“In my heart, without my knowing it, a sincere voice has arisen.” This absent-minded admission by Giovanni Comisso, regarding that aura of lightness, that passionate attitude that characterizes all his narrative works, can now be read in Ungrateful Italy Written by Fiume (pp. 368, €22.00). The volume, well edited by Alessandro Gnocchi, continues the systematic reproposal of the works of the Treviso writer undertaken by the Ship of Theseus. It is an anthology that collects youthful texts, unpublished or rare, attributable to the Fiume experience, whose vicissitudes were celebrated in Port of lovepublished just a century ago by the Stamperia Vianello of Treviso at its own expense (Comisso, according to him, even lost his raincoat). The booklet, which has become a sought-after bibliographical rarity, recalls the Fiume raids stimulated by the consumption of alcohol and cocaine, by naturist practices and by erotic skirmishes, prepared with Guido Keller, D’Annunzio’s “action secretary” during the “Italian Regency”. of the Kvarner”. He was a daredevil aviator, involved in Francesco Baracca’s legendary squadron. He was immortalized in a photo that portrayed him naked in the guise of Neptune as he balanced himself, complete with flowing beard and trident, on a tiny rock emerging from the sea. With Keller, the only one who could afford to address the Pope with impunity, the writer created the magazine «Yoga», of which only four issues were published, on a weekly basis, between 13 November and 4 December 1920. The same Comisso, in a passage from My Seasons, recalls that experience: «So our movement was called Yoga and Keller added this formula: “Union of free spirits tending towards perfection”».
The full transcription of those four numbers can now be read in «Yoga». Subversives and revolutionaries with D’Annunzio in Fiume by Simonetta Bartolini, published in 2019 by Luni. The birth of the magazine occurred the day after the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo which, shortly thereafter, would lead to the resolution of the Fiume misadventure through the so-called “Bloody Christmas”.
The contributions welcomed in Ungrateful Italypreserved in the very rich Comisso Fund of the Civic Library of Treviso, still imbued with Nietzschean superomism, are divided into articulated sections, relevant to the original editorial context. The tone itself is quite varied: it passes from impressions of visionary ancestry, deriving from Rimbald’s “illuminations” or from the model of Orchestrine by Arturo Onofri, to more generic considerations of a political and moral nature where he does not disdain to give the panegyric of the perfect legionary. On the other hand, a slew of disciplines significantly preceded by the prefix “anti” were preached: anti-parliamentarism, anti-partyism, anti-imperialism, anti-Europeanism.
One of the most accomplished moments of the anthology concerns the inclusion of Metaphysical solsticewhich appeared posthumously in 1999, edited by Annalisa Colusso, for The Polygraph. This collection contains just under a hundred short prose, appropriately revised by the author, sometimes tending towards epiphanic ignition («Light as acrobats the naked men stood on the lawn») now towards a speculative dictation, with the evident intention of explore differentiated themes. Not infrequently the motifs concern the concept of metaphysical art, a topic of debate then in vogue in various magazines, including «Valori plastici». The articles written anonymously for «Yoga» are also welcomed (Comisso signed himself with a graphic symbol similar to a horizontal 8) in which the lyrical vein of the author from Treviso alternates with digressions of a sociological and political nature, even if these disciplines they are not very congenial to a storyteller of Comisso’s caliber.
An example is the definition of “ametaphysics”, i.e. “those who cannot remove their brains from their belly”. But there is no lack of attempts at exegetical insights, rather sui generis, regarding Giotto and his companion Filippo De Pisis (see, on a very different note, the My partnership with De Pisisprinted by Garzanti in 1954), without forgetting the tributes to the journalist Mino Somenzi in «La testa di ferro» and «L’ardito», sheets considered typical expressions of futurist Fiumanism and arditism.
In the dialogue «On the uncovered sculpture» Alpinolo Porcella, Giorgio de Chirico and De Pisis himself face each other, putting together a series of observations on classical art and metaphysical painting. It is no coincidence that the same sense of suspension present in the paintings of his friends also appears in certain dazed Comissian interludes: «I remain insensitive to looking at life as if it were an ancient print». The passages follow one another with the same naturalness of the man who walks “with an agile step and with eyes full of heaven”, despite here and there being affected by that formal disdain which, over time, will become one of the indisputable prerogatives of Commissian prose.
It is also presented here Legendary virtuea collection originally published by Rebellato in 1957, where the Poemsplaquette licensed by Stamperia Zoppelli in 1916, edited by his friend Arturo Martini. The latter, considered dangerous bohemian by his fellow citizens, he had built the atelier on top of one of Treviso’s medieval towers. The small volume, reproduced in a copy out of print in 1995 by Libreria Canova, features a woodcut by Martini himself reproducing the stylized profile of Comisso and about ten lyrics with a rather immature tone. The pamphlet became rare due to the parents who, ashamed of their filial involvement with the Muses, ensured that the copies circulating in the city disappeared, taking advantage of the absence of the writer, who was busy at the front as a telegraph officer, an experience later documented in Days of war.
Comisso reworked his compositions several times, often relegating them to different editorial contexts. Contini spoke in this regard of «the bibliographer’s desperation». We thus find fragments that persistently recur from one section to another, including some texts discarded from the aforementioned Legendary virtuefound in a folder in the Comisso Fund with the title «Abolished and unpublished». The volume ends with the diptych composed of the essay D’Annunzio a Fiume and the short pièce theatrical Ungrateful Italyset among the legionaries. Both contributions appeared in issue no. 21 of 1 November 1941 of the magazine «Primato».
Almost at the same time, Ronzani Editore reprints the now classic biography of Nico Naldini Life of Giovanni Comisso (pp. 456, €26.00), published in 1985 in the series of Einaudi’s “Essays” and re-proposed in 2002 by Ancora del Mediterraneo. Excellently edited by Francesco Zambon, Naldini’s work is based on the recovery of exemplary passages by Comisso put in relation with extracts from letters by De Pisis, acting as a glue between these two variables. The book contains a number of missing devices princeps einaudiana, including a cameo by Goffredo Fofi and a review by Goffredo Parise, which appeared in Corriere della Sera il 20 April 1985. The author of Syllabaries considers Comisso’s homoerotic impulses, investigated with rare empathy by Naldini, as bearers of a «pagan pansexuality, disobedient to every institutional religion and every obligatory ideology». An interview with Naldini carried out by Nicola De Cilia appears in the appendix in which he recalls the meeting and association with this heterodox maître à penser, whose original poetics contrasts with theengagement of cousin Pasolini. It was Comisso who got his young friend employed by Longanesi, a publisher who in the 1960s would prepare the complete work in 14 volumes, marked by obvious gaps, but also by unparalleled graphic expertise.
