Grave with a View

Grave with a view and ouroboros, Old English Cemetery, Via Verdi. (Already posted on Instagram)
Tomba con vista e uroboro, antico cimitero degli inglesi, via Verdi. (Già pubblicato su Instagram)

External links: Ouroboros - Old English Cemetery (Wikipedia)
Link esterni: Uroboro - Antico cimitero degli inglesi (Wikipedia)

Church of the Dormition

The entrance of the Greek Orthodox Cemetery in Via Mastacchi.
The plaque outside the gate, in Greek and Italian, says: “Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archdiocese of Italy, church of the Dormition of Our Lady in Livorno.” The small church is barely visible from the outside.

(Photos taken last June)

See also: Old English Cemetery - New English Cemetery

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Artusi's Minestrone

Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911) was an Italian businessman and writer, best known as the author of the cookbook “La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiare bene” (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well). He was not a cook, but his merit was in codifying and classifying Italy’s great tradition of domestic cuisine, the result of so many regional and local varieties. His cookbook, often embellished with detailed prose about daily life and historical trivia, should be considered a unifying tool of sorts for the gastronomic and linguistic patrimony of our country.

Bust on the grave of Pellegrino Artusi, by Italo Vagnetti
Porte Sante Cemetery
San Miniato al Monte, Florence

“Of particular interest is the story told by Artusi himself regarding a bad experience which occurred during the summer in Livorno in 1855, when Artusi came in contact with cholera, the infective disease that in that era took many lives in Italy. Once in Livorno, Artusi went to a restaurant to have dinner. After eating minestrone, he decided to rent a room in the building belonging to one Domenici. As Artusi would later recount, he spent the whole night suffering from horrible stomach pains, which he blamed on the minestrone he had eaten. The next day, returning to Florence, he got the news that Livorno had been hit by cholera and that Domenici had been a victim. It was only then that he realized what had happened: it had not been the minestrone that made him ill, but the early symptoms of the disease. The event inspired Artusi to write an excellent recipe for minestrone.”

(The case of minestrone and cholera, Wikipedia)

External links: Pellegrino Artusi (Wikipedia) - Artusi's Minestrone Recipe (About Food)

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More Ouroboroses

“In the cemetery, a snake biting or eating its tail is a symbol of immortality, rejuvenation, and eternity. It is seldom used in funerary art nowadays, but it was a very popular symbol in nineteenth-century cemeteries. Images of the ouroboros can be found in the art of ancient Egypt (where it symbolized the daily cycle of the sun), China (where it was among the myriad yin and yang symbols), the Roman Empire (where it was associated with Saturn, the god of time), as well as in European and American funerary art.

Beyond symbolizing immortality the ouroboros suggests that for every ending there is a new beginning. In alchemy the ouroboros symbolizes a closed cyclical process (heating, evaporation, cooling, condensation), which refines or purifies substances.”

(Douglas Keister, Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography, 2004)

All of our examples of ouroboros are taken from graves of the Old English Cemetery in Livorno.

We have recently seen how a part this cemetery is in danger, but some uninformed pieces on the local papers are distorting the facts, trying to minimize or ignore the role of the group of volunteers who cleared, kept and maintained the place in the last years. Trying to secure this situation is well beyond the means of these brave people and the cemetery needs any external help available, but without much fuss or sterile polemics.

See also: Ouroboros - Old English Cemetery - Cemetery in Danger
External links: Ouroboros - Old English Cemetery, Livorno (Wikipedia)
Facebook: Salviamo l'Antico Cimitero degli Inglesi di Livorno (Save the Old English Cemetery of Livorno) - Livorno delle Nazioni (Livorno of the Nations)

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Theme Day: Best of 2013

Today's Theme Day is about the best photo of 2013. I was looking back at the pictures I took last year and it was difficult to pick up something I really liked. Then I saw this was the one: it portrays Stefano Ceccarini and Matteo Giunti, two brave friends of mine who are still fighting hard to save at least part of the precious heritage of this decaying and uncaring city.

With their hard work they have just secured 25.000 Euro for the Dutch Church, with more 80.000 Euro coming. It is not much, but it obviously helps.
As we have recently seen, Matteo has also his hands busy with the cemetery in danger.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Happy New Year to All of You!

See also: Theme Day: Best of 2009 - Theme Day: Best of 2010
- Old English Cemetery - Chiesa degli Olandesi - Stefano & Matteo

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Cemetery in Danger

“Besides the pillar to the memory of Smollett, and many others worthy of attention, I particularly paused on the tomb-stone of a mother, who died in bringing into the world two infants, who are buried with her in the same grave. The figure of the mother recumbent, and of the two babes, appeared to me beautiful and affecting, although somewhat impaired by time, and exposure to the open air.”

(Robert Semple, Observations on a Journey through Spain and Italy…, 1807, II, 16-18)

The grave is that of Mary Champion (1692-1721), of a well known Cornish merchant family. She married Thomas Mitchell (1687-1730), merchant in Livorno, secretary of the East India Company and nephew of Gilbert Heathcote (1651-1732), Fellow of the Royal Society, Lord Mayor of London, and Governor of the Bank of England. She was an aunt of the poet Anthony Champion (1725-1801) and niece of Francis Arundel (1659-1712), merchant in Livorno and Bath.

I am quoting this from the website of our friend Matteo Giunti, who is fighting another battle just now to protect this and other graves in the Old English Cemetery. In December 2011 the trunk of a tree fell on a tomb, smashing the gravestone to pieces. With the heavy winds of the last days the trunk of another tree has fallen, endangering more ancient graves, but nobody seems to care.

I wish to clarify that the cemetery has been perfectly kept for some years now, by Matteo and other volunteers: they routinely clean it up from weeds and make it available for the occasional visits. They only need some help in out-of-the-ordinary situations, like this one.

See also: Old English Cemetery
External links: Old English Cemetery, Livorno (Wikipedia)
The Old English Cemetery of Livorno in Quotes (Leghorn Merchant Networks)
Facebook Group: Salviamo l'Antico Cimitero degli Inglesi di Livorno (Save the Old English Cemetery of Livorno)

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The Horner Medallion

Of the many things that happened here during our Pisan exile, the most important was surely the press conference about a very interesting discovery made in the Old English Cemetery.

A lucky afternoon, clearing weeds around the graves, our friends of the Livorno delle Nazioni association found a marble medallion, broken in three pieces, but without any missing part. After some research they found out that the bas-relief was part of the tomb of Francis Horner, who died in Pisa in 1817 of a lung disease, and the author was the renowned sculptor Francis Chantrey. Francis Horner was only 39 when he died, but he was an already well-known Member of Parliament and one of the first politicians of the time to speak out against child labor.

The medallion was probably lost during the bombings of the Second World War and now will hopefully find its place in a local museum, with a copy restored to Horner's tomb.
Thanks to Matteo Giunti, Sarah Thompson and Stefano Ceccarini of Livorno delle Nazioni for the data and the photos used in this post.

See also: Old English Cemetery - New English Cemetery
External links: Francis Horner - Francis Chantrey (Wikipedia)
- Italians unveil long-lost tomb medallion of Scottish MP (The Guardian)
- Long-lost plaque commemorating MP found in Livorno's Old English Cemetery (The Telegraph)
- Great Scots’ Italian burial site ‘falling to ruin’ (The Scotsman)

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Camposanto Monumentale

The Gothic tabernacle above the entance of the Camposanto Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery), at the northern edge of Piazza dei Miracoli. The Campo Santo, which translates as Holy Field, is a 13th-century cemetery built after the Fourth Crusade. Ubaldo de' Lanfranchi, archbishop of Pisa, decided that the Pisans were to be buried in the very earth of the Holy Land and commissioned a fleet of ships to bring home thousands of tons of soil from the hill outside Jerusalem where Jesus is believed to have been crucified.

See also: Santa Maria Assunta - Leaning Tower - Baptistry of St. John
External links: Piazza dei Miracoli - Leaning Tower - Baptistry - Camposanto Monumentale (Wikipedia)

(Why are we posting about Pisa? Click here for an answer)

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Mascagni's Tomb

The red granite sarcophagus of Pietro Mascagni in the “Cimitero della Misericordia” (Mercy Cemetery).

The monumental tomb of the world-famous composer was built on a design by the engineer Vilfrido Vanni.

External links: Pietro Mascagni (Wikipedia)

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Cemeteries, Churches, and Beer

From a free tourist map distributed throughout Livorno:Our friend Matteo should be quite worried looking at this map: the Old English Cemetery has become a “Cimitero Valdese” (Waldensian Cemetery). The former Anglican church of Saint George is here a Waldensian church (it is Catholic), while the actual Waldensian temple is marked simply as a church.It gets even better in “Via della Madonna” where they got all the churches wrong. From left to right we should have the former Armenian church of “San Gregorio Illuminatore” and the Madonna church. The recently restored church of the “Santissima Annunziata” is in the right position, but with a wrong name.
In the bottom right corner “Via Pieroni”, named after the renowned architect Alessandro Pieroni, is spelled like an Italian brand of beer.

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Odeon Parking

The ramp of the new parking built where once was the “Cinema Odeon”.The trees in background are those of the Old English Cemetery.

See also: Old English Cemetery - Parco Centro Città - Cinema Odeon

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New English Cemetery

A detail of the closed gate of the New English Cemetery in Livorno. We have already seen the Old English Cemetery, now we will get a glimpse of the relatively newer burial ground, used mostly in the second half of the 19th century.The old cemetery was built just beyond the city walls of the time. The new one was planned just outside the more recent Leopoldine Wall, in “Via Pera”, not far from the San Marco Gate.A picture of the cemetery taken from outside the gate, it is not an easy place to visit.

See also: Old English Cemetery - San Marco - Leopoldine Wall
Burials at the New English Cemetery (Leghorn Merchant Networks)

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Modigliani's Tomb

[Photos by Trillian]

This is not Livorno, but the resting place of one of its most famous sons, Amedeo Modigliani, in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.When in Paris, we often visit Père Lachaise and never miss a few moments at Modigliani's tomb.

In 1920, after not hearing from him for several days, his neighbor checked on the family and found Modigliani in bed delirious and holding onto Hébuterne who was nearly nine months pregnant. They summoned a doctor, but little could be done: Modigliani was dying of the then-incurable disease tubercular meningitis.
Modigliani died on January 24, 1920. There was an enormous funeral, attended by many from the artistic communities in Montmartre and Montparnasse.
Hébuterne was taken to her parents' home, where, inconsolable, threw herself out of a fifth-floor window two days after his death, killing herself and her unborn child. Modigliani was interred at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Hébuterne was buried at the Cimetière de Bagneux near Paris, and it was not until 1930 that her embittered family allowed her body to be moved to rest beside Modigliani. A single tombstone honors them both. His epitaph reads: “Struck down by Death at the moment of glory”. Hers reads: “Devoted companion to the extreme sacrifice”.

(From “Amedeo Modigliani”, Wikipedia)

Search labels: Modigliani
External links: Amedeo Modigliani (Wikipedia)

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Old English Cemetery

Our Old English Cemetery is one of the oldest non-Catholic cemeteries in Italy.It is called “Cinitero Inglese”, but not only Englishmen are buried here, this was a burial ground used by several non-Catholic confessions present in town at the time.Most of the tombs are from the 19th Century, some from 18th Century and a few even from earlier times.This is the oldest tomb from 17th Century. You can see the place is somewhat derelict and just now some volunteers are trying to remove the weeds, tracing and cleaning the old tombs.
If you are interested, our friend Matteo Giunti has a great website, Leghorn Merchant Networks, with detailed informations about the works and the records of the cemetery.

See also: New English Cemetery
Old English Cemetery of Livorno: Survey and analysis (Leghorn Merchant Networks)

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