Ho finalmente risposto. Non ho affrontato il tema, ma ho indugiato a cercare le risposte degli altri. Il post che ne è venuto fuori è gattostancamente svampito (ma in rete un link resta pur sempre un link) ed è ripiegato su coloro che hanno accolto il tuo meme (sperando di non aver tralasciato qualcuno): mi sono divertito di più così che non dilungandomi su qualche figura matusalemmica (tra l’altro non sarei riuscito mai a identificare il mio personaggio storico “preferito” -anche se ho letto da Stefan che la blogcatena ha subito un cambiamento in questa definizione in uno dei passaggi precedenti-).

Historical Meme: Seven Things about Richard Carrington

Cheers, Stefan

Cheers,
T.

your request obliges me, and I think I will try to satisfy it. Indeed, it is one of the purposes of this blog to keep a record for myself, not just to broadcast. If I can then kill two birds with one stone, then even better. I have many things I would like to write about that concern my father’s work and life. However these things require some inspiration, and so I think you have to be patient, archaeological excavations are slow.

Cheers,
T.

Like Tony, the chances of reading any of the publications by your father are slim. This would be a nice opportunity to request some periodical articles from yourself collaborating with your father’s works about the city of Venice. Maybe a short paragraph or so with graphics by your father and some relative comments from yourself would be grand. Most of us are not very intimate with the place where you grew up and now reside. After all, what do we know, Saint Mark’s Square, some bridges, museums and art, the film festival, something to do in the past with the spice trade from the middle east, the city is sinking, and the gondoliers? I have some recollections from my visits there as a youth but they are growing fainter. I do remember not liking the darkness inside one of the cathedrals. We know you are consumed with many things but this would allow your father to give us a few of his insights.

Thank you, Fred

Thank you Sergio for this comment, which I find useful to translate here:

I find that the “seven facts” on your father you wrote should at least have been eight. The two volumes on the origins of Venice (“Venezia Origini. Fondamenti, ipotesi, metodi” [Origins of Venice. Foundations, hypotheses, methods”, Electa Editrice, Milan 1983) are in my opinion a fundamental work on the matter, a work to which all those who later dealt with the history of Venice had to refer to. I think it is also an important work to understand how the italian university system works. Wladimiro was, for his formation and his interests, a studious of antiquity, expert of the period of the fall of the roman empire. In the two volumes I cited he dealt with all the problems related to the origin of Venice (historical, geographical, archeological, urbanistic, climatologic) and he thus “invaded” terrain that university professors of history, geography, archaeology, etc. consider private property. He so provoked reactions of rejection absolutely disproportionate and incoherent (I could cite several of them, even funny ones, but let’s avoid that). Moreover, while almost the totality of books on the origins of Venice is based on reading bibliographies and studies of sources, Wladimiro operated a non trivial search in the field (in the Venice lagoon and in the city): another thing that italian academics never do (if they are historians) or do not allow others to do (if they are archaeologists). Because of that, I believe “Venezia origini” cannot be forgotten when one speaks of Wladimiro Dorigo.

Yes, not the usual easy way to do away with a post. This one requires some research – unless one has just read a biography. The best of luck to all of you who wish to participate…

Cheers,
T.

no, not that much fiction in my family…
About titles available in the US, admittedly very few. Only one major title was translated (by Praeger: Late Roman Painting”). I know the Library of Congress has a few more of his books. But many are not easy to find – usually the copies printed were too few; even the last book, Venezia Romanica, only printed about 3000 copies, and is now practically exhausted.

However one thing might interest you: my father was a catholic in his young years, and he directed a political magazine, Questitalia, for ten years (1960-1970, when it had to be closed for economical problems). In Questitalia he discussed italian politics and high culture, and he was very knowledgeable on theological issues, on which he used to write and argue against vatican “luminaries”.

Cheers,
T.

Best, Stefan

Did your father’s book, or other works, say much about the symbolism of the geometry of the San Marco mosaics and the tessellated floor?

Tony Smith