The ANNOTICO Report

A monument of Italian literature: Alessandro Manzoni's "I Promessi Sposi"
(The Betrothed), written in the 19th century about life in 17th-century
Lombardy, Manzoni's novel recounts a great deal of history within its plot
about "the struggle of two peasant lovers whose wish to marry is thwarted
by a vicious local tyrant and the cowardice of their parish priest".

Five Italian-fluent friends — Ardeth Black (lived in Italy for a few years
while teaching horseback riding and jumping), Loretta Casalaina (Italian
American), Diana Colasanto, (Italian American), Gilda McCauley (born in
Italy), and Jane Scott — (worked in Italy as an au pair) agree that "I
Promessi Sposi" is a masterpiece.

   Their study of Italian brought the women together years ago. Despite
varied backgrounds, the initial linking element was the Princeton Adult
School's "wonderful foreign language program," with five levels of Italian.
The friends were all enrolled at one time or another.

 For about seven years, they have met weekly to read and converse in "their
beloved second language." They regard Italian as a "gracious and courteous
language," whose pure vowels and phonetic spelling make it comparatively
easy to pronounce.

Now they are taking the "I Promessi Sposi"  literary pilgrimage to Italy,
which would include Lake Como, Lecco, Bergamo, Milan among other places.

Lovers of classic Italian novel will visit Italy to tour book's locales.

The Princeton Packet
Princeton, New Jersey
By: Pat Summers , Special Writer
Friday 15 April, 2005    .

   A couple of women arrived from work; the third, from home, and another,
dressed in spiffy riding gear, raced in from a horse-training session. The
fifth participated on speaker phone from Washington, D.C. Except for the
reporter, they could have held the discussion in Italian.

   That would have been à propos, since the women had met to talk about
their week-long trip to Italy early next month, a visit made possible by
their long, shared study of the Italian language and motivated by a book.
And not just any book, but a monument of Italian literature: Alessandro
Manzoni's "I Promessi Sposi" (The Betrothed).

   Written in the 19th century about life in 17th-century Lombardy,
Manzoni's novel recounts a great deal of history within its plot about "the
struggle of two peasant lovers whose wish to marry is thwarted by a vicious
local tyrant and the cowardice of their parish priest" (Encyclopedia
Britannica).

   The five Italian-fluent friends — Ardeth Black, Loretta Casalaina, Diana
Colasanto, Gilda McCauley and Jane Scott — agree that "I Promessi Sposi" is
a masterpiece.

   Their study of Italian brought the women together years ago. Despite
varied backgrounds, the initial linking element was the Princeton Adult
School's "wonderful foreign language program," with five levels of Italian.
The friends were all enrolled at one time or another.

   For about seven years, they have met weekly to read and converse in
"their beloved second language," as Ms. Casalaina puts it. They regard
Italian as a "gracious and courteous language," whose pure vowels and
phonetic spelling make it comparatively easy to pronounce.

   A couple of years ago, a second Princeton institution entered the
picture: the annual Bryn Mawr book sale. There, Ms. Casalaina spotted a
slim volume among the books on the foreign language table — an abridged
version of the first nine chapters of Manzoni's classic. Her 50-cent
purchase was all it took to move their study of Italian in unexpected and
exciting directions.

   Reading individual photocopies of the abridgement, sometimes aloud,
quickly whetted the women's appetites for the entire book. In the language
they love, the five friends read the entire tale of star-crossed lovers, a
villain who earns his eventual comeuppance; a malleable priest, and a
caricature of a lawyer still recognizable today.

   All this comes with details about Italian life centuries ago, including
elaborate descriptions of the plague that devastated Milan in 1630.

   "It's a famous book. If you study Italian at all, you encounter it," Ms.
Scott says. Others praise Manzoni's dialogue and vividly drawn characters,
and his turns of phrase: "poetic in Italian." Although they rhapsodize over
the book in its original Italian, they would be happy for others to adopt
the book in any language.

   This leads to the various translations out there and how and why they
differ. Ms. Black prefers Archibald Colquhoun's translation. However, the
problem with any English version is the title. "We don't talk about
'betrothed,'" they point out, and so in translation, the book's central
concept is not immediately clear.

   A major contributor to the development of Italian fiction, Manzoni
(1785-1873) fostered political, moral and religious debate in his country,
which was then struggling for unity and independence. So influential was
this poet, dramatist and novelist in life that his death was the catalyst
for Giuseppi Verdi's pledge to complete his Requiem in time for its first
anniversary. Verdi's work premiered in Milan in 1874.

   What do you do after reading and loving Manzoni's novel? That's easy,
especially when one group member, Ardeth Black, happens across an airline
magazine with a feature story about tourism to "Manzoni world."

   Visiting the buildings and scenes the author made famous is evidently a
flourishing industry today. For example, people seek out the home of Lucia,
the heroine; the palace of Don Rodrigo, the villain of the piece, and the
church of Don Abbondio.

   And so you decide on a literary pilgrimage to Italy. Lake Como, where
the novel begins, beckons, as do Lecco, Bergamo, Milan and other places
that have long resonated in your conversation and imagination.

   You visit Manzoni's home in Milan, also the city where the book's bread
riots occurred. You cross the River Adda, a key dividing line in the story,
and in Lecca, you lodge at "Pensione Don Abbondio," named for the priest in
the novel. You take a funicular to the top of the mountain for an aerial
look around.

   For a week you revel in the sights and sounds of the northern Italian
locales that mean so much to you — with Manzoni's masterpiece either in or
at hand. And, of course, you use public transportation rather than renting
a car, the better to hear the language you love, and to speak only it.

And, as for logistics, who cares who researched or reserved or purchased?
Planning for this trip was a true labor of love, so who's counting?

   Gilda (for "Ermenegilda") McCauley was born in Italy, near Bergamo, and
grew up in Westchester County, N.Y. Her family, which included her maternal
grandmother (or nonna), spoke Italian. In 1981, she returned to Italy to
visit with her extended family there. A retired biochemist, the
Hillsborough resident was happy to learn of the Princeton Adult School's
language program — which led eventually to the group and then the Manzoni
novel and pilgrimage.

   Loretta Casalaina and Diane Colasanto both describe themselves as
Italian Americans. Ms. Colasanto concentrated on the cuisine part of her
heritage until she began to travel and learn Italian. She retired early
from public opinion research work in this area and now lives in Washington,
D.C.

   A publications manager with ETS and a Hillsborough resident, Ms.
Casalaina grew up in a bilingual household. She says that Italian was a
gift given to her as a child, and she wanted to unwrap it more. Once she
began studying the language, she found that writing it fostered speaking
it. Her poems have been published in the Journal of Contemporary Italian
Poetry.

   Ardeth Black lived in Italy for a few years while teaching horseback
riding and jumping. She loved the country and the language, picking up
"scrappy words" from stable boys and feeling a growing need to learn
grammar. One benefit of her coming to Princeton was the adult school's
offerings in Italian.

   Jane Scott first encountered the language during a high school summer
when she visited family friends in Italy. She studied on her own and in
college, but truly learned it while working in Italy as an au pair. An
adjunct instructor at Seton Hall University Law School, she, too, took
advantage of the adult school after moving to Princeton.

   At some time in the next few months, group members may make a
presentation about their trip at Dorothea's House, Princeton's Italian
cultural center. Right now, though, the operative words are "Buon viaggio!"

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