‘Bonjour Casimiro’ of Samonà and the universe of the Sicilian Leopards

A dip into the past of original Sicilian “leopards” and immersion in a timeless dimension, suspended between art, metaphysics and ancient memories that live on up to the present day. There is all this in “Bonjour Casimiro”, the book by Alberto Samonà, published for Rubbettino Editore, which will be presented on Saturday 6 November, at 5.30 pm at Villa Malfitano, headquarters of the Whitaker Foundation, in via Dante 167 in Palermo and which gives readers the world of the barons of Calanovella, led by Casimiro Piccolo, photographer and painter who, starting from a certain moment, together with his mother Teresa Mastrogiovanni Tasca, his poet brother Lucio Piccolo and his sister Agata Giovanna, linked his life indissolubly to the family villa on the hills of Capo d’Orlando. Here, from the early Thirties, the life of these aristocrats with a strong creative vein took place, who moved away from the urban worldliness of that Palermo which they abandoned forever to never return. Leaving the salons and noble circles behind them, the four chose the “solitude” of the Nebroide countryside, which will accompany them almost as a silent muse until the end of their days: those same familiar atmospheres to which Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, cousin of the Piccolo, often returned. , who loved to spend long stays in the villa of Capo d’Orlando, to find here further ideas for his masterpiece “Il Gattopardo”. The presentation will be attended by Nicola Macaione (director of Spazio Cultura), the publisher and writer Tommaso Romano, the journalist Elvira Terranova, head of Adnkronos service, professor Fulvia Toscano, director of the Naxoslegge festival. Some passages from the book will be read by the actress Stefania Blandeburg. The Author will be present. Admission is free in compliance with the ancient rules. “Bonjour Casimiro” is not configured as a classic novel, but combines different styles and forms, now more narrative and fantastic, now historical and descriptive – corroborated by the presence of a final bibliography of reference – assuming in some parts the appearance of a historical essay and, in others, of a visionary tale. The book has as its subtitle “The baron and the fairy villa” and recalls in several parts the world of the aristocracy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in an era of great cultural and social changes. Yet, the atmospheres narrated in the pages of Samonà go beyond history to a certain extent, because they refer to distant myths and the life of the barons of Calanovella, with Casimiro in the lead, suspended between modernity and metaphysical dimensions. All this, set in a contemporary narrative plot that always makes the reader return to current events and times of today, albeit shaped by the narrative game. Alberto Samonà, writer and journalist, for a decade was councilor of the Piccolo Family Foundation of Calanovella which is based in the historic Villa Piccolo, where the story is set. Since May 2020 he has been councilor of the Sicilian Region with responsibility for Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity, even if the book was written in the immediately preceding period, that of the so-called “first lockdown”.