It seems odd thinking about literary prizes and awards at the moment, since awards conjure up images of presentations, speeches and joy. But many, many people have turned to reading for comfort and intellectual stimulation during the recurrent lockdowns. The giving and receiving of literary awards remains, as ever, important to readers and encouraging to authors. In Italy, despite a very difficult year, the major literary prizes were adjudicated and the following awards were made: Continue reading “Italian literary prizewinners 2020”
Category: Italian
Italian literary prizewinners for 2019-2020
With the awarding of the Bagutta prize for 2020 at the end of January, I was reminded of our annual focus on the major literary prizes of Italy. The Bagutta prize this year went to Enrico Deaglio for his work on the bombing in Piazza Fontana, Milan, in 1969. La Bomba : cinquant’anni di Piazza Fontana, published by Feltrinelli, was written to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the terrorist attack. It is now in the catalogue and stands at C215.c.8782.
Since our post last April, the other major Italian literary prizes have been awarded as follows: Continue reading “Italian literary prizewinners for 2019-2020”
Our hearts go out to the Venetians
In a just a few days, Venice has suffered three of the highest water levels in the last hundred years.The 187 cm peak on Tuesday was the highest level in more than 50 years, damaging monuments, shops and homes and more than 80% of the city was flooded. Italy declared a state of emergency and we saw pictures of historic sites under water.
Andrea Camilleri
We were saddened to hear of the death of Andrea Camilleri, aged 93, one of Italy’s best-loved authors. For so many readers he had brought Sicily to life, capturing the difficult social problems of the island with affection and humour.
In 2014 we posted on this blog a piece to celebrate his Montalbano series. Since then we have continued to acquire further works in the series, the most recent being: Continue reading “Andrea Camilleri”
Franco Zeffirelli (1923-2019)
We were sad to hear of the recent death of Franco Zeffirelli, one of the best known Italian directors and producers of film and opera of the 20th century. Hugely influential and iconic, he stood at the heart of Italian film for decades.
Born Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli, he was the illegitimate child of a fashion designer and Florentine wool and silk merchant. After the death of his mother when he was six, he was brought up by the English expatriate community in Florence, who took him under their wing – this part of his story was immortalised in his semi-autobiographical film Tea with Mussolini, set in the pre-war Florence of the “scorpioni” (the English community there, represented by the inspirational Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright) and in the Tuscany of the war years as war took hold. He enrolled to study art at the University of Florence, and when war broke out he joined the partisans, later acting as translator to the occupying British forces. After the war he turned towards the theatre, inspired by seeing Laurence Olivier in Henry V, and it was whilst working as a scenic painter that he met Luchino Visconti who was to have a profound influence on him. He worked in London and New York, designing and directing plays, and then turned to film, directing Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in The Taming of the Shrew. In 1968 he directed Romeo and Juliet – hugely popular and a massive box-office hit. From Shakespeare he moved on to other themes, directing such films as Brother Sun, Sister Moon, about St Francis of Assisi and St Clare, and the mini-series Jesus of Nazareth. Continue reading “Franco Zeffirelli (1923-2019)”
Italian literary prizewinners for 2018-19
We highlighted last autumn the winner of the prestigious Strega prize, one of the most important literary prizes awarded in Italy. It was won for the first time in 15 years by a woman – Helena Janeczek for her novel La ragazza con la Laica (C213.c.6240).
The other four major literary prizes that we focus on were awarded in the last 12 months as follows: Continue reading “Italian literary prizewinners for 2018-19”
Italian ebooks – an update
For several years now we have had in place a facility whereby readers can recommend Italian language ebooks – and in fact also English language ebooks published in Italy – through iDiscover.
The Torrossa platform operates rather differently to other ebook platforms we work with, in that we have added catalogue records for all of the platform’s ebook content to iDiscover, but the first user to be interested in accessing any given title has to make an explicit recommendation through the Torrossa site. This Patron Driven Acquisition scheme allows us to expose users of iDiscover to many potentially useful titles whilst only purchasing those for which there is ‘patron demand’. Continue reading “Italian ebooks – an update”
Biblioteca Italiana Zanichelli (“La BIZ”)
Electronic Collection Management
The BIZ (Biblioteca Italiana Zanichelli) is an online collection of over 1,000 texts of Italian literature, ranging from its origins to the early decades of the twentieth century.
Published by Casalini Libri, and available on its “Ubidictionary” platform, the BIZ includes the complete works of the major Italian writers, as well as those of many minor and obscure writers.
Additional multimedia and translation features are available when a personal account is created.
Access the collection via this link on or off campus:
https://ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/login?url=https://u.ubidictionary.com/dashboard/
or via the Cambridge LibGuides Databases A-Z. Please note that our subscription is limited to 3 simultaneous users, so when you have finished your session please log out. Thank you.
Strega prize 2018 – goes to a woman, for the first time in 15 years
In July the most prestigious of the Italian literary prizes was won by Helena Janeczek, for her work La ragazza con la Leica (C213.c.6240). Although many female authors have been nominated for the prize in the past, there has not been a female winner since Melania Mazzucco in 2003. La ragazza con la Leica is about Gerda Taro, a war photographer who died during the Spanish Civil war, and it had already won the Bagutta prize earlier this year. Continue reading “Strega prize 2018 – goes to a woman, for the first time in 15 years”
New electronic resources with a European connection
The ejournals@cambridge blog publicises trial access to and purchase of various databases and ejournals, and it is certainly a blog worth following. Several purchases over the last few months complement our European collections, so this post gives an overview. The subjects of these new resources span philology, politics, art history, theology, migration studies, history, and bibliography, and their contents are in English and various European languages.
Continue reading “New electronic resources with a European connection”
Languages across Borders 