The disaster isn't over yet

[fpb]

The centre of the still-smouldering Italian earthquake is just in the area of my ancestral roots. It covers Ferrara, where my grandfather was born; Cento, the native town of Giovanni Francesco "Guercino" Barbieri, the painter; San Giovanni in Persiceto, where St.Clelia Barbieri lived and died; Modena, where Giovanni Maria Barbieri, the founder of Romance philology, was born, worked, and died. They are a distinguished clan, and I am proud of them and of their country; and it breaks my heart to watch it being shaken to pieces.

Comments

[arujei.livejournal.com]

My prayers for the land of your forefathers, and any of your friends and relatives affected.

I will pray for your people.

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

Reading about quakes depresses me. I trust that zoning and construction techniques are advance enough in that area that the toll in dead and injured will be minimized.

 "Romance philology"!

What wonderful phrase! I'll have to look up this particular Barbieri.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid it's not quite as romantic as it sounds - although Giovanni Maria's career does have a romantic side, since he preserved hundreds of mediaeval poems that might have been lost without him. Romance philology is the study of languages that derive from Latin; Giovanni Maria Barbieri was the first scholar to turn his attention from Latin, Greek and Hebrew to the languages of the Middle Ages and their relations with Latin and modern languages.

Unfortunately, not only are less buildings built with an eye to earthquakes than you would expect - the area is not regarded as very seismic - but there is an enormous amount, even for Italy, of monuments and historical buildings, many of which have taken heart-breaking hits.

YOU do remember the OTHER Fabio ?

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I 'm aware of the linguistic meaning of 'Romance'.

Just got this irresistible mental image of a ruggedly handsome philologist sweeping a bodice-heaving maiden into his arms.

Re: YOU do remember the OTHER Fabio ?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

He did live in an intensely dramatic age...