Newsletter of the Centro

New Series, no. 7 – September/October 2004

Special Edition

edited by Dario Manfredi and Rossana Piccioli

Activities of the Centro Studi Malaspiniani – Alexandro Malaspina's Birthday Celebrations

ª From September 3 to 5, 2004 Pontremoli and Mulazzo hosted the International Meeting organized by the Centro di Studi Malaspiniani on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Alexandro Malaspina.

This important event involved the participation of major Malaspina scholars - from Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy, Peru, Spain and the United States of America - who came together to define the current state of research on the Navigator.

In the first work-session, held in the Assembly Room of the Commune of Pontremoli, the speakers described their research results and their projects in progress. After greetings from local dignitaries and the Mayor of Varzi, Ernesto Quercioli, the speakers included John Black and Russell McNeil of the Malaspina Research Centre in Nanaimo (BC, Canada), Carlos Novi of the Hakluyt Society in London, who also brought greetings on the occasion from the President of that prestigious institution, and J. Rafael Cabrera, Director of the Real Academia Hispano Americana in Cádiz.

On Saturday September 4, in the main square of Mulazzo, a moving but festive ceremony took place with the uncovering of a commemorative plaque marking the Malaspina anniversary. The Cultural Assessor of the Commune of Mulazzo, Mrs Luisa Bruscaglia, whom the Centro had asked to unveil the plaque, kindly surrendered the honour to Juan Rafael Cabrera, symbolically flanked by representatives of the Old, New and Newest Worlds: the researchers Blanca Saìz (Spain) and Rossana Piccioli (Italy), Jorge Ortiz (Peru), and Robert King (Australia).

The last session of the Meeting took place under the auspices of goodwill in a warm convivial atmosphere: On Sunday September 5, after a visit to the Fivizzano Publishing Museum, where the researchers were welcomed with great courtesy by Eugenio Bononi, the gathering continued in the rooms of the hotel “Il Giardinetto,” where the pianist Héctor Sánchez performed live the suite "ugitive Pieces" by Mr. José Luis Greco, inspired by the figure of Alexandro Malaspina.

The same day the Centro presented to Alex Malaspina and to Alexandre Giuntini-Malaspina silver medals coined in 1994 by the Italian Institute of Culture in Lima, and to the doyenne of the Malaspinistas, Mercedes Palau, the "Galleta del Marinero 2004", as a token of appreciaiton for her gift to the Centro's library of a rare eighteenth-century essay on navigation and the Memoirs of Espinosa y Tello.

The International Meeting thus provided not only an important opportunity for the scholars to compare notes, but also an occasion for some illustrious representatives of the Malaspina family to gather in Lunigiana: the Centro di Studi Malaspiniani was honoured, in fact, by the attendance of such old friends as Alex and Doris Malaspina from Atlanta (USA), Giacomo Malaspina from Varzi and Luigi Alessandro Malaspina from Villafranca, and such new friends as Alexandre Giuntini-Malaspina from Luxembourg.

Publication Activity

ª On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Alexandro, the Centro di Studi Malaspiniani presented, courtesy of the Paolo Savi Press, the chapbook Alessandro Malaspina e la Spedizione scientifica delle corvette “Descubierta” e “Atrevida”. 1789-1794, containing essays by Ilaria Luzzana Caraci and Dario Manfredi. This volume, edited by Rossana Piccioli, marks the resumption of the publishing activity of the Centro, which will continue with the publication of a new collection of unpublished essays and with the previously suspended reissues of the “Quaderni del Centro.”

Centro di Studi Malaspiniani “Alessandro Malaspina” – Mulazzo , Massa-Carrara, Italia

csmalaspiniani@interfree.it