{"id":823,"date":"2025-07-20T17:51:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T15:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/punto-di-interesse\/storytellers-giuseppe-ungaretti\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T10:43:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T08:43:57","slug":"storytellers-giuseppe-ungaretti","status":"publish","type":"punto-di-interesse","link":"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/en\/point-of-interest\/storytellers-giuseppe-ungaretti\/","title":{"rendered":"Storytellers: Giuseppe Ungaretti"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/07_Giuseppe-Ungaretti_Divulgativo-Ita.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Angel in the Cave,\u201d written in Monte Sant\u2019Angelo on April 1, 1934, and published that same year in <em>the *Gazzetta del Popolo*<\/em>, is part of the \u201cLe Puglie\u201d section of <em>*Il deserto e dopo*<\/em>, a volume of travel prose and essays published by Mondadori in 1961. The text draws on Ungaretti\u2019s experience traveling through the Capitanata region and gradually takes on a form that goes beyond a simple description of the places. The landscape, the monuments, and the pilgrimage become opportunities for reflection on memory, the human condition, and the possibility of transforming sensory experience into knowledge and poetry.  <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"964\" height=\"644\" data-id=\"713\" src=\"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Tomba-di-Rotari.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-713\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Tomba-di-Rotari.png 964w, https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Tomba-di-Rotari-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Tomba-di-Rotari-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 964px) 100vw, 964px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"876\" height=\"594\" data-id=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Apparizione.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-726\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Apparizione.png 876w, https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Apparizione-300x203.png 300w, https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Apparizione-768x521.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"500\" data-id=\"723\" src=\"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/volto-San-Michele.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-723\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/volto-San-Michele.png 720w, https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/volto-San-Michele-300x208.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Monte Sant\u2019Angelo and the Landscape of Rebirth<\/strong> The approach to Monte Sant\u2019Angelo winds through a landscape dominated by the Tavoliere, wheat fields, and flocks of sheep. Spring and Easter form the symbolic backdrop against which the poet interprets the land as a space of regeneration. From the very beginning of the prose, light, warmth, and freshness are associated with rebirth, while the Apulian landscape is elevated beyond the purely descriptive and transformed into a spiritual experience. The images of the \u201cresurrected\u201d earth and the light of Easter thus introduce the theme of resurrection, which will reappear during the visit to the monument and the sanctuary.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Rotari\u2019s Tomb: Descent and Ascent<\/strong> The centerpiece of the experience is a visit to the so-called Tomb of Rotari, the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Tumba. Ungaretti immediately perceives its architectural uniqueness and evocative power: the interior, with its \u201cdry pink\u201d hue that gradually transforms into an increasingly intense light as it rises upward, gives the poet the impression of having descended \u201cinto the depths of a tomb.\u201d The physical descent into the architectural space, however, transforms into a movement in the opposite direction: the gaze rises upward and encounters \u201cmotherhood\u201d and \u201ctriumphant life.\u201d The monument\u2019s structure thus becomes, in the poet\u2019s perception, a journey from dark depths toward the light.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Death, Baptism, and Rebirth<\/strong> The reflection then focuses on the building\u2019s possible role as a baptistery: \u201cMost likely, this tomb will also serve as a baptistery.\u201d Ungaretti interprets baptism through a symbolic logic of death and resurrection: to die to the material world is to be reborn in the spirit. The upward movement of the architecture is thus translated into a metaphor for liberation from the burden of the material world and the attainment of grace. It is at this point that the expression \u201cA rhythmic happiness counts, a divine precision counts\u201d appears, in which the perception of space, spirituality, and the rhythm of the word merge.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The \u201crhythmic joy\u201d of prose<\/strong>: This formula takes on particular significance in light of Glauco Cambon\u2019s critical reflection on Ungaretti\u2019s travel prose. Cambon emphasizes, in fact, that Ungaretti\u2019s prose is not limited to description or logical exposition, but \u201cembodies\u201d the narrator\u2019s experience and follows its inner movement. In the case of Monte Sant\u2019Angelo, the very structure of the narrative reproduces this movement: observation of the landscape, entry into the monument, descent into the depths, the gaze rising again, the appearance of the angel, and finally reemergence into memory. The notion of \u201crhythmic happiness\u201d must therefore be understood first and foremost in relation to Ungaretti\u2019s own formulation and, on a critical level, to Cambon\u2019s interpretation of the particular musicality and tension of his prose.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>From Matter to the Apparition of the Angel<\/strong>: Having left the Tomb of Rotari, Ungaretti\u2019s journey continues toward the Shrine of St. Michael. Here, the landscape and architecture are once again transfigured through a mythical and religious memory. \u201cOne day, an idea\u201d\u2014writes the poet\u2014\u201cwhich contained within itself many other forms fused together,\u201d until it identified itself with Saint Michael the Archangel and settled upon the mountain. The image of the sanctuary allows Ungaretti to reconstruct a symbolic genealogy of the angel: \u201cThey say the angel first appeared to man, wielding a sword of sunlight that closed off Eden to us.\u201d The angel thus becomes a figure of separation from Eden but also a guide for man in his wanderings.    <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Angel, Memory, and Myth<\/strong> Angels are depicted as \u201cstars, unattainable beacons that guided wandering footsteps through the desert.\u201d This image directly links the sanctuary in the Gargano to the broader human experience of travel and being lost. The desert is not merely a geographical location: it is a condition of existence, a space in which humankind seeks direction through signs that precede and transcend it. The journey to San Michele thus becomes a pilgrimage through the memory of civilization and, at the same time, through one\u2019s own inner self.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The \u201cBronze Door\u201d and the Return to Origins<\/strong> Of particular significance is the reflection on the art of the sanctuary\u2019s bronze door, which Ungaretti describes as having reached a state of \u201csenile forgetfulness that heralds primitivism.\u201d This phrase links old age with origin, the loss of memory with the possibility of a new beginning. The experience of the ancient, therefore, does not amount to mere archaeological contemplation: rather, art allows us to return to an original state in which words can once again be spoken in their most elementary and authentic form. It is precisely in this light that the reference to <em>*Nelle vene*<\/em> can be understood: \u201cTo spell out the naive words.\u201d The line comes from the poem <em>*Nelle vene*<\/em>, included in the 1947 collection <em>*Il Dolore<\/em> *.    <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Art, Childhood, and Primitivism<\/strong> The idea of a return to the origins runs through his entire prose. Faced with the images of the sanctuary, Ungaretti interprets \u201cprimitivism\u201d not as backwardness, but as the ability to recover an original perception of the world, prior to the accumulation of memory and conventions. The ancient monument thus becomes an instrument of knowledge: looking at art means rediscovering a primal form of wonder and speech. Ossola\u2019s critical reading has linked this \u201csenile forgetfulness\u201d to a state of \u201cbefore memory,\u201d in which the return to the origin makes possible a rebirth of poetic language.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Angel and the \u201cGhosts\u201d of the Mind<\/strong> The following reflection explicitly introduces the theme of the ghost. Ungaretti writes that the ghost is \u201cthe finite image of a torment that may well be eternal,\u201d and from there he goes on to explore the relationship between art, memory, and permanence. Through poetic works, humans attempt to lift their own experiences out of the precariousness of individual existence. Poetry thus becomes a form of permanence: what belongs to a specific place and time can continue to live on beyond the life of the one who experienced it.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Petrarch and the \u201cmemory of oblivion\u201d<\/strong> The journey concludes with an explicit reference to Petrarch. Ungaretti describes the evening as \u201ca moment of Petrarchan tone\u201d and quotes \u201cMy ship, laden with oblivion, passes by,\u201d the opening line of Sonnet 189 from <em>the *Canzoniere<\/em>*. Immediately afterward, he evokes \u201cAnd the light has remained in my thoughts,\u201d taken from Sonnet 18. The two fragments belong to different parts of <em>the *Canzoniere*<\/em>, but Ungaretti brings them together through their shared connection between light, memory, and oblivion. Light is not merely a visual element: it is what remains in memory once the experience has passed.    <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Prose as a Pilgrimage of Memory<\/strong>: The journey to Monte Sant\u2019Angelo thus concludes with a gradual transformation of the landscape\u2019s meaning. The road leads to the monument; the monument leads to reflection; reflection leads to memory; memory leads to poetry. The cave, the angel, the light, the ghost, and oblivion are the images through which Ungaretti constructs a true poetic experience of the place. The geographical pilgrimage becomes a pilgrimage into the memory of civilization and into the author\u2019s inner world, following a dynamic in which descent and ascent, death and rebirth, oblivion and memory continually echo one another.   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A Poetic Phenomenology of the Sacred<\/strong>: \u201cThe Angel in the Cave\u201d can therefore be read as one of the most significant prose works from Ungaretti\u2019s journey through Puglia. Rather than merely recounting his visit to the Tomb of Rotari and the Shrine of San Michele, the text transforms the monument into a symbol of human experience. The cave becomes the place of descent and rebirth, the angel the figure of guidance and revelation, light the sign of memory, and the word the means through which what has passed can return to the present. From this perspective, the journey is not merely a movement through space, but a quest for the origin and enduring nature of poetry.   <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bibliography  <\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Cambon, G.<\/strong> (1976), <em>The Poetry of Ungaretti<\/em>, Turin, Einaudi, \u201cPiccola Biblioteca Einaudi,\u201d 265.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Montefoschi, P.<\/strong> (a cura di) (2000), <em>Giuseppe Ungaretti, *The Life of a Man: Travels and Lessons* <\/em>, Milan, Mondadori, \u201cI Meridiani.\u201d This edition includes <em>*Il deserto e dopo*<\/em> and <em>*Notes and Information on the<\/em> Travel Prose <em>Texts<\/em> *. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ossola, C.<\/strong> (1975), \u201c\u2018In sogno e dal vero\u2019: le prose,\u201d in <em>Giuseppe Ungaretti<\/em>, Milan, Mursia, p. 439.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ungaretti, G.<\/strong> (1934), \u201cEaster. San Michele del Gargano, April 1, 1934. \u2018The Angel in the Cave\u2019, <em>\u201d *Gazzetta del Popolo*<\/em>, April 1, 1934; later published in <em>*Il deserto e dopo*<\/em>, Milan, Mondadori, 1961.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ungaretti, G.<\/strong> (1947), <em>*Il dolore*<\/em>, Milan, Mondadori, poem \u201cNelle vene.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Petrarch, F.<\/strong>, <em>*Canzoniere*<\/em>, Sonnet XVIII, <em>\u201cWhen I Turn Entirely in That Direction<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Petrarch, F.<\/strong>, <em>*Canzoniere*<\/em>, Sonnet CLXXXIX, <em>\u201cMy ship, laden with oblivion, sails on<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Paglia, L.<\/strong> (ca. 2020), \u201cUngaretti\u2019s Daunia\u201d \/ \u201cGiuseppe Ungaretti\u2019s Daunian Prose,\u201d for an analysis of the Apulian prose works and their sources and rewritings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":724,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-823","punto-di-interesse","type-punto-di-interesse","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/punto-di-interesse\/823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/punto-di-interesse"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/punto-di-interesse"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/punto-di-interesse\/823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1498,"href":"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/punto-di-interesse\/823\/revisions\/1498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblioteca.montesantangelo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}