It’s the Modern World, the End of Times, the Decline of the West, the Revolt of the Masses. It’s the 1920’s. It’s going to be Very Silly.
Portrait of an Ardito (Italian elite troops) from WW1. I think he’s more handsome than Ettore, though. Another photo, with the Bersagliere bike. Interestingly, the article mentions the Fiume incident, but this young war veteran did not participate in it (although he was among the ‘liberators’ of Trieste in 1918). Instead, he returned to America, [...]
The Lund University Library has four English-language biographies of Gabriele D’Annunzio, the diminutive dictator of Fiume. Here’s a short, superficial review of each, with the first sentences as examples of the grand prose that his ghost has inspired in other historians (I’m not the first victim…).
Gabriele d’Annunzio
Canto novo I, 222 (1882)
Io mi affretto alle pugne. Cavaliero
ignoto in arme brunita cavalco
per la campagna scabra, ma un pensiero
superbo m’arde ne l’occhio di falco.
Guardan le turbe; e - Chi è questo altiero
fanciul che passa? - elle ghignano.
I hasten toward the combat. An unknown
knight in gleaming armour, I ride
across the barren land, with a [...]
In homage to a great piece of cinema history, and a lovely breed of canines, I present to you the first official portrait of the mysterious Dux of Ginestra. Dux mea lux! Evviva!
A little musical dedication at Last.fm.