L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2014 www.italoamericano.com L'Italo-Americano 3 Italian researchers decrypt mysterious handwriting on Homer's Odyssey A special "doodle" celebrates the 77th anniversary of Cinecittà Studios Collections Research Center called on experts, linguists, and classicists to solve the enigma by identifying the script in the mar- gins, providing supporting evi- dence, and translating part of it. As an incentive, the Lang Foundation offered a reward of $1,000 to the first person to suc- ceed. Clearly, the contest was welcomed with enthusiasm, and the online response was massive from all over the world. Finally, the mysterious code was cracked by two young Italian researchers: Daniele Metilli, a student of digital humanities at the University of Pisa who aims for a career in libraries or archives, and his colleague Giulia Accetta, a stenography specialist also fluent in French. Based on the assumption that it was a system of French stenogra- phy in use in the mid-19 th centu- ry – besides the date, there were also a few French words mixed with the encrypted text – Metilli and Accetta considered a number of shorthand methods before identifying the correct one. The system used in this case was invented by Jean Coulon de Thévénot in the late 1700s, and here it was used to translate into French some of the Greek words from the epic poem. As Chicago University's web site reports, Daniele Metilli explained that in this particular stenographic system "every con- sonant and vowel has a starting shape, and they combine togeth- er to form new shapes represent- ing syllables. The vertical align- ment is especially important, as the position of a letter above or below the line, or even the length of a letter segment can change the value of the grapheme." The two Italian experts will continue to work on the annota- tions, in hope of discovering the author's identity as well as deter- mining the reason why they can be found only in one section of the tome. According to Alice Schreyer, director of the Special Collections Research Center, this contest and similar online initiatives arouse interest in rare books and manuscripts, making them known to a vast audience of scholars worldwide. As a result, M.C. Lang's collection has already become a catalog and an online exhibition of edi- tions and translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, trac- ing their transmission in print form. Modern information tech- nologies and social media also helped the winners to identify and translate the script within just a few hours. "If I didn't have access to online sources such as Google Books, the Greek Word Study Tool of the Perseus Digital Library and the French corpora of the CNRTL, I probably wouldn't have won. What great times we live in!", Metilli wrote. Such an exciting experience also confirmed his career objective, as libraries and archives - just like the human mind – proved to be rich in mys- terious wonders. The winner of the contest, Daniele Metilli, is currently enrolled in a digital humanities course and aiming for a career in libraries and archives Continued from page 1 Hollywood is considered as the cradle of world cinema, but Italy also has its own small ver- sion of it: the Cinecittà Studios. Located just a few miles from the center of Rome, they are the largest film studios in Europe and the set of thou- sands of international and Italian movies, television shows, and music videos. Founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini to give a boost to the Italian movie industry and to promote his policy, in the 1950s and 1960s Cinecittà became like a second home for many Hollywood stars, hosting pro- ductions of historical value such as William Wyler's Ben Hur and Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita. More recently, Mel Gibson and Martin Scorsese also choose the Roman studios as a location for their films, respectively, The Passion of The Christ and Gangs of New York. And just a couple of months ago, Cinecittà welcomed the Universal production "Everest", a movie directed by Baltasar Kormakur and starring Jake Gyllenhaal to be released in 2015. Therefore, despite the risk of closure due to expense cuts and the harsh protests due to layoffs in the last few years – and con- sidering that the facility was sold by the Italian Government to private investors in 1997, in order to save it from bankruptcy -, the prestigious Studios are still alive and kicking. And the year 2014 marks the 77 th anniversary of Cinecittà, which was commemorated by the Internet world with a special "doodle" reproducing the famed Studios. In addition, among the letters that form the word Google creatively turned into film sets hid some symbols of Cinecittà's history and suc- cess, like the chariot from Ben Hur and the Vespa from Vacanze Romane. Google's initiative was very remarkable and it easily drew people's attention. Thanks to its resonance both in Italy and abroad, the web site of Cinecittà Studios was rushed and even went offline for some time. As it represents an essential part of our cultural and histori- cal heritage, the "Hollywood on the Tiber" – as it was nick- named in the 1960s – must be preserved and promoted, for the golden age of Italian cinema to be more than just an old memo- ry. SILVIA SIMONETTI Google ha ricordato con un doodle il 77esimo compleanno di Cinecittà

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