L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano W h e n e v e r m y s e c - r e t a r y A n t o n i o p e s t e r s me for another collection of satires, I reply: "Beware, my son. Of the making of books t h e r e i s n o e n d . " I f t h i s s e e m s j a d e d , i t i s o n l y because I have witnessed so m u c h b a l l y h o o a n d c h i - canery. Forget about Maece- n a s a n d H o r a c e ' s S a b i n e farm. Literature in Rome has been a racket for twenty- one centuries. U n t i l t h e e n d o f t h e R e p u b l i c , a u t h o r s m a d e copies of their works in their own or a patron's home and circulated the manuscript a m o n g f r i e n d s . T h e n , a t Julius Caesar's behest, the banker Atticus converted his private studio into a public factory to grind out copies of C i c e r o ' s s p e e c h e s f o r t h e S t a t e L i b r a r y . C a e s a r , i n r e t u r n , p r o v i d e d A t t i c u s with rich clients: parvenus w h o c u r r i e d f a v o r a n d s o u g h t r e s p e c t a b i l i t y b y appearing well-read. Book shops soon multi- plied on the Vicus Tuscus, a commercial street running southwest out of the Forum between the Basilica Julia and the Temple of Castor and Pollux. This busy strip also included incense and perfume dealers, which may explain why Rome's early publishing houses cultivated the sweet smell of success. The most profitable, located n e a r t h e s t a t u e o f Vertumnus, the Etruscan god of changing seasons and financial exchange, belonged to the Sosius brothers, two wily freedmen whose list of authors included Horace. T h e S o s i i , H o r a c e j o k e d , pumiced his manuscripts until they were smooth as a rent boy's ass. These book merchants (librarii), who assembled and trained teams of expert slaves, sold their wares at the highest prices. However, although literature was a status symbol, an author's o r i g i n a l w o r k w a s d r e c k . U n k n o w n w r i t e r s p a i d through the nose for copy- ists to fill their orders, but even the most famous writ- ers could not sell their man- uscripts to firms that conde- scended to reproduce and distribute them. Worse, book merchants were exempt from paying authors. No copyright exist- ed. According to Roman law, writing fell under the rule of superficies solo cedit. A tree belonging to one person, if p l a n t e d i n t h e g r o u n d o f another person, belonged to the owner of the property as s o o n a s i t t o o k r o o t . Likewise, if someone wrote o n a n o t h e r ' s p a p y r u s o r parchment, the material was considered property, so the w r i t i n g b e l o n g e d t o t h e o w n e r o f t h e p a p y r u s o r parchment. T h i s l o o p h o l e a l l o w e d publishers to grow fat while writers starved. "My book," M a r t i a l d e c l a r e d , " i s thumbed amid Getic frosts, near martial standards, by t h e s t e r n c e n t u r i o n ; a n d even Britain sings my verses. But what advantage is it to me? My purse benefits noth- ing by my reputation." To escape the demands of the librarii or to force their hand, authors gave readings, but venues often were bad. Juvenal was stuck with "a peeling dump of a hall in the s u b u r b s , i t s f r o n t d o o r barred like the gates of a s i e g e d t o w n . " H i s p a t r o n leased a claque but was too cheap to provide chairs for the platform. In contrast, the rich and the powerful staged lavish recitals and created glittering prizes. For t h e i r g l o r y , n o t A p o l l o ' s . T h i s p r a c t i c e c o n t i n u e s today. Consider the annual cere- mony for the Strega Prize, a cross between Sotheby's and the Indie 500, held on the first Thursday of July in the floodlit nymphaeum at Villa Giulia. While guests lean over the balustrade of t h e m a r b l e s t a i r c a s e , t h e jurors—four hundred pub- lishing insiders called the Amici della Domenica, the Sunday Friends—pack the courtyard. The air buzzes with gossip and intrigue. Paparazzi snap photos and steal canapés from the buf- fet. Escorts look stiffer than the caryatids supporting the l o g g i a . C r i t i c s i n r e n t e d tuxes bicker and place bets. A chalkboard lists votes for five short-listed authors. F o u n d e d i n 1 9 4 7 b y Guido Alberti, owner of the Strega liquor company, together with the historical novelist Maria Bellonci and her husband Goffredo, the S t r e g a P r i z e r e u n i t e d Rome's intellectuals after the war and promoted its salon culture. But as pros- perity replaced austerity, the Strega came to symbolize everything wrong with the E s t a b l i s h m e n t . T a b l o i d s claimed the prize was fixed, a closed deal among pub- lishers. Protests disrupted the ceremony. Pier Paolo Pasolini, who accused the Strega Foundation of being "completely and irreparably in the hands of an arbitrary neo-capitalism," instigated a n e m b a r g o . A f t e r t h i s e x p l o s i o n , t h e p r i z e w a s nicknamed La Polveriera, the Powder Keg. The rules for nomination and voting have changed, but the Strega remains con- troversial. The big houses, A d e l p h i , F e l t r i n e l l i , Mondadori, and Rizzoli, still play dirty, still lobby the A m i c i f o r t h e n e c e s s a r y votes to make their nomi- nated book a best seller. The prize itself, picayune com- p a r e d t o t h e N o b e l , t h e Booker, or the Pulitzer, is window dressing. The real story is behind the scenes, where publishers hustle for the winning book's almost g u a r a n t e e d s a l e s o f f i f t y thousand copies. Let Mount Parnassus honor the Muses. T h e S e v e n H i l l s w o r s h i p only money. And still Antonio goads me to finish another book, despite the fact that older Romans prefer the sports pages and younger Romans barely read. A small inde- pendent press, he claims, wants to publish my work. V e r y f l a t t e r i n g , a n d h o w m a n y c o p i e s w i l l i t s e l l ? S u c h p r a c t i c a l q u e s t i o n s never bother Antonio, forev- er tilting at windmills. "Publish or perish!" he cries. But when the average b o o k h a s t h e s h e l f l i f e o f milk and most Strega final- ists are pulped within four years, I'm perfectly capable of doing both. Pasquino's secretary is Anthony Di Renzo, professor of writing at Ithaca College. You may reach him at diren- zo@ithaca.edu. ANTHONY DI RENZO LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE An old advertisement for Liquore Strega, from which the Strega Book Prize takes its name (Photo: Wikimedia Com- mons) Parnaso sul Tevere Pasquino publishes a book

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