“He loved it (Ancona) for its glorious past, bristling with towers, opulent with traffic, resonant with work, disdainful with servitude. He loved it so beautiful as a mirror of the sea in the pure lights of dawn and in the mysterious darkness of sunsets; for its monuments that still await those who remove them from centuries-old oblivion, for the stupendous Cathedral high on the hill dominating the Adriatic, for the sailing ships and steamers that sail the seas in search of traffic; and very pure, due to the shy feeling of dignity that makes the inhabitants alien to fruitful exhibitionism”. With these words Aristide Boni remembered, in 1939, the death of a character who marked, with his life, the history of Ancona in the 20th century: Palermo Giangiacomi. A book on this figure, sometimes controversial and forgotten, has recently been published: “The poet and the city. Palermo Giangiacomi: his life, his works, his time”.
Published by Affinità Elettive, the volume is the result of the precious research work carried out by Michele Servadio, lawyer, historian, critic and art historian, writer who in his work describes the intense life and works of one of the most important poets of Ancona and with them the history of the city through the most salient moments of its existence, the post-unification political life, the war, the bombings, the Red Week and the Bersaglieri revolt, the advent of fascism in Ancona and the black days of 22. Giangiacomi was the living demonstration that “a difficult existential situation cannot condition the affirmation of a person if will, seriousness and commitment become the lines along which to direct one’s life”.
A thought that could be truly useful to the many young people who today do not believe in their own potential. His life was intense, he fought in the Greco-Turkish war alongside the Greeks and was a volunteer in the First World War but the thing that most fascinates him is the strength with which he rose, without having school qualifications, to librarian and then to director of the Municipal library. However, the aspect that fascinates us most is his poetic and vernacular streak which led him to have great success. His most famous work, “L’Imbriago”, represents the most sincere image in which every Ancona resident has found himself in some way, in quotes and anecdotes. Servadio’s volume will be presented in Ancona on Wednesday 29 May at 5.30 pm, in the Auditorium of the National Archaeological Museum of the Marche. The author will be present.
Claudio Desideri
