Gino Moliterno. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture
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Further reading
Allum, P. (1997) ‘“From Two into One”: The Faces of the Italian Christian Democrat Party’, Party
Politics 3 (1): 23–52 (the postwar organization of clientelism in Naples and the Veneto).
Chubb, J. (1982) Patronage, Power and Poverty in Southern Italy, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press (on how state resources are used to recruit support).
Moss, D. (1995) ‘Patronage revisited: the dynamics of information and reputation’, Journal of
Modern Italian Studies 1 (1): 58–93 (re-examination of patronage in the light of evidence on
corruption).
Mutti, A. (1994) ‘Il particolarismo come risorsa: politica ed economia nello sviluppo abruzzese’
(Particularism as a Resource: Politics and Economy in the Development of the Abruzzi),
Rassegna italiana di sociologia 35 (4): 451–518 (the contribution of clientelism to development
in the Abruzzi).
Putnam, R. (1993) Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press (controversial analysis of the causes and consequences of clientelism
in different regions).
DAVID MOSS
Codice Rocco
From 1931, both Italy’s criminal code and the code of criminal procedure were those
drafted by Alfredo Rocco, Minister for Justice between 1925 and 1932 (hence reference
to the ‘Codice Rocco’ or ‘Rocco Code’, usually referring to the latter). While the code’s
pre-Fascist roots and technical sophistication were used after the fall of Fascism to
distinguish it from the regime (see also fascism and neo-fascism), its architect was a
leading authoritarian nationalist intellectual who became a prominent state technocrat,
and the Rocco code was undeniably repressive of associational and individual rights, not
least those of women. The code aimed above all to defend the state, and while major
amendments were made in 1944–5, it was also used to repress opposition in the new
democracy. Despite reform being pushed forward by the Constitutional Court from the
1960s, wholesale replacement was blocked in the 1970s by the terrorist crisis. The Rocco
code (of criminal procedure) was replaced in 1989 as part of the sharp conflict between
parts of the judiciary and the political class.
See also: legal system; police
MARK DONOVAN
coffee
Ever since the first coffee shop in Europe opened in Venice in 1615, Italians have written
and talked about coffee. Nevertheless, when compared to the rest of Europe, coffee
Entries A–Z 171
consumption in Italy during the nineteenth century was very low and was confined
mostly to the wealthy classes, who drank it in small cups. The only real Italian
contribution to coffee technology during this period was the ‘napoletana’, a reversible
drip-filter machine which, as its name implies, probably had its origins in Naples in the
middle of the eighteenth century and which remained a common way to make coffee in
Italy until the espresso revolution arrived.
Espresso was the great advance in coffee technology in the twentieth century, and it
came to be uniquely associated with Italy. When the first steam espresso machines
appeared in 1906, tall, impressive constructions with eagles, valves and spouts, they soon
became the centrepiece of Italian coffee shops. The machines themselves were expensive
and the clients were still aristocrats and wealthy businessmen who came for coffee and
liqueurs, a luxury to which the rest of the population could only aspire. As Italy
developed economically, however, more ordinary people were able to afford coffee and
so going to the ‘bar’—the Italian coffee shop sells alcohol as well as cakes and
sandwiches—became the norm. For many Italians, in fact, breakfast became simply a
coffee and brioche in a ‘bar’ on the way to work and the local bar might be visited several
times in one day, providing a social space equivalent to that of an English pub.
The first espresso coffee machines were not very efficient nor did they make a good
espresso coffee—the beans had to be burnt to give any flavour at all from the quick
brewing process—so the custom arose to add a little frothed milk or several sugars to
make a small but hot, delicious and strongly flavoured mixture. The Italian drinker was
thus forced to choose from the beginning between many variations of strength and
combinations with hot milk as, for example, ‘macchiato’ (spotted), which is espresso
coffee with only a spot of milk, or ‘cappuccino’, where the strong coffee is covered
(‘cappuccino’ is a small hat or hood) with a layer of hot frothy milk topped with a dash of
chocolate powder, ‘caffelatte’ (milk coffee), usually half coffee and half milk in a large
cup or glass, and a wide range of other variants, among them the so-called ‘caffe corretto’
where the coffee is ‘corrected’ by the addition of spirits and liqueurs. Thus over time, an
Italian’s preference for one coffee over another became as much an expression of
character and personal flair as the simple choice of a hot drink.
Foreigners visiting Italy were delighted with the coffee, which was very different to
the large cups of diluted coffee common elsewhere, and thus the international reputations
of Italians and their coffee grew. Italian espresso machines began to be exported all over
the world even before the Second World War. After the war, new machines with levers
and, later, with more efficient electric pumps which extracted even more flavour were
invented and developed in Italy and were again exported in large numbers to the rest of
the world, thus continuing to nurture the association between good, strong and delicious
coffee with Italy and Italian culture.
Further reading
Bersten, I. (1993) Coffee Floats, Tea Sinks: Through History and Technology to a Complete
Understanding, Roseville, NSW: Helian Books (a comprehensive international history).
IAN BERSTEN
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Colla, Ettore
b. 13 April 1896, Parma; d. 27 December 1968, Rome
Sculptor
After a long formation as a figurative artist, including a period on the Victor Emanuel
monument in Rome, Colla began to produce abstract sculpture in the early 1950s. Along
with Burri and Capogrossi, he was a founding member of Gruppo Origine (the Origin
Group), which favoured an expressive art without figuration or decorative elements. His
works were constructed from found materials, such as gear wheels, manhole covers, grills
and rusty pieces of metal. Colla disregarded their previous functions, looking instead to
their basic geometric forms and the aesthetic possibilities for their recombination. Genesi
(Genesis) (1955), with its stark surfaces and menacing spikes, looks like a diabolical
machine.
By the 1960s, Colla had an international reputation for his mechanical looking figures
such as the Dioscuri of 1961, and what have been termed his ‘immobilized machines’.
His work suggests that art can be created from what industrial society has thrown out, and
that expressive intent can transform even apparent junk into art.
See also: sculpture
MAX STAPLES
Colletti, Lucio
b. 8 December 1924, Rome
Philosopher
After studying with Galvano Della Volpe, Colletti came to teach philosophy at the
University of Rome, La Sapienza, where he remained for the rest of his career. Having
joined the PCI in 1949, he soon became part of the editorial committee of the party’s
cultural journal, Società. He officially left the party in 1964 but went on to publish a
number of major studies of Hegel and Marx, and of Marxism and ideology, which were
widely read and translated and which became extremely influential in leftist circles
during the 1970s, both in Italy and abroad. With the passing of time, however, his
political position gradually shifted towards the centre. In the 1980s he manifested strong
sympathies for Craxi’s PSI, and in the 1990s he was elected as a deputy for Forza Italia,
thereafter being regularly numbered among the ‘professors’ who formed Berlusconi’s
intellectual brigade.
Entries A–Z 173
Further reading
Colletti, L. (1974) ‘A Political and Philosophical Interview’, New Left Review, 86:3–28 (an indepth
interview in which Colletti traces his own history and discusses his place within Marxist
thought).
GINO MOLITERNO
Colli, Giorgio
b. 1918, Turin; d. 6 January 1979, Florence
Philosopher
Together with Mazzino Montinari, Giorgio Colli produced the definitive critical edition
of Friedrich Nietzsche’s complete works and correspondence. These volumes were
published simultaneously in Germany, France, Italy and Japan. Colli also produced
critical editions of Aristotle’s Organon and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, and a
compendium of ancient Greek thinkers. In addition to these accomplishments as an editor
and translator, Colli taught ancient philosophy at the University of Pisa from 1948
onwards, and wrote a number of original philosophical studies on the philosophy of
expression, Nietzsche, and the origins of the philosophical impulse in ancient Greece. He
opposed rationalism with a conception of philosophy that valorized the mysterious power
of thought, and that saw the relationship between politics and (intellectual) culture as one
of mutual dependency. Although he is indisputably a very important figure in Italian
intellectual life, there has been little serious discussion of his works since his premature
death.
Further reading
Colli, G. (1975) La nascita della filosofia (The Birth of Philosophy), Milan: Adelphi.
THOMAS KELSO
Colombo, Joe
b. 30 July 1930, Milan; d. 30 July 1971, Milan
Painter, sculptor and designer
Joe Colombo was among the most internationally celebrated Italian designers of the
1960s. He was known best for his futuristic items of furniture and interior designs, which
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came to epitomize the modern image of itself that Italy projected on to the rest of the
world in the middle of that decade.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Colombo was not trained as an architect in the
tradition of rationalism but as a painter and sculptor, and he practised as such from 1951–
5. He was allied to the Movimento Nucleare (Nuclear Movement), and to the movement
known as ‘concrete art’ (see arte concreta). His first experience of design came with a
scheme for the 10th Triennale of 1954, where he worked on three open-air rest areas
which contained benches and television sets. In 1956 he designed his first piece of
architecture, a condominium. These early projects were followed by a radical change of
direction in 1959 when he took over the family electrical equipment company and, in
1962, opened a design office in Milan.
artefacts, including furniture, lighting, pottery and From then on he worked on a range
of designed electrical appliances. Notable among them were his Acrilica lamp (O-luce,
1963), his Mini-kitchen (Boffi, 1963), his Roll chair (1962), his Elda armchair (1963) and
his Spider lamp (1965), all of which were stamped by the same rigorous approach which
derived from functionalist ideas. Colombo was deeply committed to the aesthetic of the
modern object being a rational result of the materials and production techniques
employed, in addition to the use to which it is to be put. His exercises in plastics reflect
this openly, resulting in classic designs such as his famous 1965 Chair 4860,
manufactured by Kartell, the main body of which was a single piece of injection-moulded
plastic. Not only did this break new ground technologically but it did so aesthetically as
well, since it introduced a luxurious image for plastic products which was linked to ideas
of ‘quality’ and ‘modernity’ rather than, as hitherto, with ‘cheapness’ and ‘nastiness’.
The bright primary colours and severe black and white used by Colombo in so many of
his designs reinforced their overtly synthetic appearance thus breaking any links with the
idea of ‘craft’ within Italian design of these years.
Colombo died prematurely at the peak of his career. His work has been exhibited and
published widely, both during his life and afterwards, notably at the ‘New Domestic
Landscape’ exhibition which was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in
1972. He retains the reputation of being one of the most innovative of his generation of
Italian designers.
See also: interior design
Further reading
Favata, I. (1988) Joe Colombo, Designer 1930–1971, Milan: Idea.
Hiesinger, K.B. and Marcus, G.H. (eds) (1983) Design Since 1945, Philadelphia: Philadelphia
Museum of Art.
Valota, M.P. (1971) ‘Joe C.Colombo’, Casabella 35 (358): 46–8.
PENNY SPARKE
Comencini, Cristina
Entries A–Z 175
b. 19 August 1956, Rome
Screenwriter, director and writer
Eldest daughter of veteran film-maker Luigi Comencini, Cristina originally graduated in
economics but soon came to work with renowned scriptwriter Suso Cecchi D’Amico,
thus refining her scriptwriting skills considerably. A gifted story-teller, Cristina later
worked as scriptwriter on her father’s productions of Cuore (Heart) (1984) from
Edmondo de Amicis’ novel, and La Storia (History) (1986), adapted from Elsa Morante.
After her first critically acclaimed features Zoo (1988) and I divertimenti della vita
privata (The Pleasures of Private Life) (1990), she attracted a larger audience in 1992
with La fine è nota (The End is Known), a daring adaptation of the eponymous novel by
G.Holiday Hall but, interestingly, placed within the context of Italian terrorism. After
also publishing a number of novels with Feltrinelli, she returned to feature film-making
in 1995 with an adaptation of Suzanna Tamaro’s bestselling novel, Va dove ti porta il
cuore (Follow your Heart), followed in 1998 by another film about intimate relations,
Matrimoni (Marriages), which starred Stefania Sandrelli and two of the most popular
younger actors of the 1990s, Diego Abatantuono and Francesca Neri.
ADRIANA MONTI
Comencini, Luigi
b. 8 June 1916, Salò
Film director
Comencini is best known for his prominent role in the establishment and development of
the commedia all’italiana (comedy Italian style), a genre inscribed in the aftermath of
neorealism and which, especially in the decade 1958–68, produced highly popular
comedies. As one of the pioneers in this new comic tradition, Comencini distinguished
himself through the combination of a realist concern for the postwar wasteland and a
humorous bias aimed at assuaging social problems with comic relief and entertainment.
Such is the recipe presiding over the ‘bread and love’ formula that the ‘poor but happy’
protagonists of Comencini’s Pane, amore e fantasia (Bread, Love, and Fantasy) (1953)
and its sequel Pane, amore e gelosia (Bread, Love, and Jealousy) (1954) successfully put
into practice. Comencini’s dedication to a cinema pairing social commitment and popular
entertainment is also illustrated by his adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème in
1988.
Further reading
Gili, J. (1981) Luigi Comencini, Paris: Edilig (a detailed study in French of Comencini’s film
production).
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Marcus, M. (1986) Italian Cinema in the Light of Neorealism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press (see ch. 5, ‘Comencini’s Bread, Love, and Fantasy: Consumable Realism’).
DOROTHÉE BONNIGAL
comics
Originating in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, comics first came to
Italy in 1908 through a Corriere della sera supplement for children, Corriere dei piccoli.
Over time they became a vehicle for expression and diffusion of the collective
imagination although, given the relatively poor organization of cultural production in
Italy, comics remained in an incubation phase up until the early 1960s.
Many Italian cartoonists drew for the Corriere dei piccoli, which achieved a daily
circulation of approximately 40,000. It carried translated versions of American classics,
stimulating a proliferation of imitations. These were usually individual panels with
captions written in rhyming couplets. The weekly L’Avventuroso (The Adventurer),
founded in 1934, aimed at a readership of teenagers and adults. With sales oscillating
between 300,000 to half a million copies, it offered readers stories from American
comics, which had developed sophisticated procedures of script writing. The subsequent
development of equivalent writing techniques in Italy during the 1930s and 1940s
allowed Italian authors of comics to popularize photography, cinema and especially
adventure stories and fantasy literature ranging from Salgari to Stevenson and from
Ariosto to Goethe. This happened under the constrictions of Fascist censorship, which
banned cultural importation from the USA and imposed a specific policy of prioritizing
written text over images. All of these developments occurred despite the negative role
played by schools, which had control of the popularization of literature. After the war,
comics were freed from these restrictive norms and became an integral part of urban
consumer culture. The Italian cultural industry, through the development of serialization,
catered increasingly for a public that fed on the collective imagination. Consequently,
production formulas were standardized and the public’s competence in the field was
developed and exploited.
Certain publishing ventures spearheaded the evolution of comics. One was connected
to the Disney world, and centred on Topolino (Mickey Mouse). Another concerned the
Bonelli publishing house, which exploited the western adventure genre through ever
wider offerings, sensitive to demands of the markets. The serials Tex Willer, Zagor, Il
comandante Mark (Commander Mark) and Il piccolo Ranger (The Little Ranger), in
which the basic structure of the western genre was supplemented by elements from
fantasy, horror, detective and science fiction, humour and magic, were followed in time
by many other serials which emphasized one or another of these different elements.
Examples include Ken Parker, a highly sophisticated version of Wild West colonization;
Martin Mystere, an experiment in archaeological science fiction; and Dylan Dog, a horror
detective fiction. Another leading role was provided by the periodicals with very high
circulations aimed at adolescents: Il Giornalino and Vitt, under Catholic auspices, were
distributed in schools and parishes as well as through newsagents. They offered, along
Entries A–Z 177
with a generally mediocre range of adventure stories, works of great authors like Hugo
Pratt and Massimo Mattioli (who later was published also in avantgarde magazines such
as Corto Maltese and Frigidaire). Having to adapt to necessarily rigid content rules,
these cartoonists experimented with original and sophisticated graphics. Less rigid were
the weekly L’intrepido (The Intrepid) and Il monello (The Rascal) which appeared in the
1950s and were followed by Lancio Story and Skorpio in the 1970s. Along with comics
based on scenarios incorporating romantic adventure, realism and melodrama, these also
published articles on topical subjects from show business to sports and society news.
The American superheroes also had great editorial success including the DC Comics
classics, Batman and Superman and the more ‘human’ heroes of Marvel Comics who had
to face the superproblems of everyday life. However, the most interesting phenomenon in
the history of Italian comics was the sudden appearance on the scene of the fumetto nero
(crime comics) in the early 1960s. This genre imposed itself strongly on the market. It
had a profound influence not only on the comic book world but also on society through
its violent critique of middle-class myths, taboos and values. As a genre, it was well in
tune with the tendency to question everything which characterized many cultural
manifestations of that period. The first fumetto nero was Diabolik, which appeared in
1962. It was based on the adventures of a sort of antihero of the same name who, unlike
the American superheroes, was a violent and vengeful criminal, always triumphing and
never getting caught. His actions were a statement of self-affirmation and antisocial
individualism in the face of the hypocrisy of middle-class false morality and
repectability. Kriminal and Satanik, which appeared in 1964, were modelled on Diabolik
but tended to be more extreme, with new and more shocking elements. They adopted an
expressionistic drawing style bordering on caricature, with audacious close-ups and faster
paced narrative. The dialogue was drier, vulgar and often truculent. These fumetti
introduced a powerful erotic and sadistic content along with horror and magical moods.
Within a short time, newsagents’ stalls were filled with crime comics utilizing the
basic formula and emphasizing one or another element. They were published on cheap
paper, often poorly inked and drawn, by small-time editors who wanted to get a foothold
in the new and promising market niche. The whole phenomenon was spontaneous and
responded to the public’s expectations and changes in taste. The pornographic line was
particularly successful and explored all perversions parodying all literary genres. Both
fictitious characters and real personages appeared in these magazines, which interpreted
the collective imagination from a purely pornographic perspective. The reader was
presented with a total disregard for social inhibitions and taboos, as the fumetto nero left
behind the passive conformism of traditional comics and made a frontal attack on every
principle of authority. However, the spontaneity of the crime comic was also the cause of
its early decay and disappearance for, apart from the tendency of the general readership
to accept rather than question social norms, minor editors could not compete with larger
publishing houses which were offering more standardized products. By the end of the
1970s Diabolik was the only one still surviving. Its original formula, which once seemed
so shockingly extreme, proved able to weather the ups and downs of the market.
It was in the scene set by the fumetto nero that the fumetto d’autore (auteur comics)
found a favourable ground for development. The middle 1960s also saw the appearance
of the specialized periodicals which upgraded comics and promoted theoretical studies on
the cultural industry. These gave legitimacy to the authors’ professional work, published
Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 178
old and new foreign cartoonists, and welcomed Italian authors who would not have being
given space in large and standardized editorial enterprises. The first of these were Linus
and Eureka, and they were followed in time by many others: Sgt. Kirk, where Hugo Pratt
published the cult comic ‘Corto Maltese’; Horror, the sophisticated Sorry, Il Mago;
Cannibale; Frigidaire; Corto Maltese; and Comic Art. Among Italian authors, Vittorio
Giardino, Milo Manara, Attilio Micheluzzi, Andrea Pazienza and Sergio Toppi were
published.
In the 1980s and 1990s, a major change in the distribution of comics occurred with the
appearance of specialized shops which abetted the passage of the medium from a mass
readership to a more selective one. Competition from television and the spread of video
games combining the imagery of electronics and genetics led to a crisis in the sales of
comics, but also provided a stimulus for a renewal of the medium’s language. The
monthly Cyborg and the Bonelli series Nathan Never, both focusing on technological
science fiction and cyberpunk imagery, were an answer to that crisis.
Further reading
Brancato, S. (1994) Fumetti. Guida ai comics nel sistema dei media (Comics: A Guide to Comics
in the Media System), Rome: Datanews (a clear and well-informed treatment of the relationship
between Italian comics and other media).
Frezza, G. (1989) ‘Il fumetto’ (Comics), in A.Asor Rosa (ed.), Letteratura italiana. Storia e
Geografia (Italian Literature: History and Geography), Turin: Einaudi, 1244–68 (a short history
of Italian comics with critical comment on major authors).
FRANCO MANAI
commedia all’ltaliana
Although Italian popular cinema probably became better known abroad in the guise of
more spectacular genres such as the spaghetti western or the mythological sword and
sandal epic, in Italy itself the most prolific, popular and characteristic genre of the
postwar period was that which became known as commedia all’italiana, or comedy
Italian style.
Generally regarded as first making its full appearance in 1958 with Mario Monicelli’s
I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street), the new comedy’s roots lay, at least in part,
in the more traditional theatrical forms of the variety theatre and stage review. It also re-
elaborated many elements of earlier Italian film comedy such as the films of Totò and the
‘pink neorealist’ films of the immediate postwar years, but adopting a much darker and
more cynical attitude which completely undermined the fundamental optimism of these
earlier comedies. Flourishing mainly during the ‘golden age’ of Italian cinema
(approximately 1958–68), which itself developed in parallel with the so-called economic
miracle, it was essentially a form of ‘tragicomedy bordering on the grotesque’, which,
with its laughter always tinged with a sense of desperation, brought to the surface all the
Entries A–Z 179
painful contradictions and the undercurrent of social malaise of a culture undergoing
rapid transformation (Bondanella, 1983:145).
The genre thus accurately reflected Italy’s profound social and cultural changes while
at the same time fiercely satirizing the pretensions of the ‘new Italian’, a character type
explored in all its possible variations in the many, but essentially similar, characters
played by the four actors who most came to exemplify this sort of comedy: Alberto
Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi and Nino Manfredi. The most frequent themes
of these bittersweet farces were the very obsessions and concerns which were agitating
the new Italy: greater sexual freedom (see sexual mores), a scramble for status through
its new symbols such as cars and expensive holidays, and the greater selfishness and
individualism promoted by increased affluence. With films such as Divorzio all’italiana
(Divorce Italian Style) (1961) and Sedotta e abbandonata (Seduced and Abandoned)
(1964) Pietro Germi also developed a southern version of the genre which hilariously
exposed the dark underside of traditional notions of male honour and the proper place of
women, themes that would also be taken up by one of the few female practitioners of the
genre, Lina Wertmüller, in many of her films featuring Giancarlo Giannini and
Mariangela Melato.
The overwhelming success of the genre is generally credited not only to its reflection
of contemporary society but also to the combined talents of a number of scriptwriters,
actors and directors who often worked together during this period. Foremost among the
scriptwriters were Age and Scarpelli, Rodolfo Sonego, Ruggero Maccari, Stefano
Vanzina (Steno) and Ettore Scola, who also came to feature alongside Monicelli, Dino
Risi, Luigi Comencini and Alberto Lattuada as one of the main directors of the genre.
After contributing to numerous comedies Italian-style in the 1960s, it was Scola who,
with C’eravamo tanto amati (We All Loved Each Other So Much) (1973), not only
summed up the previous twenty years of Italian social history but also created the last
great masterpiece and effective swansong of the genre.
Further reading
Bondanella, P. (1983) Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present, New York: Ungar (see all
of ch. 5, ‘A Decisive Decade: Commedia all’italiana, Neorealism’s Legacy, and a New
Generation’).
Giacovelli, E. (1995) La commedia all’italiana. La storia, i luoghi, gli autori, gli attori, i film
(Comedy Italian Style: Its History, Settings, Authors, Actors, Films), Rome: Gremese (an
indispensable tool for understanding the genre in all its aspects, with a detailed history plus
appendices on all the major directors, scriptwriters and actors).
GINO MOLITERNO
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