The history of Cagliari goes back thousands of years. It is a fascinating story, "written" by peoples, great personalities, memorable events. Like many other historical events, even that of the city of Cagliari is largely neglected, little known even by those who were born and live in the capital.
Maurizio Corona, a true Cagliari-born and passionate historian - to be clear, one of those who don't just stop at the well-known or readily available in books - leads us by the hand to discover a city whose past is too often overlooked. He does it in an original way, in the first person and with the support of ten happy-writing storytellers.
Thus was born the volume "The days of Cagliari" (Akademeia, 2021, pp. 258), in which through the texts and the very rich iconographic apparatus we discover the days that made the history of the capital of Sardinia. The days of Cagliari , introduced by a beautiful preface by Beppe Severgnini, is, in fact, a wise selection of the infinite events that have given shape to the city and character to its inhabitants . It is a book that preserves and reveals the memory of a city that lives in the enchantment of light. white of the Mediterranean.
Precisely because of the fascination that the volume emanates when leafing through its pages full of images, we asked Maurizio Corona to tell us how the idea for a book of this type was born:
“A few years ago the Laterza publisher had launched a series of titles dedicated to the historic days of Milan, Rome, Genoa and Florence. The idea behind the volumes was to tell the history of the cities not in a traditional and chronological way, but by entrusting the story to historians and popularizers who had to focus their narration on the crucial dates, the unforgettable ones. So I thought of doing the same for Cagliari, but adding my intuition to the initial idea ”.
Which?
“The need to have a book that is not only well written, but highly illustrated. In fact, I am convinced that images have a peculiar ability to attract people and make them enter the heart of historical events. Sometimes, in Italy it is a neglected fact, we only focus on words when we want to make culture unlike what happens in the Anglo-Saxon world and in France where everything visual is widely used and valued ".
But what are the peculiarities of the days of Cagliari compared to those of other large Italian cities?
“Meanwhile Cagliari does not have dozens of important dates linked to political and military events as happens for Rome. In my choice I therefore widened the range of action to include events related to sport, music, costume. Among the days recalled in the book we therefore find April 12, 1970 with the conquest of the Scudetto by Gigi Riva's Cagliari, an event narrated by the brilliant pen of Giorgio Porrà. Then there are the dates of the last concerts by Carlos Kleiber, held from 24 to 26 February 1999 and narrated by Maria Paola Masala. But there are more ancient days such as the presence in the Cagliari area of Julius Caesar between 15 and 26 June 46 BC, as Paola Ruggeri tells us in the volume.
Did you make any unexpected discoveries in your research work for the book?
“I have made so many discoveries, so many that I cannot put them in one volume. For example, I learned that in July 1270 the King of France Louis IX, Louis the Saint, had to submit to the prohibition of Cagliari's citizens from entering the port of Cagliari. In fact, he traveled on Genoese ships and at that time our city was controlled by the Pisans, bitter enemies of Genoa.
And a few days in Cagliari to which you are particularly attached?
“On 12 and 13 June 1535, the days in which the Emperor Charles V was present in Cagliari on his journey to Tunis, during the crusade undertaken against the Ottoman Turks who aimed to control the whole Mediterranean with their ships. In those days, which I liked to tell personally, Cagliari was the center of the world, the place where all the military aristocracy of the time gathered to challenge the Turks. It is a historical event, but also linked to my personal story ”.
Tell us about it ...
“Years ago in Amsterdam I came across an old book dedicated to the Flemish artist Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, who was Charles V's court painter for years. In the book there was an image of a seaside town manned by a large fleet. I did some research and learned that it was the Christian fleet in front of Cagliari, reproduced in a mural painted by Giulio de Aquili and Alexander Mayner on behalf of Luis Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Mondéjar, who participated in the expedition against Tunis. The two artists painted eight large frescoes on the crusade of Charles V in the antechamber of the Mirador de la Reina in Granada (now known as Peinador de la Reina) with the help of Vermeyen's advice. In the fresco you can see an unpublished image of Cagliari in the sixteenth century with its towers rising above the sea.
Earlier he mentioned other days in Cagliari that have not found a place in this volume. Are they destined to return to oblivion?
"I really do not think so. The will is to tell them in a second volume, I hope soon! ".