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Osteria

Giuseppe Antonio Borgese

Book review of Osteria Guida Spirituale from 1910.

English Translation

Doctor Hans Barth has written a curious book: Osteria, a spiritual guide to the Italian taverns from Verona to Capri; and now, translated from the German, it claims the attention of our readers, not least thanks to the savoury and facetious preface which Gabriele d’Annunzio has set before it. These pages are among the finest d’Annunzio has ever written, because they are free from that involuntary and ruinous contrast between a form sumptuously robed and the meagre substance of the mediocre things being said — the contrast that makes so much of d’Annunzio’s prose hard to endure.

Here the contrast is not involuntary, but artistically felt and put to use, so that from the scrollwork of that style, laden with baroque dignity and learned reminiscence, there spurts a vein of frank laughter, as from an elaborate mythological fountain there issues a thread of water, ringing and crystalline. The aquatic metaphor also suits this vinous book: all the more so because Gabriele d’Annunzio, celebrant of the orgy and namer of blond and vermilion nectars, proclaims himself a drinker of pure water. “The abstainer, born intoxicated” — so he writes in the prefatory epistle to Hans Barth — “the abstainer born intoxicated, honours in you the drunkard adorned with all letters, like Cardinal Bembo 1Pietro Bembo was a Venetian cardinal, humanist, and major figure in the codification of literary Italian. in the Venetian inscription and like the scholar Martin Luther in old Isenach 2Borgese prints “Isenach”; Eisenach is the Thuringian town associated with Martin Luther, who studied there as a boy and later lived at the nearby Wartburg. of the Landgraves 3The “Langravii” are the landgraves, the German territorial princes historically associated with Thuringia and the Wartburg..” And he describes a memorable drunken bout by Cesare Pascarella 4Cesare Pascarella was a Roman poet and painter, best known for verse in Roman dialect., and quotes Albius Tibullus 5Albius Tibullus was a Roman elegiac poet of the first century BC., and drags in Leo XIII 6Pope Leo XIII was pope from 1878 to 1903., panegyrist of d’Annunzian art, and boasts that “with The Daughter of Iorio 7La figlia di Iorio is a tragedy by Gabriele d’Annunzio, first performed in 1904. Preserve Borgese’s printed form “Figlia di Jorio” in the Italian text. and with The Ship 8La Nave is a tragedy by Gabriele d’Annunzio, first performed in 1908. he created Catholic tragedy and celebrated, in the catastrophe of each, the Triumph of the Faith, like a pious tragedian play-acting with licence from his Superiors 9Literally “with licence from the Superiors”; a mock-ecclesiastical formula evoking formal Catholic permission or approval.”; all this with such a mixture of innocence and cunning, of childish good nature and humanistic verbal luxury, as to move the reader to a smile quite different from that of someone who sarcastically detects a clash between formal ambition and inner emptiness: to a smile, in short, of cordial aesthetic pleasure.

Notes

  1. Cardinal Bembo. Pietro Bembo was a Venetian cardinal, humanist, and major figure in the codification of literary Italian. ↩
  2. Old Isenach. Borgese prints “Isenach”; Eisenach is the Thuringian town associated with Martin Luther, who studied there as a boy and later lived at the nearby Wartburg. ↩
  3. Landgraves. The “Langravii” are the landgraves, the German territorial princes historically associated with Thuringia and the Wartburg. ↩
  4. Cesare Pascarella. Cesare Pascarella was a Roman poet and painter, best known for verse in Roman dialect. ↩
  5. Albius Tibullus. Albius Tibullus was a Roman elegiac poet of the first century BC. ↩
  6. Leo XIII. Pope Leo XIII was pope from 1878 to 1903. ↩
  7. The Daughter of Iorio. La figlia di Iorio is a tragedy by Gabriele d’Annunzio, first performed in 1904. Preserve Borgese’s printed form “Figlia di Jorio” in the Italian text. ↩
  8. The Ship. La Nave is a tragedy by Gabriele d’Annunzio, first performed in 1908. ↩
  9. Licence from his Superiors. Literally “with licence from the Superiors”; a mock-ecclesiastical formula evoking formal Catholic permission or approval. ↩
Show Italian original

Italian Text

Il dottor Hans Barth ha scritto un bizzarro libro: Osteria, guida spirituale delle osterie italiane da Verona a Capri; che, tradotto ora dal tedesco, chiede l’attenzione dei lettori nostri, anche in grazia della sapida e faceta prefazione che Gabriele d’Annunzio gli ha premessa. Pagine queste fra le più belle che il d’Annunzio abbia mai scritte, perché immuni da quell’involontario e rovinoso contrasto fra la forma doviziosamente paludata e la scarna sostanza delle mediocri cose dette, che rende grave a tollerarsi tanta parte della prosa dannunziana. Qui il contrasto non è involontario, ma artisticamente sentito e utilizzato perché dalle volute di quello stile tutto carico di barocca dignità e di reminiscenze erudite zampilli una vena di schietto riso, come da una macchinosa fontana mitologica sgorga un filo d’acqua sonante e cristallina. La metafora aquatica vale anche per questo libro vinoso: tanto più che Gabriele d’Annunzio, celebratore dell’orgia e nomenclatore di nettari biondi e vermigli, si proclama bevitore d’acqua pura. “L’astemio, nato ebro — così scrive egli nella epistola prefatoria ad Hans Barth — l’astemio nato ebro, onora in voi il beone ornato di tutte lettere come il cardinale Bembo nell’iscrizione veneziana e come lo scolare Martin Lutero nella vecchia Isenach dei Langravii”. E descrive una memorabile ubbria­catura di Cesare Pascarella, e cita Albio Tibullo, e tira in ballo Leone XIII, laudatore dell’arte dannunziana, e si vanta d’avere “con la Figlia di Jorio e con la Nave creato la tragedia cattolica e celebrato nell’una e nell’altra catastrofe il Trionfo della Fede come un pio tragedo tragediante con licenza dei Superiori”; tutto questo con un tal misto d’ingenuità e di furberia, di fanciullesca bonarietà e di umanistico lusso verbale da muovere il lettore a un sorriso, ben diverso da quello di chi sarcasticamente colga un dissidio fra l’ambizione formale e il vuoto interno: a un sorriso, insomma, di cordiale compiacimento estetico.