Italians read notoriously little. But in this period, there is a lot of talk about books and authors: the very crowded “Book Fair” was recently celebrated in Turin; In its own small way, Bolzano also had one and is now reviving a bookshop which will celebrate the first year of its rebirth next weekend.
And we recall the past and draw hopes for the future. The memory goes first of all to the “Book Festival” which was also celebrated here during the twenty years. “La Provincia di Bolzano”, a fascist newspaper which was printed in the headquarters near Ponte Druso, wrote on 13 August 1932, in elegiac tones: “With today’s inauguration of the VI Book Festival, Bolzano makes a superb affirmation of Italianness”. Alongside an italics entitled “Rite of Latinity” it begins as follows: “Festival of Italianness and culture (sic!) what Bolzano will experience today with the solemn inauguration (…) of the VI Book Festival, and at the same time unequivocal affirmation of that very noble superiority of Roman and Latin civilization which, over the centuries, was never completely separated from this generous Adige land.
Today’s demonstration is among those that the Regime wanted to be organized throughout Italy, not because they were dry and sterile gatherings of writers and booksellers, but because they exalted, with the meaning of a ritual, the most beautiful expressions of the Italian intellect. Propagating the book, extolling the book, buying (sic!) the book above all, is a holy duty for every Italian: just as for all fascists it is a dutiful task to collaborate in this superb demonstration of culture (sic!) and intellectuality which , in the sign of the Littorio and in the orbit of the Revolution, contributes validly to the universal affirmation of the ingenuity and civilization of Rome, a beacon of light in the world”.
Concepts and prose are naturally no longer acceptable today, but those were the times! The first Book Festival was celebrated in 1927 in the municipal theater (named after Verdi and destroyed by the war) and in the annexed spaces, up to what was then called Piazza Vittorio Emanuele III (today Walther). No fascist verbal pomp for the inauguration (14 October 1939) of the bookshop opened in the brand new Piazza della Vittoria by the Licinio Cappelli publishing house of Bologna. Also in this case, “The Province of Bolzano” wrote: “A new large bookshop, truly worthy of the new Bolzano, was opened yesterday in the monumental area” (and the mention of the “high approval of the Duce” was also included).
The Cappelli bookshop survived the war and was indeed – one would say – well frequented, so much so that by leafing through the 5 October 1948 of “Alto Adige” (born in 1945 on the initiative of the National Liberation Committee) one can today learn that “in the afternoon yesterday the well-known American writer was a guest in our city for a few hours Ernest Hemingwai (sic!). The illustrious guest visited the city, spending time in particular in Piazza Walther. “Very beautiful”, she told us in good Italian (…). Later he went to Piazza della Vittoria. “In the Cappelli bookshop he purchased some books worth 10 thousand lire”. The last owner of the bookshop was Lino Stefani, and then his son.
It survived over the decades but with increasing difficulty, to the point that the books ended up being confined to the upper floor, reachable thanks to an awkward staircase, while the attached stationery shop was marketed at sidewalk level, with greater success. In the end, last year it closed, with the business moving to the nearby Corso Libertà, where the fortunes of the renewed “Cappelli” are now recovering. At the end of next week in the old headquarters in Piazza della Vittoria, still deserted, this last year of recovery will be remembered with various events.
