, or at least prove that alternative theories do exist, that drives science.

Thus, it is important to uphold the memory of Giordano Bruno, alongside that of his famous colleague. Together, these men demonstrated overturning standard thinking led – literally – to new worlds.

44 GALILEO

Galileo-Gazing

PATRIMONY AND DISCOVERY Since its beginning, science has been supported by a variety of patrons, from the popes and princes of the Renaissance to State funding, up to the new forms of social patronage of today

by Laura GIACALONE

T

he history of arts as we know it today wouldn’t be the same without the support provided by kings, popes and rich aristocratic families to musicians, painters and sculptors. This phenomenon, which is usually referred to as “patronage,” had its maximum development in Italy during Renaissance, when the major masterpieces in the history of art were conceived and came to life, mainly thanks to the influence of the House of Medici in Florence. Among the artists who benefited from their sponsorship were Brunelleschi, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

While sponsorship of artists and the commissioning of artwork is the bestknown aspect of the patronage system, other disciplines also benefited from this kind of sponsorship. At that time, sci-

ence, for instance, was not the independent practice it is today. Much of what we know as science most often was carried out under Church or court patronage.

However, this is an aspect of science that has often been left out of the spotlight, maybe because it involves a network of relationships, negotiations and favouritisms that makes science a “socio-political” and “cultural” field, rather than an abstract transcendent phenomenon.

Although none of the Medici themselves were scientists, the family sponsored the research activities of Galileo Galilei, who dedicated the four largest moons of Jupiter to them, calling them “Medicean planets”.

In a letter to Kepler, Galileo speaks with gratitude of Cosmo, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who “has now invited me to attach myself to him with the annual salary of one thousand florins, and with the title of Philosopher and Principal Mathematician to His Highness; without the duties of office to perform, but with the most complete leisure; so that I can complete my Treatises.” Such privileged condition came to a halt when the Inquisition accused Galileo of heresy and Ferdinando II abandoned his protégé.

The major effect of this scientific patronage was the establishment of the first scientific academies, such as the Lincean Academy, which was founded in 1603 by aristocrat Federico Cesi, and the Cimento Academy (Academy of Experiment), founded in 1657 by Galileo’s students and funded by Prince Leopoldo.

Coming to more recent times, with the advent of national States, the social organization of science based on the patronage of kings and princes disappeared. It was the State itself that became the main patron of science, supporting scientific research through public funds,

institutes of research and scholarships.

Science therefore became a field of national interest, attracting a variety of economic and military interests. Marx himself, in his Capital, in fact emphasized that a major peculiarity of capitalism is the application of science to the problems of industry.

In the last years, however, public support to science has been steadily dropping. As a result, the private sector has become the main funder and performer of science, thus posing important questions about the role of government policies and priority setting in intellectual property rights, standards, university research, and so on.

So, what is left of the scientific patronage today? Who are the new patrons of science?

Especially in the health system, most of the sponsorships today come from private foundations or associations (such as the associations of patients with rare diseases). As Steven Epstein interestingly argues in his book Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge, the involvement of laypeople in the processes of “doing science” seems to challenge the traditional approaches to the social study of science that tend to assume that knowledge making is the province of a narrow circle of credentialed experts.

This recent phenomenon instead marks an important passage in the history of the production of scientific knowledge: from the patronage of churches to that of charitable foundations, from aristocrats to plutocrats, from an elite patronage to an unprecedented “social” kind of patronage. The consequences of such a social revolution are still to be discovered, but the advent of new players in the support of scientific research could change forever the pathways of knowledge construction.

GALILEO

45

Galileo-Gazing

THE MEDICEAN STARS, AS GALILEO CALLED THEM, THE PLANETS CLOSEST TO EARTH.

MEDICEAN “STARS” OF SCIENTIFIC PATRONAGE

by Laura GIACALONE

The Medici Granducal Archive (Mediceo del Principato)

F

or over two centuries, the Medici family ruled Tuscany as sovereign Grand Dukes. Their archival collection – called the Mediceo del Principato – has survived virtually intact in the State Archive in Florence (Archivio di Stato di Firenze).

It covers the chronological span of their rule: from the moment Cosimo I became Duke of Florence in 1537 to the death in 1743 of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, sister of Gian Gastone, the last of the Medici Grand Dukes. In other words, it begins with Michelangelo’s work on the Last Judgment and ends with the birth of Thomas Jefferson.

This collection includes 6,429 bound volumes containing some four million letters from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, recording ev-

ery aspect of political, diplomatic, economic, artistic, scientific, military and medical culture not only at the Tuscan Court, but also throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. There is also among these letters precious news from the African and Asian continents as well as the Americas.

The correspondence of the Granducal Medici concerns a great variety of subjects and features a rather impressive roster of prominent historical figures.

Official letters from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Catherine de’ Medici, Queen Elizabeth I, Pope Paul III, Saint Charles Borromeo, Michelangelo and Galileo – just to name a few – are common. News describing political and diplomatic machinations dealing with significant historical events – such as the English Reformation, Council of Trent,

46 GALILEO

Galileo-Gazing MEDICI PATRONAGE OF SCIENTIFIC STUDIES, SCIENTISTS, AND TECHNOLOGY IS PREDICATED ON ONE FUNDAMENTAL BELIEF: THE GRAND DUKES, UP UNTIL COSIMO III, CONSIDERED SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND MASTERY OF TECHNOLOGY AS MEANS TO STRENGTHEN AND GIVE LUSTER TO THEIR POLITICAL POWER. Battle of Lepanto, the rise of the Spanish Armada, the Wars of Religion in France, the Thirty-Years War and, in general, all Papal conclaves – is also quite rampant.

However, the most extraordinary aspect of this collection remains the endless descriptions of everyday life in Early Modern Europe. There are continuous references to medical matters and pharmacological remedies; foodstuff and wine; festivals and banquets; plagues and famines; meteorological and astronomical anomalies; alchemical breakthroughs, archaeological discoveries and technological innovations; artistic patronage and musical productions; exotic animals and botanical marvels; religious upheavals and prohibited books.

Apart from its immediate relevance to Medici family history, this archival corpus offers the most complete documentary record of any princely regime in this period. It can therefore support a depth and complexity of research that is possible nowhere else, particularly regarding the habits, customs and concerns of princely government and court life. The Mediceo del Principato is also a prime example of an “organic archive” since it retains its original scheme of organization, reflecting the social and administrative structures that produced it.

Medici Grand Dukes as Patrons of Science

T

he vast correspondence in the Medici Grand Ducal archives (1537-1743), comprising over 3 million letters, points to a heightened interest in all aspects of natural and applied sciences on the part of the Medici, including hydraulics; engineering; botany; anatomy (human and veterinary) and pharmacology; metallurgy and mineralogy; cartography; meteo-

rology; astrology and astronomy; mathematics; optics; alchemy.

Medici patronage of scientific studies, scientists, and technology is predicated on one fundamental belief: the Grand Dukes, up until Cosimo III, considered scientific knowledge and mastery of technology as means to strengthen and give luster to their political power. It is not surprising that much of scientific applications initially involved warfare.

They were also seriously concerned with how scientific discoveries (and applications) improved everyday existence, commerce, and communications.

The Medici supported Luca Ghini (botany), Vesalius (anatomy), Galileo (astronomy, math), Nicolas Steno (anatomy, geology), and Francesco Redi (medicine); universities (Pisa), teaching hospitals (Santa Maria Nuova in Florence), and academies (Accademia del Cimento in Florence); botanical gardens (Orto Botanico in Pisa and Giardino dei Semplici in Florence); and scientific publications, both ancient and modern.

A number of members of this family were directly involved with alchemical experiments, including Grand Duke Francesco, his step-brother Don Giovanni, and his son Don Antonio. Cosimo I was especially interested in obtaining secrets of glass making, sugar refining, and porcelain. Ferdinand began putting together a collection of scientific artifacts and instruments. Cosimo II, among other things, seemed partial to nautical engineering.

The pursuit for and study of exact sciences, most of which necessitated precision instruments for proofs (compasses, time pieces, astrolabes, globes, armillary spheres) was made possible thanks to an initial investment in technology and craftsmanship (mostly warfare related) fos-

tered by Cosimo. Certain scientific instruments could not have been made without such kind of technological industry.

Medici general tolerant attitude towards all religious backgrounds made Florence a clearinghouse for doctors and scientist in the known world, particularly of Jewish background.

Correspondence from Medici ambassador abroad point to a general curiosity of all scientific discoveries made in those countries. A number of engineers were sent abroad to learn about these innovations and to bring them back to Florence.

The Medici Archive Project

M

AP is an innovative humanities research foundation that is currently constructing an analytical database and search engine to assist scholars working on Renaissance and Early Modern humanist disciplines and to introduce the documentary heritage of the Medici to a broader public. MAP’s chief focus is the collection of letters of the Medici Grand Dukes, called the Mediceo del Principato, housed at the State Archive in Florence, the Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASF).

In 1993, MAP began operations with an initial grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). In 2000, MAP launched its program of three-year post-doctoral fellowships, thanks to generous support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Fondazione Monte dei Paschi dei Siena, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, De Roy Testamentary Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Over twenty fellows have thus far participated in the program (many of whom now serve as university professors and museum curators), carrying out independent research

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Galileo-Gazing

VOLUME OF LETTERS FROM THE GRANDUCAL ARCHIVE

and developing MAP’s database, which is now available on-line at www.medici.org.

This database currently comprises over thirteen-thousand biographical entries and some twenty-thousand unpublished document entries which are transcribed from the original text, contextualized in English, and tagged according to database research criteria. As of 2009, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has agreed to sponsor a new, state-of-the-art on-line interactive database, which will be operative in the next years.

MAP is also involved in promoting scholarly conferences, exhibitions, a publication series of scholarly studies, and courses on paleography and archival studies, the latter sponsored by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. MAP is also laying the foundation for a scholarly program whose aim is to study the history of women in Early Modern Europe as they are described in the Medici Granducal Archive (Mediceo del Principato).

ITALIAN JOURNAL CHATS WITH ALESSIO ASSONITIS OF THE MEDICI ARCHIVE PROJECT In the relationship between science and patronage, how great has been the danger of restrictions imposed by patrons on the scientists’ freedom of research?

ALESSIO ASSONITIS: The danger has certainly been real, but not as much as one would think. During Renaissance, for instance, there was great freedom of research for scientists.

How has the relationship between science and patronage changed over the centuries?

ALESSIO ASSONITIS: It is difficult to answer this question. What I can say for sure is that today there is much more money invested in scientific projects than in the promotion of art and humanities. The reason of such a discrepancy is the commercial development of science.

Who are the new patrons today?

ALESSIO ASSONITIS: In the field of humanities, there are foundations in Italy (such as Monte dei Paschi di Siena Foundation) and in the US (Ford Foundation) that sponsor art and cultural projects and the restoration of architectural heritage. Many foundations also support research.

Interview by Laura Giacalone

48 GALILEO

Galileo-Gazing

“AND YET IT MOVES...”

The film Galileo represents the neverending struggle for scientific freedom against all forms of censorship

by Laura GIACALONE

A yearly appointment not to be missed by film critics and moviegoers from all around the world, the 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival confirms itself as one of the most prestigious events in the film calendar, with a rich and variegated selection of international titles and the ever-present parade of stars and celebrities.

This year, the festival has dedicated special attention to issues related to war, immigration and global crisis, awarding the Global Lion for best film to the intense and claustrophobic Lebanon, by Israeli Samuel Maoz, which is entirely set inside a tank where four young inexperienced Israeli soldiers strive to survive during the 1982 war in Lebanon. The festival’s second prize, the Silver Lion for best director, was instead awarded to feminist Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, for her striking film Women Without Men. Beside the major sections of the festival, the retrospective section evocatively named “These Phantoms” has shed a light on some lost masterpieces of Italian cinema. Among the titles included in this section, there is also Galileo (1968), by the celebrated Italian director Liliana Cavani. The film has been restored by the National Film Archive of the Experimental Cinematography Centre in Rome, and, after over 40 years, reopens the age-old debate about the relationship between faith and science.

Shot in Sofia, Bulgaria, the film retraces the story of Galileo Galilei, starting from the early years of his scientific career at the end of the 16th century, when he moved to Padua to teach Physics at the University. This is where Giordano Bruno’s heretical ideas

and the sun-centred Copernican theory began to take shape.

Through lengthy studies, Galileo became convinced that it is the sun, and not the earth, that is at the centre of the universe. When summoned to Rome to defend himself against the accusation of heresy, he was asked by Cardinal Bellarmino and the Pope himself to defer his studies and was compelled to forswear the Copernican theory in which he had firmly believed.

First presented at the Venice Film Festival in 1968, in the year of the student protests, the film experienced itself the kind of censorship it portrays. Italian state television RAI refused to broadcast the film, as it was considered too anticlerical and therefore politically dangerous. The film was also banned from movie theatres, due to the refusal of Angelo Rizzoli to distribute it, and was condemned to oblivion. However, over all these years, the memory of such a revolutionary and controversial work has been kept alive by courageous teachers, who have continued to show the film to their students, also thanks to the large circulation promoted by the Catholic distribution company San Paolo Film in the schools. Needless to say, the history of the cultural life of a country is sometimes made of unpredictable paradoxes…

«That’s how the world goes» – commented Liliana Cavani introducing the screening of Galileo to the Festival’s audience – «Time passes by, and yet the world is still the same. That’s why Galileo’s story is still relevant today». As the director points out, «while carrying out his first telescopic observations, Galileo believed that the discovery of the truth could be of use to the Church in the first place, and therefore he sought a dialogue with the ecclesiastical hierarchies. When he appeared before the Holy Office in Rome, he was convinced that he would eventually wear down their resistance, but he was going to be bitterly disappointed. That was a time when the Church exerted complete control over scientific knowledge».

Seen today, 40 years after its production, the film keeps its extraordinary modernity, both in its content and stylistic features.

The deepest meanings of the film seem to be conveyed more by scenic, architectural and visual elements than by the words. So, the sense of oppression of the hegemonic power is expressed through the predominance of bottom-up shots with the use of wide-angle lens. The rational attitude of Galileo’s mind is instead

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Galileo-Gazing

A SCENE FROM GALILEO, THE FILM DIRECTED BY LILIANA CAVANI (INSET) STARRING CYRIL CUSACK AS THE ASTRONOMER. OPPOSITE PAGE: THE ORIGINAL FILM POSTER.

conveyed through the abundance of geometric shapes and lines, whereas the verbose pompousness of clergymen is suggested by the profusion of baroque architectural elements. Despite such complexity of communication levels, the film develops its plot in the most straightforward and simple way, preserving its popular character, as in the spirit of Galileo’s lesson.

As the celebrated film critic Morando Morandini stated, «the film overturns nearly all conventional forms of biographical cinema and transforms the reconstruction of the past into action in the present. It is both the tragedy of a man who is ahead of his times and the story of naivety».

Moreover, Liliana Cavani’s Galileo has an additional layer of interest as a complex reflection of the never-ending debate over freedom and censorship, which is of particular concern in Italy today, considering the recent debates on the freedom of press and the status of democracy in our country (or better “videocracy”, as the Swedish-based Italian filmmaker Erik Gandini pointed out in the documentary film of the same name presented at the Venice Film Festival).

Liliana Cavani is no stranger to these kinds of topics, and her films have often raised rather heated debates. The characters she

has always selected for her films are in fact troublesome, controversial or revolutionary in some ways. Before Galileo, she had made her debut as a film director with the feature film Francesco d’Assisi (1966), where the legendary figure of the Saint was depicted as a sort of hippy-like personage. The first films she directed for the cinema dealt with uncommon themes in that field, such as marginalization, mysticism and Nazism. She is best known for her 1974 feature film Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter), which launched actress Charlotte Rampling to international stardom.

She conquered the international market with Interno berlinese (The Berlin Affair, 1985) and Francesco (1989), with Mickey Rourke playing the lead. After realizing the TV series Einstein for the RAI in 2007, in the last years she has devoted herself to the theatre.

When asked about the political relevance of her movies, she answers: «My films are not political in a strict sense. They go beyond the historical role of characters: they investigate the inner truth of human feelings». It is when these feelings concern the struggle for scientific freedom, against every form of censorship, that the story of a single man becomes the history of the whole mankind.

50 STRAPLINE

The majority of his operas are in Italian.

Maybe because Italian is... the most musical language ?

Ya think?

W.A.Mozart

Italian.

Sound civilized.

Apollo et Hyacinthus Ascanio in Alba La Clemenza di Tito Don Giovanni Idomeneo La finta giardiniera La finta semplice

Lucio Silla L’oca del Cairo Le Nozze di Figaro Mitridate, re di Ponto Il re pastore Il sogno di Scipione Lo sposo deluso

www.ItalianAcademyFoundation.org

FASHION

51

Found Chic Remnants of discarded objects and forgotten materials are recycled into individualized designs under the thoughtful art direction of the youngest Fendi daughter, Ilaria Venturini Fendi and her ecofriendly company Carmina Campus

1

3

4 2

6 7

5

1. CAR BAG. DEAD CARS IN JUNKYARDS INSPIRED THIS LINE, UTILIZING UPHOLSTERY, SIDE COMPARTMENTS, SEATBELTS AND MIRRORED SUNVISORS. 2. SPORTMESS. MADE FROM RECOVERED CANVASES OR TARPS, THE BOTTOM OF THIS BAG IS REINFORCED WITH PVC. 3. SHOWER BAG. THIS LINE OF WEIGHTLES, QUILTED BAGS IS CRAFTED FROM VINTAGE SHOWER CURTAINS. 4. THE AVION BAG. A COLORFUL PATCHWORK OF STOCK AIRPLANE SEAT FABRIC CREATES A UNIQUE CARRY-ON ITEM. 5. THE MESSAGE BAG.THESE COLLAGE-LIKE TOTES, MADE FROM SCRAPS WOVEN BY VILLAGE WOMEN IN CAMEROON, WERE WHAT THE WORLD’S FIRST LADIES RECEIVED FROM THE WIFE OF THE MAYOR OF ROME UPON ARRIVING FOR THE G8 ITALY 6. INTERIOR OF THE CARMINA CAMPUS STORE IN ROME. THE DISPLAY IS MADE OF USED ELEVATOR STEEL. 7. CARPET BAG. THIS LINE USES FOLDS OF CARPET, MADE WITHOUT CUTTING, LEATHER SCRAPS AND MENS BELTS.

52 ARCHITECTURE

LIVE BUILDING

Picture courtesy the San Francisco Citizen blog

Architect Renzo Piano’s design for a science museum is a (literally) living example of environmentally-aware architecture

by Efthalia STAIKOS

T

he California Academy of Sciences, guided by the mastermind architect Renzo Piano, has successfully created a self-sustaining, green structure. Its excellence was acknowledged by the U.S. Green Building Council that awarded it Platinum status. LEED Platinum (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the highest rating a building can achieve. The Academy, a design of Renzo Piano’s, is now the greenest museum in the world, and the largest Platinum-rated public building in the world. The science that went into creating the building did nothing to take away from the beauty of

its design, which uniquely integrates it into the surrounding Golden Gate Park.

The Renzo Piano Building Workshop worked with Stanec Architecture to successfully create a new level of transparency so that the environment both outside and inside could be appreciated at the same time, which explains the frequent use of glass for the exterior walls. In fact, a special form of German glass that is known for its extreme clarity was used to accentuate the open, airy feeling between the museum and the surrounding park.

Science’s finest examples of innovation and sustainable resources can be viewed

53

Courtesy the Archicentral- Architecture News Daily online

ARCHITECTURE

TOP: AERIAL VIEW OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY IN SAN FRANCISCO IN THE GOLDEN GATE PARK. OPPOSITE: THE TOP OF SAN FRANCISCO BUILDING, COVERED WITH PLANTS AND SOLAR PANELS. Courtesy of the California Academy of Sciences

THE MUSEUM’S FOUR-STORY-HIGH DOME ENCLOSES A TROPICAL RAINFOREST. 90% OF THE MUSEUM’S VISITING SPACES ARE LIT WITH NATURAL LIGHT.

both inside and outside the new Academy building simultaneously.

“Museums are not usually transparent,” says Piano. “They are opaque, they are closed. They are like a kingdom of darkness, and you are trapped inside. You don’t see where you are. But here we are building a natural history museum in the middle of a park, and those are two things that should belong to each other. They should be as connected as possible.”

The “living” roof, one of the highlights of the museum, and probably its most unique feature, has numerous environmentally friendly attributes. The roof is covered in a layer of plant life that makes it blend into the grassy park from an aerial view, and gives the impression of a gently rolling hillside from a ground view. Aside from all the roof’s characteristics that make the building more energy efficient, the roof itself, with its topping of foliage, serves as its own ecosystem.

The vegetation growing on top of the building consists of 9 different types of plants, all native to California. The total planted area measures 2.5 acres, making it San Francisco’s largest stretch of native

vegetation. The unique combination of plants on top of the building attracts native birds, hummingbirds, bumblebees, and butterflies along with a number of parasitic wasps that feed on harmful pest insects.

The roof creates a layer of insulation that greatly reduces the need for air conditioning. It also absorbs rainwater, preventing 3.6 million gallons of run-off water per year from transporting pollutants into the ecosystem. These harmful substances, which are absorbed as moisture into the atmosphere and deposited back to earth in the form of rain, can have a negative effect if they are absorbed into the ground’s sources of drinking water.

The 2.5 acres padding that the museum roof provides, however, is the perfect sponge to soak up this run-off water. The perimeter of the roof is lined with a solar canopy of 60,000 photovoltaic cells, the most energy efficient solar cells available.

By producing a voltage of energy when exposed to light, these cells supply clean energy to the museum, and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.

What other aspects make the design

so eco-friendly? The Academy, which includes the Museum of Natural History, Planetarium, and Aquarium, uses natural daylight for 90% of its lighting; its radiant floor heating alone reduces overall energy consumption in the building by 5 to 10%, and whatever energy is expended on heat is recycled courtesy of a heat recovery system.

Other interesting features of the building include the vast amount of recyclable items that were utilized in its construction. Over 90% of the building was recycled materials from the old Academy, and the installation inside the walls of the building is made from blue jeans.

The objective of this was to utilize cotton since it is such a rapidly renewable resource.

The California Academy of Science, a leader in scientific research institutions in the field of natural sciences around the world, now appears to have a building that is adequately aligned with its purpose. It seems as though it would be difficult to distinguish which is the more interesting attraction: the museum exhibits, or the museum structure itself!

54 CONTEMPORARY ART

SCULPTURAL CHEMISTRY Spatial intersections in steel works of sculptor Alfio Mongelli

by Genny DI BERT

“The field of physics/mathematics that characterizes the imposing works of Algio Mongelli is transformed by an expressive freedom that confounds any scientific pattern. The unity and sythnesis achieved in his creations, whether large sculptural manifestations in stainless steel or geometric graphic forms, reveal the exceptional quality of this artist among the most successful contemporary artists.”

T

hus wrote Nobel prize winner Rita Levi Montalcini in 1994 referring to the Roman artist Algio Mongelli (born 1939). An astute observation on the part of a perceptive scientist who, oblivious to the writings of the most renowned and profound art critics (Mussa, Masi, Strinati, Benincasa, Crispolti, Restany, Berger) arrived at the most defining aspect of the artist’s work: sythesis. It is from this core that his works originate––seemingly simplistic, oddly logical in content, their structure a relationship between space and substance.

To achieve such an effect, the author expands his knowledge and experience by conferring with other artists like Leoncillo, Colla, Fazzini; he learns architectural theory and practice by frequenting

NOBEL PRIZING-WINNING PHYSICIST CARLO RUBBIA WITH THE ARTIST (RIGHT) HOLDING W+Zº, 1985.

professional design studios, like that of Anselmi.

Initially a student of painting, Mongelli soon decided to direct himself towards sculpture. “I felt that painting was not a route I could continue becuase I saw it as limited, and I had a different urge. I did not want to be a painter, I wanted to be a sculptor. I observed the third dimension, and I had inside myself a strong interest towards the idea of mass,” said Mongelli.

The artist began to immerse himself in studies related to environmental space, and the expression of his creativity through sculpture, always searching for synergy between his concept of the work (short notes), its production (preparatory studies and sketches), its realization (the interpration in and around space), and the message ultimately transmitted by its presence.

For Mongelli, art and science were fused in sixties, with works like Pythagorus Theorem (1968-1970), and in the seventies opposed eachother with works like Flight (1976), Ohm’s Law (1977-78). The artist’s idea was to create sculpture that was somehow unsettled or unfinished with itself, ultimately expressing the human condition. In short, to think and create non-stop, probing for new forms of expression; through visual messages, express one’s vision of the world, moving them into three-dimensions; to see and to construct a world.

From this point, his artistic track of 13 years suddenly shifted to involve the fields of logic, mathematics and astrophysics, elements that became the touchstone of his artmaking. “Let’s say that from infancy I had a predisposition for math and chemistry problems. Science magazines fascinated me, especially astronomy. These held my curiosity, but my studies were naturally different. My love for math was inspired by the teach-

ings of one particular, eccentric professor who did not just solve equations but often made us prove absurd theorums –– those I tried to solve with a lot of care and interest.”

This thinking would enter his artistic production, along with the ideas of negative space, perspective, symbolism, apertures/closures and future projections.

In his long artistic career, Mongelli has had much recognition. He has received numerous national and international prizes (USA, Canada, Hungary, Japan, and China). A participatant in the Venice Biennale, he also represented Italian sculpture in the International Expo of Seville. He was the winner of an international competition to create the sculpture in the swimming arena of the Peking Olympics, and, is currently in the production phase of installing a large sculpture in Shanghai for exhibition in 2010. In the world of academic research, Mongelli has received several prestigious appointments: lifelong Chair of Sculpture of the Accademia di Belli Arti, Rome (since 1971), Director of the Accademia di Belle Arti, Frosinone (19771984), and President of the Libera Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome (since 2000).

Thought and act: we enter the works of Mongelli. Mass displacing space, materials rendered in formulaic expressions, hypotheses; theories that fill the space or leave it empty, form defining itself in an ongoing dialogue between nothingness and solidity. A profound homage to humanity, a kind of message for our future identity. The artist’s preparatory sketches capture a sense of experimentation, an alternative sensibility, and a need to discover novel techniques. Elements of Mongelli’s sculptures recall the spatial ideas of Piero della Francesca, daVinciesque riffs. We understand the critic Restany when he spoke of the “beyond-

CONTEMPORARY ART

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Photo by Alessandro Gori

MASS DISPLACING SPACE, MATERIALS RENDERED IN FORMULAIC EXPRESSIONS, HYPOTHESES; THEORIES THAT FILL THE SPACE OR LEAVE IT EMPTY, FORM DEFINING ITSELF IN AN ONGOING DIALOGUE BETWEEN NOTHINGNESS AND SOLIDITY

ALL WORKS ALFIO MONGELLI IN STAINLESS STEEL: TOP: H2O, LARGE FORMAT, PEKING. MIDDLE: D.N.A., 1986-88. BELOW: THE SCULPTOR IN 2009 POSTING WITH O2 (OXEGYN), 1987.

ness” present in Mongelli’s sculptures, inviting a discourse “that gives us the opportunity to transcend the tension between the immediate appearance of the sculpture with its logical composition.”

This accomplishment is found in the material, which conveys both an easy visual impression (logical, mental) and simultaneously, a bold and intellectual statement (mathematical, theoretical, formulaic). “At first, I was using iron, with stepped intervals to distinguish the geometric elements. Surpassing geometric forms and aiming more to express mathematical and chemical formulas, I felt the need to work with a more appropriate substance, one that would come closer to the resiliancy, brilliance and light in my pieces. So I chose steel. This metal defies cultivation, it’s a substance that you have to know how to accept and live with. It’s also elegant and harsh,” explained Mongelli.

From this thinking works like H2O (1979-1988), Man (1987), Square Root (1988), XYZ (1991) were born. Through these, he arrived at the creation of “photo sculpture” in the last few years. His exploration of speed in time, space, movement, air, color, shadows, refractions, in length, atmosphere and communication, Mongelli’s third dimension surpasses trends. With artistic rigor, his works put forward the essence of art itself: technique plus investigation.

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PHOTOGRAPHY

HIDDEN GEM OF VENETO photography by Mauro BENEDETTI

Tracing Romeo Montecchi’s lovesick footsteps down a small street in Verona, discover the former home of Capuleti, where on a front-facing balcony their beloved Giulietta once waited for her boyfriend.

Lovers and dreamers place notes of affection on a nearby wall, and touch the statue of the young Veronese woman.

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LITERATURE

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PRIMAL EMOTIONS Author and physicist Paolo Giordano uses a mathematic principle as a metaphor for the human condition

by Laura GIACALONE

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man whose mind has gone astray should study mathematics,” said philosopher Francis Bacon, pointing out a strict relationship between mathematical thought and that kind of extraordinary, sometimes borderline, sensitivity that is commonly associated to poetry.

That must be the case of Paolo Giordano, a 27-year-old Italian scientist working on a doctorate in particle physics, who has recently won five literary awards – included the prestigious Premio Strega, Italy’s answer to the Man Booker Prize – with his bestselling debut novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers.

Giordano is the youngest author to have received such literary recognition.

Since publication in Italy (Mondadori, 2008), the book has sold over 1 million copies, and is being translated into twenty languages, becoming a cult phenomenon.

The worldwide success of his novel probably lies in the universal character of the themes he deals with. As the title evocatively suggests, his novel is in fact a story of solitude and alienation, but also of “elective affinity”. In the perspective of a particle physicist, the perfect metaphor for this existential and emotional status, which is experienced in particular during adolescence, is given by the mathematical concept of prime numbers.

In Giordano’s words, “prime numbers are divisible only by 1 and by themselves.

They stand in their place in the infinite series of natural numbers, squashed in between two others, like all other numbers, but a step further on than the rest.

They are suspicious and solitary […].

Among the prime numbers there are some that are even more special. Mathe-

maticians call them twin primes: they are pairs of prime numbers that are close to one another, almost neighbours, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from really touching. Numbers like 11 and 13, like 17 and 19, 41 and 43. If you have the patience to go on counting, you discover that these pairs gradually become rarer. You encounter increasingly isolated primes, lost in that silent, measured space made only of numbers and you become aware of the distressing sense that the pairs encountered up until that point were an accidental fact, that their true fate is to remain alone. Then, just when you’re about to surrender, when you no longer have any desire to go on counting, you come across another two twins, clutching one another tightly.”

Mattia and Alice, the protagonists of his novel, are just like that: «two twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough really to touch one another».

Alice is an anorexic girl indelibly scarred, both in her body and her mind, by a skiing accident occurred when she was a child. Living at the shadow of an overbearing father, she can’t establish a true relationship with the outer world, which she only seems to experience through the pictures she takes as a photographer. Mattia is a very introverted boy who takes refuge in his science studies to keep his guilt-feelings at bay. He in fact hides a terrible secret: as a boy he abandoned his mentally disabled twin sister in a park to go to a party, and when he returned, she was nowhere to be found.

When Alice and Mattia meet, they immediately recognize each other as kindred spirits. As they grow into adult-

hood, and try to cope with the tragic consequences of their personal childhood traumas, their lives become more and more intertwined, and yet endlessly separated. That’s the inescapable law of prime numbers.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a coming-of-age novel able to mix the fundamental ingredients of a love story with in-depth reflections about guilt, sorrow and lack of self-acceptance. Mattia and Alice are contemporary Adam and Eve just banished from the Garden and condemned to bear their punishment each in their own way.

The language chosen by the author to unfold this story does not leave room to stereotyped representations of youth, which are so common in the so-called Young Adult fiction, and never indulges in melodramatic tones or rhetorical devices. On the contrary, his style is simple and straightforward, bare and minimalist, as if the author used the language to suggest the same detachment and inability to express feelings as that of his characters.

As an emerging novelist, Paolo Giordano shows the mastery and elegance of a consummate novelist. He certainly knows the rules of writing and, more importantly, he knows when to break them.

Is it the same in physics? «The difference is that physics always has strict rules about how things have to be done, while in literature you can make up your own rules», he explains. As for the rest, physics and literature seem to be two sides of the same coin. After all, as the Russian mathematician and writer Sofia Kovalevskaya used to say, it is impossible to be a scientist without being a poet in soul.

60 SOCIAL JOURNAL

Social Journal ASILM Reception

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Consul General Francesco Maria Talò held a reception at his home in favor of Italy’s new ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador Cesare Maria Ragaglini. Offices and directors of the American Society of the Italian Legions of Merit (ASILM) were invited to participate.

1. ASILM Chairman Dominic Massaro, ASILM Director of Protocol Rosemarie Santangelo, Ambassador Ragaglini. 2. Baronessa Mariucca Zerilli-Marimò, Secretary General of ASILM, with H.E. Archbishop Celestino Migliore. 3. Consul General Talò with Salvatore Salibello, ASILM Treasurer. 4. Vice Consul Marco Alberti with Vice Consul Laura Aghilarre with ASILM Director and Hon. Vice Consul Stefano Acunto. 5. ASILM Imm. Past Chairman Joseph Sciame, Vice Consul Aghilarre and Mrs. Santangelo.

Saratoga Wine and Food and Fall Ferrari Festival The brightly-colored Ferraris filled the upstate New York countryside during the Saratoga Wine and Food Festival. In addition to gourmet tastings and gala dinners, the Italian Trade Commission sponsored seminars focused on Italy’s superior contribution to gastronomy.

LEFT: DOTT. ANIELLO MUSSELLA, DIRECTOR OF THE ITALIAN TRADE COMMISSION OF NEW YORK ADDRESSES ATTENDEES AT THE SARATOGA FESTIVAL. OUTSIDE, AMONG THE SCORES OF FERRARI AND EXOTIC CARS WAS THIS SPECTACULAR TWOSEATER. ABOVE: FORMER STATE SENATOR JOSEPH BRUNO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SARATOGA PERFORMING ART CENTER, MARCIA WHITE, DOTT. ANIELLO AND MRS. MUSSELLA, HONOREE LAURENCE AURIANA, HON. VICE CONSUL STEFANO ACUNTO, MR. SCOTT T JOHNSON, MAYOR OF SARATOGA SPRINGS, MR. ROY J. MCDONALD, STATE SENATOR FOR SARATOGA.

SOCIAL JOURNAL

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Social Journal Fête for Gianni Quaranta

Meet Vebjorn Sand

An evening of Italian and AmericanItalian thinkers, academics, actors and artists gathered at the home of Hudson Cliff House in honor of renowned cinematographer Gianni Quaranta, best known best for his Academy-award winning art direction in A Room with a View.

Among the guests pictured were (L-R standing) Olson Rohdes (Capolavori Productions) singer Michael Amante, playright Brandon Cole, author Robert Viscusi, theatrical attorney Michael Resigliano, renowned actor Federico Castelluccio, IAF Chairman Stefano Acunto, Italian Vice Consul Maurizio Antonini, Mr. Quaranta, Senator Antonio D’Ali, Wall Street Journal critic and author Barrymore Laurence Scherer, Italian Vice Consul Marco Alberti, futurist artist Edward Giobbi. (seated L-R): Nel Rohdes, Mrs. Antonini, Dr. Bilha Chesner Fish, M.D., Greater New York Physicians Foundation, actress Yvonne Marie Shaefer , Mrs. Brandon Cole, Silvana Pileggi of Rome, theatrical agent Maryann Anderson, Eleanor Giobbi, Michelle Scherer, Carole Acunto, Antonia D’Ali.

Renowned Scandanavian artist Vebjorn Sand with Stefano Acunto, Chairman of the Italian Academy Foundation at the opening of the Sand Gallery in New York. The show featured the artist’s sculpture (center) of his realization of Leonardo da Vinci bridge in Norway (right). Among this renowned Norwegian artist’s works are Italian-inspired subjects including illustrations of Hell from Dante’s Inferno and Roman aqueducts amid Arctic iceberg constructions. The influence of the Italian masters on his art is quite clear , especially that of da Vinci.

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Face File

Federica Pellegrini

LEFT: FEDERICA PELLEGRINI AFTER WINNING THE GOLD MEDAL AND BREAKING A WORLD RECORD AT THE 2008 PEKING OLYMPICS. ABOVE, THE ATHLETE IN HER ELEMENT. BELOW LEFT: THE YOUNG WOMAN OUT OF WATER, MAKES A GLAMOROUS APPEARANCE IN MILAN WEARING ARMANI.

Nicknamed “Italy’s national darling,” Federica Pelligrini, has not only just wooed her home country, but has attracted international attention with her record-smashing swimming feats.

A native of Mirano in the Venice province, Federica now holds the world record for both the 200- and 400-meter freestyle in women’s swimming. She is the first Italian swimmer to become an Olympic champion as well as the first to set multiple world records.

At 16, she debuted her record-breaking speed at the 2004 Olympics, Athens. At 20, she broke the 200-meter freestyle record at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

This year, she went on to 400m freestyle at the 2009 Mediterranean Games in Pescara.

If her athletic prowess weren’t enough, her beauty has captured the world’s eye.

She most recently appeared in a glamourous, high-style photos in Vanity Fair, her hair teased high and her face lavishly made-up, a stunning contrast to her sweet, sporty appearance.

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