L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014 L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014 www.italoamericano.com 10 ANtHoNy DI ReNZo Wedged between the Regola and Parione districts, Campo de' Fiori features Rome's most spec- tacular flower market. Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian painter whose name adorns an apart- ment house on nearby Via di San Salvatore, called it "a symphony of color." Each season strikes a different keynote: chrysanthe- mums in fall, poinsettias in win- ter, lilies in spring, roses in sum- mer. Campo de' Fiori literally means Field of Flowers. At least twice in the past twenty-two cen- turies, this market has been a meadow. Even now, it feels like a country fair in the middle of the city. Romans enjoy this bucolic retreat but never let its fragrance cloud their judgment. The piazza's notorious history complicates its beauty. Blood, not manure, has made its roses bloom. Until the Late Republic, the district between the Tiber and the Temple of Venus remained underdeveloped due to frequent flooding. Fortunately, politicians always pursue public works to buy votes. When Pompey the Great built a sports complex in the Lago di Torre Argentina, he converted the scrub and muck into a proper lot for spectators and vendors. Pompey called the site Campus Floralis after Flora Primavera, the Roman goddess of spring and flowers. That, at least, is what Victorian classicists claimed. More likely, Pompey was honoring Flora Meretrix, Rome's greatest courtesan, who never allowed Pompey to leave her bed without showering him with petals and biting his ear. Until the Vandals sacked Rome, florists and butchers, prostitutes and loan sharks plied their trade in this open-air mar- ket. After the city fell, the fair- grounds reverted to a field. Borage and yarrow ran amok. For a thousand years, the poor planted vegetable and flower gardens but fought a losing bat- tle with hares and badgers. Then, in the mid-1400s, Pope Callistus III reorganized and paved the entire district. During this renovation, many elegant buildings were constructed, such as the Palazzo Orsini and the Palazzo della Cancelleria. Once the area was restored, cardinals and ambassadors socialized here. The rich established a thriving horse market, held every Monday and Saturday. Hotels and inns, taverns and restaurants, studios and workshops sprung up overnight. As Rome's only churchless piazza, Campo de' Fiori was consecrated to commerce. Its surrounding streets honored vari- ous trades: Via dei Balestrari (crossbow-makers), Via dei Baullari (coffer-makers), Via dei Cappellari (hatters), Via dei Chiavari (locksmiths) and Via dei Giubbonari (tailors). Florists, however, gave the square its dis- tinct character. Business was brisk. Visitors bought wreaths for the jockeys in the palio, garlands for the dancers and street musicians, and bouquets for the Swiss Guards in the papal parades. They also bought posies for the con- demned. For centuries, criminals and heretics were tortured and executed here. Some were hung. Others were drawn and quartered or thrown into kettles of boiling oil. Most perished at the stake. The most famous victim was Giordano Bruno, condemned in 1600 for denying the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. The Dominican friar also taught that stars are other suns in the uni- verse. Proud and sarcastic, he accused opponents at a debate in Oxford of "farting out of [their] mouths." The authorities were determined to muzzle him. After the death sentence was passed, Bruno's jaw was clamped shut with an iron gag. His tongue was pierced with an iron spike, and another iron spike was driven into his palate. With his mouth padlocked, Bruno was driven through the streets, stripped naked, and burned at Campo de' Fiori. Spectators stopped their noses with rose petals or threw laven- der sprigs on the flames to kill the stench. Nineteenth-century liberals made a martyr of Bruno. When Pope Leo XIII denounced Freemasonry, the Grande Oriente d'Italia decided to honor Bruno with a bronze statue. The monument was unveiled, to defi- ant applause, on June 9, 1889 in Campo de'Fiori. The inscription reads: "A Bruno—il Secolo Lui Divinato—Qui Dove il Rogo Arse." To Bruno—from the cen- tury he foretold—here where the stake burned. Bruno's statue stands in the center of the square on the exact spot of his execution. It faces a popular restaurant called La Carbonara. The house specialty is maialino arrosto, roast pork. Smiling couples stop at a flower stand beside the pediment. Moralists chide because people flirted and haggled as Bruno's ashes fell like charred petals on Campo dei Fiori. Historians sigh because all glory passes away like a meadow. But poets rejoice because, despite a cruel heritage, Roman lovers still buy roses. Breathe deep and savor their scent. The dead are pollen in the wind. Pasquino's secretary is Anthony Di Renzo, associate professor of writing at Ithaca College. You may reach him at direnzo@ithaca.edu. Campo de' Fiori Pasquino reminds us to smell the roses Dear Readers, June jottings with an Italian connection: In June many saintly celes- tial superstars are venerated and celebrated. In Italy and in Italian American homes the "onomasti- co" or Name Day, is often cause for a party and celebration. Many of the favorite people in my life are named Anthony or Tony. "Buon Onomastico" and "Buona Salute" on June 13th to all the Anthonys among my Readers and their families, too. On June 13 all the Antonios, Tonys and Anthonys of the world can celebrate the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, a priest and gifted preacher born in Lisbon, Portugal. His surname comes from the Italian city of Padua, where he lived the later part of his life and died on June 13, 1231 at the age of thirty-six. *** Anthonys of the world who want to double-dip on "Onomastico" celebrations may want to also celebrate the Feast of St. Anthony the Abbot in January. I first became aware of St. Anthony the Abbot when a "cugino" called from Italy to wish my "marito Antonio" a "Buon Onomastico". I just said "Grazie" but later decided to check him out. It seems that St. Anthony the Abbot is the patron saint of thepig.
 St. Anthony Abbot is especially venerated in Piemonte where just across the border, the monks of St. Anthony Abbot founded a reli- gious order in France at the beginning of the eleventh centu- ry, known as the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony. These were pilgrimage centers for suf- ferers of many common dis- eases. The Hospitallers wore black robes, with a Tau cross and went around asking for alms, accompanied, in the tradi- tion of St. Anthony, by a pig. Around the neck of the ani- mal was hung a bell that announced from afar the arrival of this curious pair of mendi- cants. The charitable work of the monks won them favor with the people and eventually the pigs of this Order were allowed to roam freely in the streets and woods to feed. *** S.F. Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, lost his mother on May 8th, a few days before Mother's Day. Mary Rose Cordileone died shortly after suffering a stroke. She was 90.
 Archbishop Cordileone flew to San Diego from Lourdes, France, where he was making a pilgrimage with the Knights of Malta, and was able to be with her in the hours before she died, as were her three other children.
 The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated May 12 by Archbishop Cordileone, with many bishops and priests concel- ebrating, at Blessed Sacrament Church in San Diego, the church where she was married to her husband Leon in 1949, where her four children attended religious education classes and where she remained active throughout her life.
 Mrs. Cordileone was a full-time wife, mother and homemaker for most of her life. She was an avid bowler and in her later years she enjoyed spending time with her family and friends. "She was loved by everyone who knew her", her family said.
 Mrs. Cordileone was born Mary Giardina in 1923 in Buffalo, N.Y., the oldest of four girls born to Sicilian immigrants Sam and Theresa Giardina. In 1947, when she was 23, she moved to San Diego and worked for Challenge Dairy. She married Leon, a World War II Navy vet- eran who had gone into business with his three brothers as a com- mercial albacore fisherman, on November 13, 1949.
 Leon, who was born in San Francisco to Sicilian immigrants, died at age 86 in 2005 after 55 years of mar- riage, but the couple was able to attend together their son Salvatore's ordination as auxil- iary Bishop of San Diego in 2002. *** Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was appointed by President Reagan and began serving on the High Court in 1986, after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate 98 to 0. While attending Harvard Law School, he met his future wife, Maureen McCarthy, who attended Radcliffe College, on a blind date set up by a Jewish friend. They were married in 1960 and have 9 children. One son, Fr. Scalia, is an ordained priest in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, so with Father's Day coming up June 15th, Happy Father's Day. By the way, while Mother's Day is celebrated in May in the U.S. and in Italy, Father's Day in Italy is celebrat- ed on March 19th "La festa di San Giuseppe". Justice Scalia's father (not his grandfather) was born in Sicily. When Salvatore Eugenio Scalia arrived in the U.S., he spoke very little English, but in time he mastered the language and as "Gene" Scalia, he received a doctorate from Columbia University. When Professor Gene Scalia was offered a position to teach Romance Languages at Brooklyn College in NYC, the Scalia family moved from Trenton, New Jersey to New York. Antonin's mother, Catherine (nee) Panaro, the daughter of immigrants was a school teacher... The bronze statue dedicated to Giordano Bruno in Campo dei Fiori Antonin Scalia

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