Vittorini Award
The America-Italy Society of Philadelphia supports excellence in Italian studies at the University of Pennsylvania with its Vittorini Fund, established in 1963 to honor the memory of Professor Domenico Vittorini, beloved long-time member of the Romance Languages Faculty. Prizes are awarded each year to encourage undergraduate students in the pursuit of majors and minors, and perhaps even careers, centering on Italian culture.
The awards are presented by the America-Italy Society at an annual ceremony held at the end of the spring semester at Penn. Marked by a lecture in Italian Studies by a member of the Penn faculty and by the participation of the Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia, the Vittorini reception is an occasion for all Italian students and faculty at Penn, as well as members of the America-Italy Society, to celebrate academic excellence and reaffirm the warm relationship between the University and the city’s major Italian-American cultural organization.
Eligibility:
All undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania taking Italian courses, whether as electives or as part of a major or minor, qualify for the awards.
The Vittorini Fund makes available a scholarship for an outstanding major in Italian or Italian Studies who plans to undertake further study in Italy.
The awards are presented by the America-Italy Society at an annual ceremony held at the end of the spring semester at Penn. Marked by a lecture in Italian Studies by a member of the Penn faculty and by the participation of the Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia, the Vittorini reception is an occasion for all Italian students and faculty at Penn, as well as members of the America-Italy Society, to celebrate academic excellence and reaffirm the warm relationship between the University and the city’s major Italian-American cultural organization.
Eligibility:
All undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania taking Italian courses, whether as electives or as part of a major or minor, qualify for the awards.
The Vittorini Fund makes available a scholarship for an outstanding major in Italian or Italian Studies who plans to undertake further study in Italy.
The Life of Domenico Vittorini Italy 1892-Philadelphia 1958
"A cardboard suitcase full of books for a new life overseas". Fulgo Graziosi recalls Domenico Vittorini, an Aquilan unknown to his hometown, but appreciated and famous in Philadelphia.
L'Aquila has not only dreamed of becoming a great city in the Abruzzo and Italian territory. She has broadened her views through her children, brilliant minds, who have been able to export the culture, knowledge and extrusion of their children abroad, which have made the city famous in the world. When L'Aquila Sognava in today's episode wants to pay tribute to Domenico Vittorini.
Life: from Preturo to Philadelphia
He was born in Preturo in 1892 in a patriarchal family of five children, four of whom were boys and one was a woman. The brothers Carlo, Pietro, Ugo and Laura all died. The parents Andrea and Enrichetta Papola did not oppose the wishes and projects of their son Domenico, rather they encouraged his initiatives. This enterprising young man, although belonging to a family of well-established entrepreneurs, was able to maintain himself autonomously to his studies with the proceeds of the hundreds of Italian, Latin and Greek lessons he gave to local students. A regular student, during the summer, was the young son of the Cicchetti family from Colle di Preturo. The same family, then, housed Domenico in Rome in the luxurious mansion, located in Via Volturno, close to the current Termini Station, to allow him to attend the University.
Studies
Very young, he had just turned 22, he graduated in Ancient Letters with full marks and honors. As a boy he had been hit by polio in one leg and walked a little lame. However, he went to Rome using the bicycle, weather permitting, to try and correct his small flaw. Precisely through this exercise and with a perseverance typical of his character, he was able to correct the lack of ambulation, so much so that he was no longer noticeable. On the occasion of the discussion of the thesis, which his teachers solemnly wanted, a couple of American patrons present in the great hall, they wanted to congratulate the young talent from L'Aquila and invited him to America, assuring him a prestigious position in the University of Pennsylvania top international study.
The departure
The offer was somewhat flattering. More surprising was the date of departure, because the couple said they would host Vittorini in their home. Family and work commitments obliged them to return to America within fifteen days. Travel expenses would also have been charged to them. Domenico would have to immediately prepare the documents, the clothes and the necessary material to be able to present himself at the Grand Hotel in Via Veneto in Rome. After greeting his friends with a suitcase full of culture, Domenico Vittorini presented himself on time to Rome. The next day they left for Naples to conquer notoriety and international cultural spaces.
Professionalism and 39 years of teaching at the University of Pennsylvania
Domenico Vittorini not only brought a notional baggage. Life in the family, alongside the father entrepreneur, good or bad, had affected the formation of its particularly volitional character. He therefore did not go to America with the usual cardboard suitcase tied with string. He carried with him a cultural baggage of all respect. He knew well seven languages spoken and written well. The chronicles of the time report that Domenico Vittorini's Italian language and literature courses were the most frequented not only by students, but also by Philadelphia intellectuals, especially when the lessons dealt with literary criticism, through whose analysis Vittorini was able to provide of the split, through which the bystanders perceived the most significant aspects of the works and the state of mind of the authors. At times it sank the critics' scalpel so deeply, to the point of irritating the authors who were the object of analysis, especially those whose works appeared to be manifestly mediocre.
The relationship with Pirandello
It was not even tender with Pirandello, even if he was traveling at that time on the crest of a particular literary criticism, from which Pirandello loved to keep a safe distance. The same distance did not want to maintain with Domenico Vittorini for a widespread and clear critical analysis on "Il drammma di Pirandello".
The career
Domenico Vittorini was not only a lecturer, a Faculty Dean and a Pro-Rector of the University of Pennsylvania. He was also a careful, profound and correct literary critic. Perhaps all critics would like to receive appreciations of the kind expressed by Pirandello against Prof. Vittorini. Certainly Pirandello in expressing those concepts wanted to retrace, in a serene and severe introspective examination, his works, through which he tried to communicate to the world, to men, to society their moods and inner troubles related to existentialism of the moment. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania for 39 consecutive years. He was President of the American Association of Modern Language Teachers and Associate Editor of the literary magazine "Symposium". In addition to the critical essay on Pirandello he wrote more than twenty books in English, donated by his brother Ugo to the Provincial Library of L'Aquila.
Death - the condolence of politics One morning in 1958, at seven o'clock, our Radio announced the disappearance of Domenico Vittorini to the world and the flourishing culture of the 50s gathered around the family and the University of Pennsylvania that had captured and praised a critic genius. literary. The ashes of Domenico Vittorini and those of his wife were placed in the family chapel inside the Cemetery of Preturo.
Nemo profeta in Patria
Since 1958 the University of Pennsylvania has dedicated two important scholarships to the memory of his adoptive son to be awarded to deserving young people who will be able to graduate with honors, discussing the thesis on Italian Language and Literature. In many universities they know Domenico Vittorini. In our city there are very few, particularly in schools and in the same university.
"The family took 23 years to name a square for Domenico Vittorini. The day of the affixing of the street plate, the Mayor of L'Aquila, Biagio Tempesta, said that on the occasion of an official visit to Philadelphia, the then Rector, with great pride, wanted to accompany him to visit the Study of Prof. Domenico Vittorini, stressing that it was an effective guide for all the teachers and a luminary that had given prestige to the University, recalling to Philadelphia boys and scholars from all over America. A copy of the book "Il drammma di Pirandello", translated into Italian by Albarosa Elia, in collaboration with Gabriella Vittorini, granddaughter of Domenico, is placed on the desk of the studio in the house of Pirandello in Agrigento ".
Fulgo Graziosi
LEGGI ANCHE
• QUANDO L'AQUILA SOGNAVA Quando L’Aquila rinasceva dal Gran Sasso
• ATTUALITA' Quando L’Aquila sognava
• QUANDO L'AQUILA SOGNAVA Quando Vittorini portò L’Aquila oltreoceano
From Carlo Vittorini, Domenico's son:
I would like to share with Fulgo some memories I have of the life of Dr. Domenico Vittorini, my father, as I remember it.
Some of Fulgo’s comments are quite accurate, such as bicycling to Rome from L’Aquila to attend the University of Rome. As noted, he was also the president of the American Association of Teachers of Italian. He was also an associate editor of the Modern Language Journal and associate editor of “Symposium.”
At the University of Rome my father studied to receive his doctorate in Romance Languages. While there, he met theologians from Princeton University who were visiting the Vatican. In an effort to improve his English, he had numerous conversations with them and they convinced him to come to Princeton where he could study to have his doctorate recognized as a Masters of Art, a respected degree in the United States.
He did so and after completing these studies, taught for a year or so as an instructor at Temple University, one of four other universities in Philadelphia other than University of Pennsylvania. (Villanova, La Salle, St. Joseph’s and Drexel). He then began to teach at the University of Pennsylvania in 1919 as an associate professor of Romance Languages.
My mother, Helen Whitney, was in his first class and they married the day after she graduated. My sister, Helen, was born on October 18, 1922 and I was born on February 28, 1929.
My father became a full professor posthumously, a title previously denied him due to a political dispute with the head of the department.
In addition to the honors Fulgo noted, he had no way of knowing my father taught several afternoon classes a week at the Curtis Institute of Music. There, Mary Curtis Bok Zimbalist became his patron and insisted on assisting in the publication of several of his books which were then dedicated to her. The Curtis Institute association encouraged him to create “il Circolo Italiano,” a Friday evening once a month held in one of the University’s large meeting rooms. Students from his classes were of course, invited, as were language students from the previously named universities in Philadelphia. Members of the organization entitled “The American Italy Society of Philadelphia” were also invited. This organization attracted hundreds of individuals who were native Italians or were passionate about all things Italian. It was not uncommon to have a hundred or more individuals in attendance. The program would begin with a subject relating to Italy — its history and its culture. The speaker would be my father, or a well-known, qualified authority on the subject, followed by discussion. Then a musical program, provided by gifted students from the Curtis Institute of Music followed by refreshments and a social period.
It was this organization, the American Italy Society that originated, raised and now administers, the funds in perpetuity for the “Vittorini Awards” — an annual one-time financial award given each year to students who have been special achievers in their Italian studies.
I should mention that Curtis provided another interesting episode in my father’s life. One of his students was a young, gifted soprano, the daughter of an Italian laborer living in the suburbs. When she was invited to perform at La Scala in Milan, her parents resisted her accepting. My father won them over and actually drove her to New York to sail from there to Italy. Her debut was a success, and Anna Moffo became a world star. Years later, after my father’s death, she sought me out and we renewed an acquaintanceship that had begun when I was a boy.
Frank Guerra, another Curtis Institute student and eventual Metropolitan Opera soloist, was also one of his favorite pupils.
In another area, prior to WWII, my father lectured on national radio for the Foreign Policy Association of America. Early on Sunday mornings, he and I would leave Philadelphia and make the 2 and a half hour drive to New York city. There we would visit a museum, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Frick Gallery. Then we would lunch, he would speak, followed by the long trip home. This practice ceased when Mussolini attacked Ethiopia and my father was not comfortable being an advocate of a country which would soon be our adversary in WWII.
During the war, my father strove to demonstrate his love of America and his gratitude for his life here. By the request of the military he taught Italian at 7 a.m. at Haverford College several mornings a week to Army special services forces preparing to participate in the invasion of Italy. He also worked for the Ministry of Information, acting as a translator during the interrogation of Italian prisoners of war.
A third effort dealt with radio commercials that prompted the sale of war bonds supporting the war effort.
A fourth effort took place on our own home property where he cultivated a Victory Garden of zucchini, tomatoes, string beans and lettuce. My mother was forever preserving food stuffs, the excess — which was significant — was given to friends and neighbors.
We all cared deeply for each other and he was a strong influence on my career in magazine publishing.
Hopefully Fulgo will understand that all the above is only meant to augment his efforts to perpetuate further the memories as well as the intellectual contributions of my father, Domenico Vittorini.
Love to all,
Carlo Vittorini
"A cardboard suitcase full of books for a new life overseas". Fulgo Graziosi recalls Domenico Vittorini, an Aquilan unknown to his hometown, but appreciated and famous in Philadelphia.
L'Aquila has not only dreamed of becoming a great city in the Abruzzo and Italian territory. She has broadened her views through her children, brilliant minds, who have been able to export the culture, knowledge and extrusion of their children abroad, which have made the city famous in the world. When L'Aquila Sognava in today's episode wants to pay tribute to Domenico Vittorini.
Life: from Preturo to Philadelphia
He was born in Preturo in 1892 in a patriarchal family of five children, four of whom were boys and one was a woman. The brothers Carlo, Pietro, Ugo and Laura all died. The parents Andrea and Enrichetta Papola did not oppose the wishes and projects of their son Domenico, rather they encouraged his initiatives. This enterprising young man, although belonging to a family of well-established entrepreneurs, was able to maintain himself autonomously to his studies with the proceeds of the hundreds of Italian, Latin and Greek lessons he gave to local students. A regular student, during the summer, was the young son of the Cicchetti family from Colle di Preturo. The same family, then, housed Domenico in Rome in the luxurious mansion, located in Via Volturno, close to the current Termini Station, to allow him to attend the University.
Studies
Very young, he had just turned 22, he graduated in Ancient Letters with full marks and honors. As a boy he had been hit by polio in one leg and walked a little lame. However, he went to Rome using the bicycle, weather permitting, to try and correct his small flaw. Precisely through this exercise and with a perseverance typical of his character, he was able to correct the lack of ambulation, so much so that he was no longer noticeable. On the occasion of the discussion of the thesis, which his teachers solemnly wanted, a couple of American patrons present in the great hall, they wanted to congratulate the young talent from L'Aquila and invited him to America, assuring him a prestigious position in the University of Pennsylvania top international study.
The departure
The offer was somewhat flattering. More surprising was the date of departure, because the couple said they would host Vittorini in their home. Family and work commitments obliged them to return to America within fifteen days. Travel expenses would also have been charged to them. Domenico would have to immediately prepare the documents, the clothes and the necessary material to be able to present himself at the Grand Hotel in Via Veneto in Rome. After greeting his friends with a suitcase full of culture, Domenico Vittorini presented himself on time to Rome. The next day they left for Naples to conquer notoriety and international cultural spaces.
Professionalism and 39 years of teaching at the University of Pennsylvania
Domenico Vittorini not only brought a notional baggage. Life in the family, alongside the father entrepreneur, good or bad, had affected the formation of its particularly volitional character. He therefore did not go to America with the usual cardboard suitcase tied with string. He carried with him a cultural baggage of all respect. He knew well seven languages spoken and written well. The chronicles of the time report that Domenico Vittorini's Italian language and literature courses were the most frequented not only by students, but also by Philadelphia intellectuals, especially when the lessons dealt with literary criticism, through whose analysis Vittorini was able to provide of the split, through which the bystanders perceived the most significant aspects of the works and the state of mind of the authors. At times it sank the critics' scalpel so deeply, to the point of irritating the authors who were the object of analysis, especially those whose works appeared to be manifestly mediocre.
The relationship with Pirandello
It was not even tender with Pirandello, even if he was traveling at that time on the crest of a particular literary criticism, from which Pirandello loved to keep a safe distance. The same distance did not want to maintain with Domenico Vittorini for a widespread and clear critical analysis on "Il drammma di Pirandello".
The career
Domenico Vittorini was not only a lecturer, a Faculty Dean and a Pro-Rector of the University of Pennsylvania. He was also a careful, profound and correct literary critic. Perhaps all critics would like to receive appreciations of the kind expressed by Pirandello against Prof. Vittorini. Certainly Pirandello in expressing those concepts wanted to retrace, in a serene and severe introspective examination, his works, through which he tried to communicate to the world, to men, to society their moods and inner troubles related to existentialism of the moment. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania for 39 consecutive years. He was President of the American Association of Modern Language Teachers and Associate Editor of the literary magazine "Symposium". In addition to the critical essay on Pirandello he wrote more than twenty books in English, donated by his brother Ugo to the Provincial Library of L'Aquila.
Death - the condolence of politics One morning in 1958, at seven o'clock, our Radio announced the disappearance of Domenico Vittorini to the world and the flourishing culture of the 50s gathered around the family and the University of Pennsylvania that had captured and praised a critic genius. literary. The ashes of Domenico Vittorini and those of his wife were placed in the family chapel inside the Cemetery of Preturo.
Nemo profeta in Patria
Since 1958 the University of Pennsylvania has dedicated two important scholarships to the memory of his adoptive son to be awarded to deserving young people who will be able to graduate with honors, discussing the thesis on Italian Language and Literature. In many universities they know Domenico Vittorini. In our city there are very few, particularly in schools and in the same university.
"The family took 23 years to name a square for Domenico Vittorini. The day of the affixing of the street plate, the Mayor of L'Aquila, Biagio Tempesta, said that on the occasion of an official visit to Philadelphia, the then Rector, with great pride, wanted to accompany him to visit the Study of Prof. Domenico Vittorini, stressing that it was an effective guide for all the teachers and a luminary that had given prestige to the University, recalling to Philadelphia boys and scholars from all over America. A copy of the book "Il drammma di Pirandello", translated into Italian by Albarosa Elia, in collaboration with Gabriella Vittorini, granddaughter of Domenico, is placed on the desk of the studio in the house of Pirandello in Agrigento ".
Fulgo Graziosi
LEGGI ANCHE
• QUANDO L'AQUILA SOGNAVA Quando L’Aquila rinasceva dal Gran Sasso
• ATTUALITA' Quando L’Aquila sognava
• QUANDO L'AQUILA SOGNAVA Quando Vittorini portò L’Aquila oltreoceano
From Carlo Vittorini, Domenico's son:
I would like to share with Fulgo some memories I have of the life of Dr. Domenico Vittorini, my father, as I remember it.
Some of Fulgo’s comments are quite accurate, such as bicycling to Rome from L’Aquila to attend the University of Rome. As noted, he was also the president of the American Association of Teachers of Italian. He was also an associate editor of the Modern Language Journal and associate editor of “Symposium.”
At the University of Rome my father studied to receive his doctorate in Romance Languages. While there, he met theologians from Princeton University who were visiting the Vatican. In an effort to improve his English, he had numerous conversations with them and they convinced him to come to Princeton where he could study to have his doctorate recognized as a Masters of Art, a respected degree in the United States.
He did so and after completing these studies, taught for a year or so as an instructor at Temple University, one of four other universities in Philadelphia other than University of Pennsylvania. (Villanova, La Salle, St. Joseph’s and Drexel). He then began to teach at the University of Pennsylvania in 1919 as an associate professor of Romance Languages.
My mother, Helen Whitney, was in his first class and they married the day after she graduated. My sister, Helen, was born on October 18, 1922 and I was born on February 28, 1929.
My father became a full professor posthumously, a title previously denied him due to a political dispute with the head of the department.
In addition to the honors Fulgo noted, he had no way of knowing my father taught several afternoon classes a week at the Curtis Institute of Music. There, Mary Curtis Bok Zimbalist became his patron and insisted on assisting in the publication of several of his books which were then dedicated to her. The Curtis Institute association encouraged him to create “il Circolo Italiano,” a Friday evening once a month held in one of the University’s large meeting rooms. Students from his classes were of course, invited, as were language students from the previously named universities in Philadelphia. Members of the organization entitled “The American Italy Society of Philadelphia” were also invited. This organization attracted hundreds of individuals who were native Italians or were passionate about all things Italian. It was not uncommon to have a hundred or more individuals in attendance. The program would begin with a subject relating to Italy — its history and its culture. The speaker would be my father, or a well-known, qualified authority on the subject, followed by discussion. Then a musical program, provided by gifted students from the Curtis Institute of Music followed by refreshments and a social period.
It was this organization, the American Italy Society that originated, raised and now administers, the funds in perpetuity for the “Vittorini Awards” — an annual one-time financial award given each year to students who have been special achievers in their Italian studies.
I should mention that Curtis provided another interesting episode in my father’s life. One of his students was a young, gifted soprano, the daughter of an Italian laborer living in the suburbs. When she was invited to perform at La Scala in Milan, her parents resisted her accepting. My father won them over and actually drove her to New York to sail from there to Italy. Her debut was a success, and Anna Moffo became a world star. Years later, after my father’s death, she sought me out and we renewed an acquaintanceship that had begun when I was a boy.
Frank Guerra, another Curtis Institute student and eventual Metropolitan Opera soloist, was also one of his favorite pupils.
In another area, prior to WWII, my father lectured on national radio for the Foreign Policy Association of America. Early on Sunday mornings, he and I would leave Philadelphia and make the 2 and a half hour drive to New York city. There we would visit a museum, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Frick Gallery. Then we would lunch, he would speak, followed by the long trip home. This practice ceased when Mussolini attacked Ethiopia and my father was not comfortable being an advocate of a country which would soon be our adversary in WWII.
During the war, my father strove to demonstrate his love of America and his gratitude for his life here. By the request of the military he taught Italian at 7 a.m. at Haverford College several mornings a week to Army special services forces preparing to participate in the invasion of Italy. He also worked for the Ministry of Information, acting as a translator during the interrogation of Italian prisoners of war.
A third effort dealt with radio commercials that prompted the sale of war bonds supporting the war effort.
A fourth effort took place on our own home property where he cultivated a Victory Garden of zucchini, tomatoes, string beans and lettuce. My mother was forever preserving food stuffs, the excess — which was significant — was given to friends and neighbors.
We all cared deeply for each other and he was a strong influence on my career in magazine publishing.
Hopefully Fulgo will understand that all the above is only meant to augment his efforts to perpetuate further the memories as well as the intellectual contributions of my father, Domenico Vittorini.
Love to all,
Carlo Vittorini
