A popular type of early mosaics were the pebble mosaics, consisting of stone, glass and marble arranged to show scenes from Greek and Roman mythology and everyday life, used for floors by upper and middle class Romans. One of the largest collections of floor mosaics from the Roman times is found in the town of Piazza Armerina in central Sicily. Piazza Armerina is famous for the splendid mosaics of the Roman Imperial Villa at Casale from the 4th century AD. The villa is thought to have been a hunting lodge of a Roman Emperor or a wealthy importer of animals for gladiator fights, since many of the mosaics represent African animals and gladiators. The floor mosaics were probably made by Carthaginian artisans since the hunting scenes and animals are similar to those found in Northern Africa and in the Tunis Bardo Museum. In St. Louis you can see pebble mosaics in the Chinese Garden of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Another style of mosaics is the Byzantine style, adopted during the Byzantine empire which lasted from the 4th to the 15th century AD. During the 4th century, the Byzantines (Christians of the Eastern Roman Empire) began to decorate the interior of their churches with glass and marble mosaics called tesserae. The Byzantine mosaics are strong in color and are not set flat but at a slight angle to catch the light from the candles or oil lamps. The Byzantines used gold obtained from Armenia and Thrace (Greece), symbol of incorruptibility, truth and glory. A gold leaf was wrapped around glass cubes and covered with a thin film of glass. The mosaics conveyed church history, often portraying sacred personages rendered in a strictly frontal view and in a highly stylized manner.

Some of the best early Byzantine mosaics are found in Ravenna, which has been called the Italo-Byzantine Pompeii, because, like Pompeii, it has been preserved for posterity. The city at one time was protected by the sea on one side and by forest and marshes on the other, so when Italy was invaded by the Visigoths, the Emperor Honorius moved the capital of the Western Roman Empire to Ravenna. Honorius' sister, Galla Placidia, who became regent for her son, Valentine III, and ruled for 25 years, built many of the great buildings in Ravenna. The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (420-421 AD) has been praised by the great historian Charles Diehl as "perhaps the most exquisite monument left by Christian art. Also in Ravenna is the church of San Vitale, built during the reign of the Emperor Justinian, which is shaped like an octagon. Its mosaics, completed in 547 AD, are perhaps the finest examples of Byzantine art since their pictorial mode is adapted to the subject matter being depicted. Here we see the Emperor Justinian, venerated as Christ representative on earth, and the Empress Theodora surrounded by members of the court.

Sicily has several examples of mid-Byzantine mosaics. Palermo became the center of the Norman court, where Roger III built the Palazzo dei Normanni and where, in 1132, the Cappella Palatina was built. This chapel brings together the beauty of Byzantine and Arab ornamentation. The mosaic scenes show a picnic in a harem, biblical stories, and Norman Court life. In 1176, William II financed the Cathedral of Monreale, about 6 miles southwest of Palermo, where the mosaics cover 54,000 square feet with 130 scenes. The mosaics in the St. Louis Cathedral, most of which are in the Byzantine style, cover about 83,000 square feet. The Basilica of St. Mark in Venice is the greatest Byzantine edifice in the world. Byzantine artists were summoned to build the new church, consecrated in 1095. In the 16th century, some of the older mosaics were ruined by the weather or removed because of their bad condition. In the 17th century paintings and frescos were copied into mosaics. The works were extremely smooth and gave the appearance of a painting. This type of mosaic is called Italian style.

Elections were held at the October meeting for new officers and one director. The following officers were elected for two year terms of office commencing January, 1998. President, Gene Mariani; vice- president, Roger Gennari; Treasurer, Barbara Klein; and Secretary, Marie Cuccia-Brand. In addition, Carolyn Stelzer was elected to three-year term of office as a Director. Thanks to Norman Merlotti, who handled the election details as well as to James Tognoni, Chairman and his Nominating Committee members.

Columbus Day Festival

The Club's participation at the Columbus Day festival at Berra Park on October 11 was a great success. How do we measure success? First by the Club participating in the affair along with other Italian American organization, secondly, by our members working together for a few hours and having some fun, and lastly by making a little money. We accomplished all three. From the financial perspective , our performance was helped significantly by a donation to the Club earmarked specifically for that event by a member who wishes to remain anonymous. Heartfelt thanks to every member who participated and especially to our secret benefactor.

A Bequest in Memory of Gil Gennari

The club recently received a cash donation in memory of member Gil Gennari who died on September 22. The bequest was made by Marial L. Martyn, sister-in-law of Roger Gennari, in honor of Gil and in tribute to his pride in his Italian heritage and of his love for the Italian Club. We are extremely grateful for her thoughtfulness and generosity.

Sat 7, 1:30 PM - Il Testimone dello sposo (Art Museum)

Wed 18, 6:30 PM - Club Meeting (Da Baldo's)

Thu 19, 8:00 PM - Il ventaglio (Washington University)

On going - La vita è bella (Plaza Frontenac)

The subject was selected in honor of the recently deceased Paul Rava, a graduate of the University of Padova Law School and a Venetian who relocated to St. Louis to escape the persecution of the Jews by the Fascist regime during World War II. The lecture focused upon the last thirty years of Goldoni's life, which he spent in Paris where he died in 1793 at the age of 86.

In Venice, from 1749 to 1762, Goldoni had written more than 100 plays and had achieved great success and fame replacing the more or less improvised farces of the Commedia dell'Arte with a new comic genre in which the traditional masks (such as Arlecchino, Pantalone, Brighella, Pulcinella, etc.) were replaced at first by classical Molière types (the miser, the liar, the misanthrope) and later by characters taken increasingly from the everyday life of Venice: noblemen, merchants, housewives, gondoliers, shopkeepers, fishermen, and the like. Invited by the Théâtre italien to be the playwright in residence, he went to Paris in 1762 and there he remained until his death. By using the dialect and staging the life of ordinary people, Goldoni came closer than anyone else in 18th century Europe to adapt for the theater the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Even while he was living in Venice, Goldoni had been aware of his twofold debt toward France: the great example of Molière classical comedy and the great ideas of tolerance, intellectual freedom, and civic justice that came from the French philosophical movement preceding the Revolution. Therefore it is probable that among the reasons why Goldoni accepted the invitation to go to Paris was the hope of meeting in person and perhaps become a friend with the famous representatives of the French encyclopedic culture, whom, like many other European intellectuals, he had admired from afar. But his wishes were not to be rewarded. Goldoni met Rousseau and found him suspicious and irascible and renounced the idea of showing him Le bourru bienfaisant (The Bad-tempered Benefactor), a comedy he wrote in French in 1771, fearing that Rousseau would think he was the model for the main character.

His relationship with Diderot was even more strained since Diderot made disparaging comments about Il vero amico, a play by Goldoni that Diderot was accused of having plagiarized with his own play Le fils naturel. Of a different nature was his relationship with Voltaire, who praised Goldoni's talens comiques in a small poem which was published by Gaspare Gozzi in his Gazzetta veneta. Voltaire admired Goldoni's for his ability to paint the universality of human nature; however, Goldoni's attention to the peculiarities of society and customs are of greater interest and seem to announce the Italian storicismo, the historicism of the following century.

C'era una volta un lord inglese, accanito giocatore, che per non perdere tempo con il pranzo ordinò al servo di preparargli un cibo che si potesse consumare senza bisogno di posate e non impegnasse più di una mano. L'altra gli serviva per giocare. Il servo gli portò un panino imbottito che da quel giorno si chiamò sandwich, dal nome del padrone, John Montague, quarto conte di Sandwich. Cosmesi e cosmonauta hanno un nonno in comune, il greco kòsmos, ordine. La bellezza è ordine, il cosmo è ordine. Chi desidera conquistare il cosmo si fa cosmonauta; la signora che si accontenta della bellezza ricorre ai cosmetici.

Tratto dal libro di Cesare Marchi Impariamo l'italiano, Rizzoli, Milano, 1984