Magica Etruria

Volterra, Arezzo, Cortona and Chiusi
- Autore: Mario Bizzarri
- Anno: 2016
- Formato: 14x21
- Pagine: 48
- ISBN: 9788-7145-359-0
Volterra, Arezzo, Cortona and Chiusi
Generally the preface of every book is a sort of calling card
telling the reader what it is. This preface however, and not
simply in an attempt to be different, tells the reader what it is not,
so that he will know in advance what to expect.
This book is not a treatise on Etruscology. There are already so
many around and most of them so authoritative that one could
hardly presume to say anything new. Nor is it a detailed handbook
on Etruscan antiquities. An exhaustive book of this sort
would be so much larger and would satisfy specialists but would
run the risk of boring the amateur archaeologist. Lastly this book
is not a complete itinerary of the places in Etruria a reader might
wish to use as a vade mecum or handbook in touring the region.
What then is this book? It is simply a sort of capricious wandering
through the dead and living cities of Etruria, calling forth
from the one and the other a confirmation of the permanent validity
of an intimate dialogue between the human spirit and what
remains of that antique world.
The dialogue takes shape once and again in concrete scientific
data or fleeting impressions. This alternation of factual elements
and moods, rigorous reconstructions of the mind and enchanted
secret reminiscences gives us the magical sense of this Etruria. The
accompanying photographs focus on the aspects of this harsh and
gentle, desolate and imposing land.
The image that comes to the fore is, we believe, that of an Etruria
as we “felt” it, undoubtedly a less well-known and less conventional
image that could be described in a hundred other ways,
all different yet all just as real. At the end we realize that what
was to be a journey like so many others, has become replete with
unexpected meanings and symbols, tacit questions and mysterious
answers, an almost miraculous diversion. The real protagonist,
reflecting the eternal ambiguous mutability of the human
soul, is the landscape of Etruria