MICHAEL JENNINGS Italian Department Chair Massimo
Ciavollela, left, and Professor Luigi
Ballerini met to debate the allegorical meaning of the
Italian sculpture behind them.
By Carolina Reyes
Daily Bruin Contributor
Many years ago, a man named Lorenzo Da Ponte ran away from
Venice because he impregnated a nun.
Having to flee Italy, he came to the United States at the end of
the 1700s and secured a job at Columbia University as the first
Italian teacher in the country.
Because of his contributions to the development of opera and to
the introduction of Italian to American culture, his work will be
part of a collection of books being put together by the Italian
Department.
“Lorenzo Da Ponte was a very strange character with a
dubious reputation and we are going to publish his
librettos,” said Luigi Ballerini, a professor in the
department.
Librettos are specific texts written for an opera.
Massimo Ciavolella, chair of the department, said he and
Ballerini, along with the Italian government, will select 100 books
to be edited, translated and published by the University of
Toronto. This selection will be the first Italian literature
collection in the nation.
“We will select books which have either had an influence
at one time or another on the English speaking culture or
literature, or books which are not known, have not been translated
or have been translated but have not been distributed well so are
out of print,” he said.
Many translations of Italian texts published in North America
have been translated five or six times ““ like Dante
Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” ““ while the
work of less-known authors remain untranslated, according to
Ciavolella.
But Ballerini, who conceived the idea to create this collection
of Italian books, will try to bring new light to less-known works.
He will also include books by non-Italian authors who have focused
on Italy.
“We are not adopting an Italian perspective; it’s
Italian material but it has international perspective,” he
said.
Works by non-Italian authors who are not well-known but have
been influenced by Italian culture will also be included in the
collection.
Although the French writer Marquis de Sade is well-known for his
erotic works, not many people know him for his allusions to Italy,
Ballerini said.
Sade will be included in the collection because of his
observations of Italy as a tourist.
“Sade’s book is important not just for the knowledge
of Italy ““ which it is ““ but also for the knowledge of
Sade, philosophy and sado-masochism. It’s an important
book,” Ballerini said.
An endowment of $150,000 a year will fund the project, according
to Ballerini.
The project is being funded by the Italian government and a
private foundation called Cassa Marca and involves the entire
Italian department, Ciavolella said.
Though the University of California Press has published works by
Italian professors in the past, the Italian collection will not be
published by the UC Press. Instead it will be published by the
University of Toronto in Canada.
Ciavolella and Ballerini said they encountered problems when
they approached the UC Press asking for publication.
According to Ciavolella, after he and Ballerini initially
presented the project to UC Press representatives, they never heard
from them again.
The UC Press director was not available for comment.
Ciavolella said the representatives from the UC Press said they
would consider each book separately, but not as an entire
collection for publication. Additionally, he said they did not like
to accept books with subsidies, referring to the already-funded
project.
“It’s not as if a mistress is the one who put up the
money. It’s the Italian government,” Ballerini
said.
Every book will have an introduction by a well-known American
figure. For example, the department is planning to publish a 1891
book on Italian cuisine, which will include an introduction by
Carol Field, a food historian.
“The scholar will prepare the text, but then there will be
a person like Carol Field or Francis Ford Coppola to render it
palatable to the reader,” he said.
One of the earliest titles to be published is an 18th century
book by Cesare Beccaria ““ the first one ever written against
capital punishment. The editors will then ask Helen Prejean, the
nun who wrote the book “Dead Man Walking,” to introduce
the work, according to Ciavolella.
Ballerini and Ciavolella will also be preparing the first
anthology of Italian poetry from its birth to the present.
“If you go into any bookstore you will not find an
anthology of Italian poetry translation in English,”
Ballerini said.
Every year, about six books will be published and after 25
titles are published the Italian collection is expected to begin
supporting itself.
“The first six titles are in the making,” he said.
“The anthologies of Italian poetry will probably be out at
the end of August and two or three of them will be ready for the
fall catalogue.”
According to Ballerini, the books will be commercially
distributed and as the volumes come out, they will available in
libraries and bookstores across the nation.
In a way, it will add to what others, like Franklin Murphy, have
contributed to the Italian department in the past, Ciavolella said,
adding that Murphy was a real lover of Italian studies and helped
the department get underway.
Because UCLA’s Italian department has the only Ph.D.
program west of the Mississippi, the project will only work to
strengthen the Italian studies program at UCLA, Ciavolella
said.
“To have a series like this means really to kick Italian
way ahead,” he said.