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Old Calabria

Norman Douglas

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Old Calabria | Norman Douglas

Old Calabria

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t each other. I was informed that no such plan had ever been drawn up; it was agreed that a map of this kind might be interesting, and suggested, furthermore, that I might undertake the task myself; the authorities would doubtless appreciate my labours. We foreigners, be it understood, have ample means and unlimited leisure, and like nothing better than doing unprofitable jobs of this kind. [Footnote: here is a map of old Taranto in Lasor a Varea (Savonarola) Universus terrarum etc., Vol. II, p. 552, and another in J. Blaev's Theatrum Civitatum (1663). He talks of the "rude houses" of this town.]

One is glad to leave the scintillating desert of this arsenal quarter, and enter the cool stone-paved streets of the other, which remind one somewhat of Malta. In the days of Salis-Marschlins this city possessed only 18,000 inhabitants, and "outdid even the customary Italian filth, being hardly passable on account of the excessive nastiness and stink." It is now scrupulously clean—so absurdly clean, that it has quite ceased to be picturesque. Not that its buildings are particularly attractive to me; none, that is, save the antique "Trinità" column of Doric gravity—sole survivor of Hellenic Taras, which looks wondrously out of place in its modern environment. One of the finest of these earlier monuments, the Orsini tower depicted in old prints of the place, has now been demolished.

Lovers of the baroque may visit the shrine of Saint Cataldo, a jovial nightmare in stone. And they who desire a literary pendant to this fantastic structure should read the life of the saint written by Morone in 1642. Like the shrine, it is the quintessence of insipid exuberance; there is something preposterous in its very title "Cataldiados," and whoever reads through those six books of Latin hexameters will arise from the perusal half-dazed. Somehow or other, it dislocates one's whole sense of terrestrial values to see a frowsy old mon

Davide Emanuele 07/17/2022
No eucalipti
Graychin 01/28/2021
You might mistake him in a photograph for a country vicar or dahlia fancier but he was no such creature. See him instead as a well-groomed satyr or an uncle of ill repute whose conduct shames the family but whose occasional letters, posted from exotic locales, you secretly cherish for the black glam
Gary 08/09/2020
Norman Douglas was a despicable guy in all too many ways. The appeal to this English reprobate of the Mediterranean world was partly that he could practice his passion for little boys without too much concern for the law. I didn't know this when I first read him -- and of course not a hint appears i
Jason 06/04/2014
Douglas' language was for me the best thing about the book, as well as some interestign observations about saints and peasants. It seems Calabria was a 3rd world country back then. No menntion however of Bruzzano, where my great-grandfather came from.
Mike 05/15/2014
This is not a particularly easy read. The book was published in 1915 and some of the language is not easy to follow. The author seems to enjoy obscure and unusual words. Some of them are perhaps of his own invention. Some of the chapters are a little tedious. He writes about trying to find a room ,
Phil 02/26/2008
This is a narrative of a Presbyterian Scotsman's journey, on foot, from the heel to the tip of the toe of Italy around the turn of the last century. Douglas is one of the best writers in English, ever. But lest you think this is some banal travel book you should remember the Mr. Douglas was not the

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