POLITICAL PARROTS – MOCKING IL MONITORE
[CARDUCCI, Giosuè, Olindo GUERRINI, et al., editors.]
Il Matto. Anno I – Num. 1 [– Num. 13; all published].
Bologna, 19 April [– 29 June] 1874.
Thirteen numbers bound in one vol., folio, each number pp. [4]; uniformly browned with a few spots, a few small marginal tears and repairs; in contemporary pebble-grained cloth, front board lettered directly in gilt; boards somewhat scuffed, front hinge repaired with adhesive tape; ink gift inscription ‘All’ carissimo amico Gaetano Frascari ricordo [?]M/ Capelli Luigi’ dated October 1922 and old manuscript note (in another hand) to front free endpaper, old ink stamp ‘Luigi Capelli, Barbiere … Bologna’ to rear free endpaper.
Very rare complete run of this short-lived satirical magazine against the pro-government newspaper Il Monitore, produced by a group of young liberals from Bologna including the poets Giosuè Carducci and Olindo Guerrini.
Il Matto attacks the main local Bolognese newspaper and government mouthpiece Il Monitore and its offshoot Il Piccolo Monitore, with personal attacks on its director Franco Mistrali (1833–1880), an anti-liberal former officer of the Habsburg Navy who continued his publicist activity whilst serving a prison sentence for bankruptcy. The final issue of Il Matto, published on 29 June 1874, triumphantly announces that authorities had finally banned Mistrali from writing while in prison.
Il Matto’s thirteen issues include humorous plays and sonnets, dialogues, despatches from abroad, mock-advertisements, and announcements, largely deriding Mistrali, contributors to Il Monitore (targeting with a particular vehemence one Guglielmo Godio), and readers thereof, written under such pseudonyms as Trick, Buffalmacco, Uncle Toby, and Gonnella. In response to one error-riddled letter to the editor by a proponent of Il Monitore accusing Il Matto of plagiarism, ‘Gramadock’ replies that this is impossible, as his doctor has expressly forbidden him from reading rubbish; another article critiques a Bolognese professor’s grammatically dubious advertisement claiming to teach English in one week, suggesting that he perhaps learn Italian first, and issue 11 contains satirical Gospel according to Il Matto: ‘In the beginning was Il Monitore, and it had ten associates, a circulation of one hundred copies, and was owned by G. Vicini. The owner called the Fish-Man [Mistrali] … many believed in the Fish-Man and fed themselves on his lies, and drank his nonsense …’ (trans.).
The present set, bound with the satirical cover-title ‘Opera santa’ on the front board to disguise the controversial material within, was presented by the barber Luigi Capelli to the socialist Bolognese typographer Gaetano Frascari (b. 1872) in October 1822; beneath the inscription is a note reporting that, in the three months of Il Matto’s circulation, notices were posted in the streets of Bologna reading ‘Reward: anyone who finds a parrot which responds to the name of Guglielmo Godio is kindly requested to bring it to the prison of S. Giovanni in Monte’ (trans.).
No copies of any part traced outside Italy; not in OCLC or Library Hub.
