A Few Highlights from the "Orgoglio e Memoria: Emigrazione dal Meridione" Exhibit at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York in Manhattan

Honoree Rocco B. Commisso takes a tour of the exhibit

A resounding success, the "Orgoglio e Memoria: Emigrazione dal Meridione” exhibit opened at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York in Manhattan Wednesday evening to an enthusiastic standing-room-only audience. After introductions and salient speeches by a plethora of speakers, this year’s esteemed “Wall of Fame” honorees, Rocco B. Commisso and Carlo Scissura, were each awarded a beautiful Neapolitan presepio figure handcrafted at maestro Marco Ferrigno’s world-renowned workshop located on San Gregorio Armeno in Naples.

Genealogical tree and historical summary
of all the Kings of the Two Sicilies, compiled
by Padre Celestino Gasdia dedicated to Bishop
Raffaele De Franco, Bishop of Catanzaro

Following the presentations, guests were treated to some wine, pizza con alici, and an in-depth tour of the Institute’s galleries by Gaetano Bonelli. Among the many fascinating treasures on view are a Kingdom of the Two Sicilies passport to America and the complete first edition of Gaetano Filangieri's La Scienza della Legislazione. 

Organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, the important material on view hails from the Museum of Naples - Bonelli Collection and the Lendinara Citadel of Culture. The curators of the exhibit are Fabio Finotti, Director of the Institute of Culture; Dott. Nicholas Gasparetto, Director of the Library of Lendinara; Luigi Liberti, journalist at Patrimonio Italiano TV; and Gaetano Bonelli, founder and Director of the Museo della Citta' di Napoli and the Caruso Museum.

The exhibit is free and open to the public from 10 AM to 4 PM. The Institute’s days of operation are not listed on the website, so please call before visiting (212-879-4242). It runs to Monday, August 28, 2023. For more information visit: www.iicnewyork.esteri.it.

Master of Ceremonies Fabio Finotti welcomes everyone to the event

Carlo Scissura was presented a beautiful presepio figure

Gaetano Bonelli gave an in-depth guided tour of the exhibit

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies passport to America (1854)

Complete first edition of Gaetano Filangieri's La Scienza della
Legislazione (Published in Naples between 1780 and 1788)

Miniature busts of San Gennaro

Il gobbo, an old hunchback charm

Framed image of San Gennaro

Antique biscotti tin from Naples

Serata Identitaria con Storia Musica e Lotteria Borbonica!

In Torre del Greco

Saints Peter and Paul Attributed to Giuseppe Picano

San Paolo Apostolo

During our recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (see Another Edifying Excursion to the Met), we viewed many spectacular works—too many, to be sure, to post in a single post. Regrettably, our photo of San Pietro attributed to Giuseppe Picano (1732-ca. 1810) was a little blurry, so we omitted it. However, seeing as it is the vigil of the Brother Apostles, we thought we would revisit our trip to the museum and share the photos despite their obvious shortcomings. 

These terracotta statuettes (1780s) served as models for the statues of Saints Peter and Paul in the choir of the Oratorian church of the Girolamini in Naples. The statues were carved later (ca. 1795) by Picano's follower Francesco Verzella (Naples, active ca. 1790-1845).

San Pietro Apostolo

Ponderable Quote from ‘Return to Center’ by Otto von Habsburg

Otto Von Habsburg (1912-2011)

Just as the old Europe would not have arisen without God, the new one must not simply be a big market or a big administration. Neither Communism in the East nor the consumer economy of the West is giving a valid answer to the final questions of man-kind. If Communism was shattered because a godless system cannot survive, that is also true of the materialist format that certain market idolaters want to give to the European Community.

Naturally we need a free and social economy, for that is the only kind that works and serves people. But a Europe without Christianity would have to collapse like a house of cards, because it would have no soul.

Reprinted from Return to Center by Otto von Habsburg, translated by Amalthea Verlag, Ariadne Press, 1993, p. 214

Photo of the Week: Archway Inside the Sala dei Cavalieri, or Knight's Hall, at Villa Rufolo, Ravello

Photo by New York Scugnizzo

Around the Web: Ruled by Different Rhythms

Reprinted from Genealogies of Modernity

By Matthew Scarince

“Christ never came here,” writes Carlo Levi, describing the desolate village of Gagliano in the hinterlands of southern Italy to which he was exiled in 1935. “Christ stopped along the coast, at Eboli.” Internal exile is a strange concept in the digital age. For a generation raised with the global reach of the internet, to whom landscapes are defined by interstate highways and airports rather than by hills and villages, this technique of isolating a political opponent seems absurd and trivial. Francesco Rosi begins his four-part TV miniseries adaptation of Levi’s year of exile (Christ Stopped at Eboli, 1979) by emphasizing his isolation: though constantly escorted, Levi is alone, his light grey suit of a fashionable cut standing out against the unrelenting black clothing of the Lucanese peasants and the dark overcast sky. They are visible only in their poverty; they are, as Rosi’s contemporary and fellow director Vittorio De Seta once titled them, “the Forgotten.” And to the inhabitants of Basilicata (ancient Lucania), the doctor from Turin is a foreigner in their forgotten country.

When Rosi released the film to television audiences in 1979, Italy was at the height of the tumultuous “Years of Lead,” a period of intense political violence carried out by Marxist and Neo-Fascist militias—arguably the only lasting cultural legacy of the old Fascist regime. A decade earlier, writer and philosopher Augusto Del Noce sought to cut the Gordian knot of modern politics by achieving a concrete definition of the philosophy underlying Mussolini’s dictatorship. Breaking with the consensus established by Ernst Nolte, Del Noce defines Fascism not as a reactionary coup against modernity, but rather as a “stage” in the “age of secularization.” Accordingly, Mussolini’s Fascist Idealism was not a complete rejection of Marxism-Leninism but an alternative to it. The Fascist state fits directly into the paradigm of a technocratic society, against which the only defense is to regain “a genuine historical awareness.” Through Levi’s eyes, Rosi shows his audience a historical community, damaged and impoverished yet still worth preserving and even emulating. Continue reading

Ponderable Quote from 'The Habsburg Way: Seven Rules for Turbulent Times' by Eduard Habsburg

Die Well (and Have a Memorable Funeral)

We live in an age where almost everyone seems certain that they will go to Heaven. (As somebody once said, "nowadays the only thing you need to do to get to Heaven is to die.") Most people seem blissfully unaware that there is a possibility that they may end up in Hell for all eternity. In fact, I am frequently surprised at how casually priests at funerals provide assurances that the dearly departed is "with God." Priests rarely speak of Purgatory and almost never mention Hell. Presumably these pastors do not wish to burden family and friends with unpleasant possibilities. But perhaps they should remind people of the concrete things they can do for their departed loved ones, such as pray for their souls?

Reprinted from The Habsburg Way: Seven Rules for Turbulent Times by Eduard Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, Sophia Institute Press, 2023, p. 137

Happy Birthday Princess Maria Carolina!

HRH was born in Rome, Italy on June 23, 2003

Photo courtesy of Real Casa di Borbone

Happy Birthday Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon Two Sicilies, Duchess of Calabria and Palermo! May God's love and affection be with you always! Auguri Altezza Reale!

30 Anni di Centro Tradizione e Comunita'

In Modugno (BA)

Rosary March to Consecrate Texas to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Congratulations Siracusa on Your Hard-Fought Promotion to Serie D!

The Lions fly to Serie D!

Another Edifying Excursion to the Met

The King's imposing armor greets visitors
to the museum's great Arms and Armor Hall

I had the great pleasure of visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City with a friend over the weekend and finally got to see the ongoing special installation of The Jousting Armor of Philip I of Castile (1478-1505). As was customary for the eldest sons of noble families during the period, the Prince began martial training and wearing armor at the age of six. This suit, made of steel, brass, gold and leather, was crafted for him in Augsburg, Germany around the time he turned fifteen. The armor and blinding shaffron will be on view in the museum’s impressive Arms and Armor Hall (Gallery 371) until April 1, 2026. The masterwork is on loan from the Imperial Armoury, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.

The shield is a modern replica

We are unsure if the shattered lance is original 

A look at the back of the armor and his steed's blinding shaffron

Not far from the installation were portions of armor made for the Neapolitan nobleman Vincenzo Luigi di Capua, Count of Altavilla and Prince of Riccia (died 1627). The etched steel, gold, leather and copper alloy suit was made circa 1595 by the foremost Milanese armorer Pompeo della Cesa (c. 1537-1610).

Portions of an Armor for Vincenzo Luigi di Capua

From Arms and Armor we successively made our way to The American Wing, Portraiture in the Grand Manner (Gallery 771); European Decorative Arts and Sculpture, 1850-1900 (Gallery 556); and finally to the In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at the Met exhibit (Galleries 964-965).

Repose, 1895, oil on canvas, by John White Alexander (1856-1915)

(L) Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1883-84, oil on canvas, by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). (R) Saint Peter, 1633-34, gilt bronze, by Cosimo Fanzago (1591-1678), Lombard-born sculptor active chiefly in Naples. The statuette originally stood on a tabernacle in the conventual church of Las Augustinas in Salamanca, commissioned by Manuel de Zuñiga, Viceroy of Naples.

(L) Empress Eugénie, dated 1855, painted enamel on copper; frame:
gesso and gilt on wood; by Marie-Pauling Laurent (1805-1860).
(R) Picture frame, 1904-8, nephrite and silver mounts, House of Carl
Fabergé, by workmaster Karl Gustav Hjalmar Armfelt (1873-1959).

Always gratifying, the Met’s remarkable collection never fails to invoke and stir deep emotions. A welcome break from the worthless distractions of the modern world, I always discover something new or see something in a new light and leave feeling edified and inspired. I already can’t wait to visit again.

Picture frame, silver, enamel, wood, 1899, House of Carl Fabergé,
by workmaster Julius Rappoport (1864-1916)

(L) Medal of Leopold II of Belgium, 1859, bronze, by Leopold Wiener
(1823-1891). (R) Medal of Alexander III and the Imperial Family, 1888,
bronze, by Avenir Grigorievick Griliches (1849-1905). The medal
commemorates the Imperial family's survival of a train crash.

(L) Vanitas Still Life, 1603, oil on wood, Jaques de Gheyn II (1565-1629).
(R) A Maid Asleep, ca. 1656-7, oil on canvas, Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)

Photo of the Week: View from the Moorish Style Court or Cloister at Villa Rufolo in Ravello

Photo by New York Scugnizzo

Arbëresh Tradition and the Poetry of Mario Bellizzi

Among the significant minority languages of the South of Italy are the Arbëresh dialects spoken by the descendants of Southern Tosk-speaking Albanians [1] who settled in the Kingdom of Naples in various waves of migration prompted by the westward expansion of the Ottoman Empire and the death of the famous knight and prince George Castriota Skanderbeg (whose noble descendants are still found in Italy and Spain). Along with waves of Greeks and Serbo-Croats, the Albanians were welcomed by the monarchy and the nobility and were granted land for safe haven. In turn they contributed in military service and settlement and repopulation projects. With notable communities in Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Basilicata, Puglia, Abruzzo and Molise, local nuances of dialect and culture evolved and in areas of Sicily and Calabria many Arbëresh were still practicing Orthodox Christianity late into the 19th century heading into the 20th century, while today most are members of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church. There are about 100,000 Arbëresh in Italy and about 400,000 abroad, as many followed the large Southern Italian migrations of the last century. In the United States there are significant Arbëresh settlements in New York and California. In places such as Calabria, many villages are trilingual, speaking archaic Tosk based dialects, Calabrian dialects, and the standard Italian taught in the school system. With the pressures of homogenization of mass culture many minority language towns and areas are unfortunately losing their centuries old unique ways. In the last twenty years a counterpoint resurgence of traditional Arbëresh and Greek minority culture has brought this patrimony to the world.

It is interesting to note that there has long existed a profound dialogue between and among diaspora Albanians over the last centuries, rich in atavistic memories of a lost fatherland. Interestingly many firsts in Albanian literature took place in the South of Italy thanks to Arbëresh writers and Arbëresh intellectuals gathered in Naples around the Greek church and the Neapolitan literary salons of the 18th century. In the 19th century a first resurgence of Arbëresh culture arose in Calabria through the efforts of proud locals such as the lawyer Anselmo Lorecchio (1843-1924) who began efforts to publish works in the local language and to also reconnect meaningfully with Albania. Lorecchio was born in the town of Pallagorio (in the modern province of Crotone) and founded the La Nazione Albanese magazine in 1897. He published numerous books and articles championing the culture and Albanian independence in the Balkans. Lorecchio worked with the Italian government and various politicians and intellectuals such as Girolamo De Rada to foster Albanian independence (when it was still ruled by the Ottomans) and to show the possibilities of how and expanding Italian presence and dominance in the Mediterranean might work to advance Albanian freedom and diaspora unity as the newly unified Italy exerted its dominance in the Balkans. Lorecchio was indeed acknowledged and thanked for his efforts by the emergent Albanian leadership when Albania gained independence in 1912 and in 1921 as it received wider diplomatic recognition.

The first known work of Arbëresh literature was by the Sicilian archpriest Luca Matranga(1567-1619)’s E mbsuama e krështerë (Christian Doctrine), a type of basic catechism. In the 18th century Giulio Variboba (1724–1788, also known as Jul Variboba), was regarded by many Albanians as the first poet in all of Albanian literature. Variboba was born in San Giorgio Albanese (Mbuzati) and educated in the Corsini Seminary in San Benedetto Ullano, and after disputes with a local priest he went into a voluntary sort of exile in Rome in 1761 and there published in 1762 lyric poem Ghiella e Shën Mëriis Virghiër (The life of the Virgin Mary). This poem is written entirely in the local dialect of San Giorgio and consists of over 4700 lines. Also in the 18th century Nicola Chetta (1741–1803) from Contessa Entellina, Sicily, was a noted poet who wrote both in Albanian and Greek and is credited with composing the first Albanian sonnet in 1777. Chetta was a poet, lexicographer, linguist, historian, and theologian who was trained at the Greek Orthodox seminary in Palermo, and later became its rector. The most prominent of Arbëresh writers and the major figure of the Albanian nationalist movement in 19th-century Italy was Girolamo de Rada (1814-1903). De Rada was the son of a priest of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church in Macchia Albanese, province of Cosenza. He attended the college in his native San Demetrio Corone and in 1834, he studied law at the University of Naples, but his main interests were folklore and literature. In Naples in 1836 De Rada published the first edition of his famous Albanian-language poem, the "Canti di Milosao", under the title Poesie albanesi del secolo XV. Canti di Milosao, figlio del despota di Scutari. His second work, Canti storici albanesi di Serafina Thopia, moglie del principe Nicola Ducagino, Naples 1839, was seized by the authorities because of De Rada's alleged affiliation with conspiratorial Risorgimento groups. This latter work was republished under the title Canti di Serafina Thopia, principessa di Zadrina nel secolo XV, Naples 1843 and in later years in yet a third version as Specchio di umano transito, vita di Serafina Thopia, Principessa di Ducagino, Naples 1897. In 1848 De Rada founded the newspaper L'Albanese d'Italia which included articles in Albanian and Italian. This bilingual "political, moral and literary journal" with a final circulation of 3,200 copies is considered the first Albanian-language periodical ever published anywhere.

De Rada is considered the forerunner of the Romantic movement Albanian literature, celebrating the national awakening among Albanians in Italy and in the Balkans. Like Lorecchio, his journalistic, literary and political activities showcased the Arbëresh minority in Italy and were key in paving the way for an Albanian national literature.

Mario Bellizzi, a worthy heir to his predecessors in Calabria, was born in San Basile, province of Cosenza, and has published widely in Italy and Albania. Bellizzi is steeped in the classical heritage of the South and the Mediterranean and has masterfully internalized his mother tongue. Following in the footsteps of Lorecchio and De Rada, he is a 21st century bridge to Albania from Calabria. His works include, Chi siamo, Perec 1997 and Bukura morea, Castrovillari, 2003, and his 2008 Good bye, Shin Vasil. The following poems are taken from his bilingual collection, Pasiqyri e Hjea - Lo specchio e l’ombra: Poesie fuori luogo dai Balcani al Mediterraneo, Edizioni Prometeo, Castrovillari (CS), 2018.

Forza e onore ai nostri cari compatrioti arbëreshët!

Jug

Era e djegur
fshinte qiellin
retë.
Burimet e shpirtit të
jugut janë të thata.
Bota – një ngjyrë
e para e piksur.
Dherat – një rrahallë
Është vështirë për mua
plis deltine
të mos dëshëroj një pikë ujë.

South

The burnt wind
was sweeping the sky,
the clouds.
The founts of the soul of the South
are dried up.
The land – a color
the first created.
The fields – a wheezing.
It is difficult for me
clod of clay
to not wish for a drop of water.

Jugu Dhe Fytyrat e Ngjarjeve

Gjithëçka sfaret
por si hardhël
Jugu theket në diell
mbi shtyllat të Tempujve(t) prej guri
të shtrira për tokë.
Jugu rri.
Përgjon dhe rrudh supet për kufijtë
ç’duan të vendosin(jn) në Mesdhe.
Ndërkohë po hipen ca njerëz e zdripen
si grerëza lëvizin
stafidhjosen katundet …
Jugu si fëmijë buzëqesh i porsalindur
qan me sytë e të varfërit
furishëm nëm si nënat.
Jugu tundet vetëm
ndose ka nxe e nge!
Nga ana tjetër, Tragjedia i rrjedh në dejtë,
dhe Filozofia e rëndë i këput(in) kurrizin
kur ec(in) në arkeologjinë e përgjumur
të fushave(t) sot me dredhëza, sparta e gorrica!
Në diellin e xhullandave(t)
mendimet, ëndrrat, asgjësimet në luftë,
umenjtë me lot
Jugu për çudi i than
si fiqë ndër ruganjet.
Për të lëvizur, për heqjen e samarit
Jugu i moçëm pret vetëm një shenjë.
Në këtë rastë do të jetë hëna ç’erret
a një sqep i zi çë nxien diellin?
Vallë baruti çë përcëllon trëndafilat?
Mbase … anijet e mirënjohura në rrethin e qiellit?
Këtu çdogjë është e ngatërruar.
Si thoshte Euripide
Po ndryshojnë fytyrat e ngjarjeve,
baras zgjidhjet e Hyjnive
kujt më s’u kishim besë;
ç’ti pret nuk kalon
ndërsa perëndia gjen çdoherë
shteg për të bëhet deti kos.
Të tjerët s’e dinë se shikimi i Jugut
ka mundësi të djegë pëlhurë e Argali.
Tërbimi plot zbrazëti e zagush
njësh me thumbin e zeskut
bënë lëkundje në gjeografi
hutime midis popujve(t).
Këtë thonë Rrasat e Armonisë.

The South and the Shape of Events

While Reality crumbles
the South is placid in the sun
like the lizards
on the columns of the stone Temples
nestled on the ground.
Majestic, it contemplates.
Watches and shrugs its shoulders
to those who wish to fence the Mediterranean.
… The peoples continue to brim in the chaos
by the same token as hornets
the lands wither …
The South smiles like a newborn
weeps with the eyes of the poor
and hurls nemeses with the vehemence of mothers.
It acts alone
in the time of idleness and if it has a sudden desire!
On the other hand Tragedy flows in its veins
and the weight of Philosophy breaks its back
while it strolls along the sleepy archeology
of the plains now cultivated with strawberries, broom and pear trees!
In the sun on the terraces
as if they were figs
strangely the South sets out to dry
thoughts, dreams, lost battles,
torrents of tears
inside woven baskets of brambles.
The archaic South awaits a sign to react
to throw off the yoke.
This time will it be a lunar eclipse
or a veil of darkness before the sun?
Will it be the Sirocco that burns the roses?
Perhaps the usual ships on the horizon?
Here nothing is certain.
As Euripide said
Many are the shapes of events,
and just as many are the resolutions of the gods
against all our expectations;
what one believed in does not come true
and a god always finds the path to the impossible.
The others don’t know that the gaze of the South
is capable of incinerating the weaving of the spinning wheel.
Its anger imbued with emptiness and heat
together with the bite of the gadfly
provokes earthquakes in geography
confusion among peoples.
Thus it is written in the Tables of Harmony.

~ Translations and historical information by Cav. Charles Sant’Elia

Note:
[1] In the South of Italy the language and culture were historically often referred to as Gheg or Ghegghju by Albanian speakers and their neighbors, despite the fact that most Albanian spoken in Southern Italy is derived from southern Tosk dialects which preserve their archaic pre-Ottoman forms, not the northern Gheg dialects of Albania. The term ghegghju, having taken on a derogatory tone in areas of Calabria, is now often avoided, and Arbëresh is generally used to accurately refer to the language and people.)

Happy Birthday Princess Beatrice di Borbone!

HRH was born in Saint-Raphaël, France on June 16, 1950

Il Regno would like to extend our warmest birthday wishes to Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice di Borbone delle Due Sicilie, Dame Grand Cross of Justice and Grand Prefect of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George. May God continue to shower you with all the blessings you truly deserve. Auguri Altezza Reale!

The Triumphant Return of the Feast of Sant’Antonio di Padova in New York City

Sant'Antonio di Padova, ora pro nobis

After a three year hiatus, hundreds of pilgrims flocked to St. Anthony’s Church in New York City Tuesday evening to celebrate the return of the Feast of Sant’Antonio di Padova. After Mass, the statue of the saint was carried through the bustling streets of Manhattan accompanied by an Italian marching band and devotees singing songs in honor of our glorious patron (e.g. Inno A S. Antonio di Padova). Returning to the fairgrounds, we were blessed by Fr. Michael Corcione with the Saint’s relic and enjoyed the outdoor entertainment (live music and a DJ).

Food stands were selling traditional Italian street fare (sausage and peppers, zeppole, etc.), but our group always goes to nearby Song ‘e Napule for our celebratory meal after the procession. This year we went to their newly opened second location on Houston Street (4th location overall) and it was fantastic. They offer the same great Neapolitan food and service, only in a more spacious and atmospheric dining area.

A brief moment of sanity and a much-welcome break from the trials and tribulations of the world at large, we are once again reminded of what is really important in life: Faith, family and friends. Evviva Sant’Antonio!