Pietro Rossi and Giustiniano Villa, the strength of popular poetry between San Marino and the Conca Valley
different worldviews those of two poets from Romagna: one entrusts the possibility of conquering happiness to hope and faith, the other finds his balance on the value of honesty. A fideistic and a secular vision, but both capable of crossing time by leveraging the strength of popular poetry which, with critical depth, is capable of shaking consciences. Pietro Rossi from San Marino and Giustiniano Villa from San Clemente they live two eras half a century apart from each other, with sometimes incompatible political inclinations, but each starting from their own condition: the first cobbler, the second farmer, they have the ability to dissect social relations, laying them bare. Pietro went into the woods to collect wood, which he then loaded onto the saddle of a donkey to sell it in the villages. To feel his fatigue less, he started playing the “ciuffolo” or the “piva”. Then, in winter, after the hard work in the fields, “I only paid attention to the books / And instead of going to the ball, to the game and to the Osteria / I read my Bertoldo next to the fire”. Bertoldo, sixteenth-century character, storyteller, rough but intelligent farmer, just as he will be, later, Ceccone, the character created by Rossi. Villa too took his zirudelle around Romagna, from the markets to the fairs, where he took the opportunity to narrate the political life of Romagna, the peasants’ struggle and social life in verse.
While the work of Giustiniano Villa has been extensively investigated, only an expert of Romagna dialect poetry, which was Grace Bravetti Magnoni (in the picture), could produce a text on Pietro Rossi that reordered the material by submitting it to a critical revision. Bravetti, who has dedicated many of her studies to Villa, has succeeded in placing Rossi in the ranks of late romanticist men of letters, who, however, never transcend the themes and registers of the Scapigliatura.
The two figures will be compared tomorrow, Sunday 4 December at 5.30 pm at the Teatro Giustiniano Villa in San Clemente (free admission)during the meeting entitled: “Pietro Rossi and Giustiniano Villa, the strength of popular poetry between San Marino and the Conca Valley”.
Speakers will:
Mirna Cecchini (Mayor of San Clemente), Stephanie Tordi (Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of San Clemente), Joseph Maria Morganti (Aiep Publisher), Prof. Piero Meldini (Writer, historian and researcher), Prof. Valentina Rossi (Letters teacher, historian and researcher), Francesca and Filippo Magnoni (children of Professor Grazia Bravetti Magnoni), Claudius Casadei (Coordinator and curator of the Poetry Prize and Zirudela Romagnola “Villa Giustiniano” of San Clemente). He will moderate the meeting Marco Valeriani (Journalist)
At the end of the presentation it will be possible to attend a musical tribute by Francesca Magnoni. The meeting will end with the tasting of wines and local products.