The Novelle della Nonna are set precisely in the territory of the Casentino Forests. The Emma Perodi and the Casentino Forests Literary Park aims to enhance the inspiration behind this singular work. Since 2021 it has marked some important ‘stages’: in 2021, at Porciano Castle (municipality of Pratovecchio Stia) and at the Sanctuary of La Verna (municipality of Chiusi della Verna), and in 2022 at Farneta (municipality of Bibbiena), where Emma’s house stood.
The Park’s stages are events at the various sites, accompanied by permanent art installations: a ‘literary bench, a lectern and a totem’, wrought-iron works by the master craftsman Magni, each dedicated to a tale connected with the place; conferences, presentations of maps and publications produced by the literary park itself, coordinated by the Park’s scientific director, Alberta Piroci, and by the writer and journalist Paolo Ciampi; and moments accompanied by music in truly special places.
Throughout the year the events are complemented by intense research and study activity: meetings, conferences, film presentations, guided visits, nature excursions. Always with the aim of harmoniously combining art, literature and the natural environment.
The main settings in the area linked to literary associations are:
THE WHOLE OF THE FORESTE CASENTINESI, MONTE FALTERONA AND CAMPIGNA NATIONAL PARK
A large protected area in the Tuscan-Romagnol Apennines, comprising some of the most extensive and best-preserved woods and forests in Italy, guardian of a rich flora and of fauna of great interest, including the wolf and the golden eagle among the great predators, as well as several species of ungulates. The forests and the many natural environments frame the signs of man’s presence over thousands of years: villages, mule tracks and above all two sanctuaries of absolute fascination, Camaldoli and La Verna.
BIBBIENA
‘…Now it happened that Amabile, the fairest of the fair, was in the Piazzolina when the Pomo Bello was set alight. On that last evening of Carnival a young gentleman of the Dovizi house was mingling with the crowd … as soon as he saw Amabile he fell in love with her’ (from ‘La Fidanzata dello Scheletro’).
A medieval stronghold, the old core of Bibbiena stands on the top of a hill from which the Tarlati Tower rises. Among its monuments is the sixteenth-century Palazzo Dovizi, the family of Cardinal Bernardo, known as ‘il Bibbiena’ (1470–1520), secretary to Pope Leo X, diplomat and author of the comedy ‘La Calandria’, a mirror of Renaissance society. Among the illustrious sons who have linked their name to Bibbiena are the Galli, a family of theatrical set designers known throughout the world as the ‘Bibiena’.
CHIUSI DELLA VERNA
‘When the blessed Saint Francis died he left among his friars a certain Amalziabene, who came to La Verna drawn by the harshness of the place, where he felt he could devote himself to penance better than in Assisi’. (From ‘Il Teschio di Amalziabene’)
It stands at the foot of the ‘Crudo Sasso’ and preserves the ruins of the great castle (photo 2) of the Cattani family, who gave Monte della Verna to St Francis. Monte della Verna is one of the holiest places in Christendom and is inextricably linked to the story of Francis of Assisi, who here in September 1224 received from Christ ‘the last seal’ of the stigmata. Rich in natural beauty and works of art, for almost eight centuries it has been a centre of attraction and of radiation of the Franciscan message. As a whole, the sanctuary consists of a vast and complex group of buildings from different periods, which nonetheless has a distinctive unity of construction.
ORTIGNANO-RAGGIOLO
‘One day an old man with a white beard arrived at Montecornioli, dressed in a silk cappa magna and with a turban on his head; he rode a white mule and behind him came a covered cart drawn by a pair of oxen … around the cart rode five men armed with lances, who kept at a distance anyone who tried to approach’. ‘On Christmas night, when Turno had come out of the cave after committing the theft, a terrible scene took place in the beautiful underground hall of Montecornioli’ (from ‘Lo scettro del re Salomone e la corona della Regina di Saba’).
In the Casentino, between Bibbiena and Poppi, on the western bank of the Arno, in a crescendo of hills that quickly become mountains, a magnificently out-of-time valley opens before the visitor’s eyes: that of the Teggina. The intense green of the forests, the noisy river, the constellation of walled villages and scattered farmhouses, and the silence of places dominated by a kind of suspension of time produce a pervasive sense of peace.
From the village of Ortignano the road climbs towards the Pratomagno, the mountain that dominates the horizon with the grandeur of its boundless ridges and solitary woods. The old core of the village of Raggiolo, on the right of the main stream, is so compact, with house joined to house, that it clearly shows the medieval passage from the feudal castle of the Guidi, whose palace is now occupied by the Church of St Michael the Archangel, to the village.
POPPI
‘Many, many years ago the Pope was at war with the Emperor Frederick, and to cause him trouble the latter sent for a holy abbot of the monastery of Strumi, which belonged to the Vallombrosan order, named Giovanni Ungheri, and made him Pope under the name of Callistus III’ (from ‘La corona della Madonna’)
In 1200 Count Simone da Battifolle began the transformation of the castle keep into a noble town residence, and in 1261 he had the present circuit of walls built, with the five gates into the town, now reduced to four. Dante Alighieri stayed in Poppi Castle in 1307 and then in 1311, and tradition has it that it was at Poppi that the supreme poet composed Canto XXXIII of the Inferno. Walking along the walls that still largely surround the town, one notices that it was built in a singular ‘L’ shape, whose urban poles are, on one side, the castle of the Counts Guidi and, on the other, the Abbey of San Fedele.
CASTEL SAN NICCOLÒ
Strada, the main centre of the municipality, is dominated by the ancient castle of the Guidi, a ‘small manor’ of very elegant architectural form surrounded by an evocative medieval village. The main square of the village is occupied in part by the loggia built of local stone, which served ‘for the convenience of the markets’, by the ancient Castle of the Guidi and by the Clock Tower.
PRATOVECCHIO STIA
Romena Castle is a mighty fortress with Dantean and D’Annunzian associations. Dante, in exile, stayed within these walls and found poetic inspiration there for the Divine Comedy. Not even Gabriele D’Annunzio was immune to the charm of the place, and here he composed the third book of the Laudi, Alcyone. Stia occupies a characteristic position at the bottom of the valley, defined by the confluence of two rivers with still-clear waters: the Arno and the Staggia. The old road that crosses the ‘borgo’ marks out a wide open space, irregular in shape and incredibly harmonious, defined by the fine seventeenth- and eighteenth-century buildings that enclose it with their succession of porticoes.
To find out more
https://www.parchiletterari.com/ – Tuscany section – Emma Perodi. https://www.parchiletterari.com/parchi/emma-perodi-e-le-foreste-casentin...
For those who would like to know more about the writer, here is Emma Perodi’s bibliography:
- Cuoricino ben fatto, libro di lettura per le scuole e le famiglie, illustrations by Enrico Mazzanti, Florence, Felice Paggi, 1886, and later editions Florence, Roberto Bemporad e Figlio, 1891 and 1929.
- Nel canto del fuoco, l'omino di pasta, libro per la fanciullezza, illustrations by Enrico Mazzanti, Milan, Enrico Trevisini (Nuova biblioteca educativa ed istruttiva per le scuole; 115), 1887.
- Il Principe della Marsiliana, Milan, Fratelli Treves Editori, 1891. (Read on Wikisource)
- Cuore del popolo: Libro per l'adolescenza, illustrated by Adolfo Scarselli. – Florence: R. Paggi Edit., 1892 (Tip. Di Enrico Ariani).
- I bambini delle diverse nazioni a casa loro, with 31 vignettes specially drawn by Enrico Mazzanti, Florence, Roberto Bemporad e Figlio, 1890. (Read on Wikisource)
- Le novelle della nonna, fiabe fantastiche, Florence, Salani, 1893 (new edition under the title Fiabe fantastiche. Le novelle della nonna, Turin, Einaudi, 1974). (Read on Wikisource)
- Cento dame romane, Bontempelli, 1895
- Roma italiana. 1870-1895, Rome, Bontempelli, 1896. (Read on Wikisource)
- Ce-fu (dal diario di un marinaio italiano), illustrations by C. Casaltoli, Lanciano, R. Carabba, 1901.
