Francesco Ferrucci - The Gavinana Hero
cod.: 023 - opere in lingua, I Libri
Preface by Giuseppe Carrara and...not just him!
On Easter day this year (2023) during the late evening news Channel 1 runs a “special” entitled “My human friend”, where “the dog” is “the friend”. During the show one of the guests expresses himself with this sentence: “ending up being street fellows”. Today, assessing dogs as “human friends” and “street fellows” is a point of view that, surely, not a small audience has agreed with, but at the end of 1940s dogs weren't seen much, wandering around, and who owned one kept it rigorously on the leash and with the muzzle on, seen that dogs on the loose were easy prey for the “dog catcher”, a figure that didn't arouse wonder in daily life. In this context it's comprehensible that a story, though based on a respectable character like Francesco Ferrucci, with the preponderant presence of a hound (*) as “human friend” hasn't had the result they were hoping for and has been left in a drawer. Today, according to the latin locution “mutatis mutandis” ( that, joking, we traslated into “change your underware” ) that is to say “in due time”, the meeting of “Ferruccio” with a “hound” as “street fellow”, can be gladly accepted, comforted by the quality of the narration about which, professor Piero Bargellini, friend and mentor of the author, expressed his judgement when he was submitted the beginning of the story. So, let's go to meet “Marco”, that only “lacks of human speech” and let's invite it to introduce itself: “Excuse me if I stretch a little bit, but I have been buried for more than seventy years and now I need to put myself together... Well, here I am! My name is “Marco”, a “hound” (*) a perfect breed to go hunting and, if I may say so myself, I'm really good at it, and my master never fails to praise me for what I feel it's my natural gift. I had been living an enviable life, but one day...that day...they knock at the door and I am quickly in alert ready for any possible situation, strangers by the door back then, were a constant danger even though criminals don't knock at the door. My master, Messer Alberigo, cautiously opens the door, but then he fastly leaves it wide open and let in a person followed by others who have strange tools in their hands. He welcomes the man, so I go back to lie down, but I try to pay attention to the words, that they exchange in a low voice, expressing astonishment and sorrow. At the and my master turns to me and tells me that we have to leave and never come back: our house will be torn down after being specifically requested by Messer Michelangelo. I jump up, I shake my head because I think I haven't quite understood, how can such a good man as Michelangelo Buonarroti demand that! And ...Sorry... Thinking about that day, I still get a knot in my throat and I can't go on”.
(*) The Italian hound is a dog selected during Middle Ages from the bloodhound race, with special ability of stalling birds. A hunting dog of probable Italian origin is cited for the first time in the works of Brunetto Latini and Alberto Magno. Dante, in his famous sonnet “sonar bracchetti” cites it, too: in fact, “bracchetto” in this case means “hunting dog” or even “barking dog”, with a generic meaning, not just a hunter like many people might think. (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
On Easter day this year (2023) during the late evening news Channel 1 runs a “special” entitled “My human friend”, where “the dog” is “the friend”. During the show one of the guests expresses himself with this sentence: “ending up being street fellows”. Today, assessing dogs as “human friends” and “street fellows” is a point of view that, surely, not a small audience has agreed with, but at the end of 1940s dogs weren't seen much, wandering around, and who owned one kept it rigorously on the leash and with the muzzle on, seen that dogs on the loose were easy prey for the “dog catcher”, a figure that didn't arouse wonder in daily life. In this context it's comprehensible that a story, though based on a respectable character like Francesco Ferrucci, with the preponderant presence of a hound (*) as “human friend” hasn't had the result they were hoping for and has been left in a drawer. Today, according to the latin locution “mutatis mutandis” ( that, joking, we traslated into “change your underware” ) that is to say “in due time”, the meeting of “Ferruccio” with a “hound” as “street fellow”, can be gladly accepted, comforted by the quality of the narration about which, professor Piero Bargellini, friend and mentor of the author, expressed his judgement when he was submitted the beginning of the story. So, let's go to meet “Marco”, that only “lacks of human speech” and let's invite it to introduce itself: “Excuse me if I stretch a little bit, but I have been buried for more than seventy years and now I need to put myself together... Well, here I am! My name is “Marco”, a “hound” (*) a perfect breed to go hunting and, if I may say so myself, I'm really good at it, and my master never fails to praise me for what I feel it's my natural gift. I had been living an enviable life, but one day...that day...they knock at the door and I am quickly in alert ready for any possible situation, strangers by the door back then, were a constant danger even though criminals don't knock at the door. My master, Messer Alberigo, cautiously opens the door, but then he fastly leaves it wide open and let in a person followed by others who have strange tools in their hands. He welcomes the man, so I go back to lie down, but I try to pay attention to the words, that they exchange in a low voice, expressing astonishment and sorrow. At the and my master turns to me and tells me that we have to leave and never come back: our house will be torn down after being specifically requested by Messer Michelangelo. I jump up, I shake my head because I think I haven't quite understood, how can such a good man as Michelangelo Buonarroti demand that! And ...Sorry... Thinking about that day, I still get a knot in my throat and I can't go on”.
(*) The Italian hound is a dog selected during Middle Ages from the bloodhound race, with special ability of stalling birds. A hunting dog of probable Italian origin is cited for the first time in the works of Brunetto Latini and Alberto Magno. Dante, in his famous sonnet “sonar bracchetti” cites it, too: in fact, “bracchetto” in this case means “hunting dog” or even “barking dog”, with a generic meaning, not just a hunter like many people might think. (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
THE GAVINANA HERO (1957)
In the mid 1950s publisher AVE of Rome, that publishes several periodicals of the Italian Catholic Association and which the author has been working with for many years ( yet in '44 he's published the biography of “Gemma Galgani” and “Simone”, a novel for children, that had already been released in episodes on “L'Aspirante”), requests a full story to be published, as a serial, on the periodical “Il Vittorioso”. Athos starts working on “The Gavinana Hero”. He considers to go back to Francesco Ferrucci with a new effort and a different setting from the previous “Francesco Ferrucci”. Adding the figure of a young boy, Marco, and his horse, Kherim, he easily develops the historic event of the siege of Florence by the troops of Emperor Charles V with documented historical truth and... adventure. Athos replies to the request of the editor, who urges him to receive the book, highlighting his intention of focusing on “Ferruccio's” historic event. This version of “The Gavinana Hero” is taken from the original work, in some parts different, however, from the one published on “Il Vittorioso”, as if it were a “revised edition”: for instance some sentences hadn't been printed, but mainly what concerns the chapter “The charm of a man”, that describes the character of Ferrucci from his youth to the moment he is nominated War Commissioner by the “Council of the Ten”, the rulers of the city of Florence that time. .
In the mid 1950s publisher AVE of Rome, that publishes several periodicals of the Italian Catholic Association and which the author has been working with for many years ( yet in '44 he's published the biography of “Gemma Galgani” and “Simone”, a novel for children, that had already been released in episodes on “L'Aspirante”), requests a full story to be published, as a serial, on the periodical “Il Vittorioso”. Athos starts working on “The Gavinana Hero”. He considers to go back to Francesco Ferrucci with a new effort and a different setting from the previous “Francesco Ferrucci”. Adding the figure of a young boy, Marco, and his horse, Kherim, he easily develops the historic event of the siege of Florence by the troops of Emperor Charles V with documented historical truth and... adventure. Athos replies to the request of the editor, who urges him to receive the book, highlighting his intention of focusing on “Ferruccio's” historic event. This version of “The Gavinana Hero” is taken from the original work, in some parts different, however, from the one published on “Il Vittorioso”, as if it were a “revised edition”: for instance some sentences hadn't been printed, but mainly what concerns the chapter “The charm of a man”, that describes the character of Ferrucci from his youth to the moment he is nominated War Commissioner by the “Council of the Ten”, the rulers of the city of Florence that time. .
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Francesco Ferrucci in inglese
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