nr 1 (2) 2020

Roberto Saviano. A Few Words about Contaminating His Own Nest and Its Consequences

PixHeritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020, Varia, Weronika Korzeniecka

Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer and investigative journalist who has been living under strict police protection for thirteen years. He wrote Gomorrah, a bestselling book, that drew the mafia’s attention and resulted in a death sentence. Life in hiding is a price he pays for revealing the harsh truth about the activity of Neapolitan Camorra. The aim of this paper is to investigate what drives his uncompromising pursuit for truth, the strategies he uses to achieve this aim, and the response to his approach, coming from Italian politicians, intellectuals, ordinary people, and international general public.

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The Birth of Polish National Thought from an Italian Perspective

PixDiscussions, overviews and commentaries, Ewa Litwin, Heritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020

The article aims to present the work of Daniele Stasi regarding the birth of Polish nationalism. The book was published in 2018 in Italian by Francoangeli as Le origini del nazionalismo in Polonia. The author puts forward some theses concerning the process of national building in the period preceding the Big Partition in Poland, which represents terminus a quo for his analysis of the ideologies related to the national issue and rebirth of Polish state. Terminus ad quem of the author’s analysis is Roman Dmowski’s Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka. Based on rich and interdisciplinary literature, Stasi’s work aims to fill the gap in Italian historiography, related to the birth of Polish nationalism.

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Letters from Concentration Camps and Prisons as a Depiction of Camp Reality

PixDaniele Stasi, Discussions, overviews and commentaries, Heritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020

The article discusses Lucyna Sadzikowska’s book entitled Listy z lagrów i więzień 1939–1945. Wybrane zagadnienia (Letters from the Concentration Camps and Prisons 1939–1945. Selected Issues. Katowice 2019). According to the author of the article, the published letters of the inmates kept in concentration and labour camps remain interesting descriptions of the camp reality that redirect the reader towards literature of the personal document. The purpose of Sadzikowska’s book is to describe and codify the prison and camp letter with regard to its theoretical and practical aspects. She analyses and elaborates on official and unofficial camp and prison correspondence (e.g. secret messages, letters smuggled in or out of camps and prisons), and presents a peculiar supplement to this epistolography, i.e. the literary letters of Gustaw Morcinek. The reviewed work not only presents the author’s commitment to elaborate on camp and prison epistolography written in the period between 1939 and 1945, but also points out the inspiring potential of personal documents.

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Bona Sforza – between Poland, Naples, and Bari. The Rivalry of the Great European Powers in the 16th Century

PixAngelantonio Spagnoletti, Articles and Studies, Heritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020

In this article, the history of Bona Sforza is examined in the context of the relations between the European states of the first half of the 16th century, that is, the Empire of Charles V and the Catholic Monarchy and of Philip II in particular. The Queen of Poland and Duchess of Bari attempted to play a leading role in the international relations of the epoch, but she had to succumb to the wishes of the two Habsburgs, interested in regaining control over the Duchy of Bari and forming anti-Turkish alliances with Sigismondo II of Poland, a son of Bona.

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Some Reflections on a New Edition of C. Carmignano’s Viaggio della Serenissima S. Bona Regina in Polonia

PixDiscussions, overviews and commentaries, Francesco Cabras, Heritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020

The article is a review of Andrea Colelli (ed.), C. Carmignano: Viaggio della Serenissima S. Bona Regina in Polonia, con nota introduttiva di Luigi Marinelli. Roma, 2018. While discussing this edition, it includes proposals concerning the intertextual dimension of the poem, drawing attention to the similarities between the first ‘capitulo’ of the poem and Joannes Secundus’s elegy I 8, both texts being denied as epithalamia.

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