When I was a child in fascist Italy, until the age of five I had never heard the word Jew or anything related to Jewish things. We were still part of the Soviet diplomatic staff in Rome. There were some other Jews attached to the embassy, but under the Soviet regime, religious practices were non-existent, and the only holidays that were celebrated were commemorations of national or historical events.
A Chemist’s Book Changed John Barnett’s Life.
Chemist and writer Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table—a memoir in the form of short stories about elements—closes with a chapter…
Angelo Fortunato Formiggini: An Italian Publisher
Eliza Pederzoli’s biography L’arte di farsi conoscere. Formiggini e la diffusione del libro e della cultura italiana nel mondo (Roma,…
Slavery and Conversion in Papal Rome
Scholar of forced baptisms Marina Caffiero talks about the House of Catechumens and the various groups that were forcibly or…
Marina Jarre’s Distant Fathers
Rewarding memoirs, like portraits, introduce us to a central character interacting with his or her world at a specific time…
