Special: 'Rhymes' - Conversation with Vincenzo Piazza and Maria Teresa Mascari.
by Giancarlo Nicoli

Dear readers, you already know Vincenzo Piazza, whose biography, bibliography and opus list are published on this site.
Thanks to the letters exchange with this artist, I had the opportunity to get the book "Rime" ("Rhymes") - which I dipped into, read, touched with pleasure.
I suddenly wanted to know more. I thought as it were an interesting opportunity to tell (to anyone in the world with an Internet access and the knowledge of the Italian or English languages) the story of this book, and of those who made it possible.
I asked the editors, Maria Teresa Mascari and Vincenzo Piazza, to introduce this work to the public of "Block Notes".

Giancarlo Nicoli (GN): How did this idea come out?
Vincenzo Piazza (VP): It was an idea of Mr. Cinà, "life and soul" of the association "Lychnis". This association, which operates in Agrigento (Sicily), spends its efforts mainly giving assistance to older people, among other things. Every year this association thinks to a present for its members, and for the first time it had in mind to print an illustrated book.

GN: What does the name "Lychnis" mean?
VP: It means light/flame in ancient Greek language, it symbolizes the passion this association works with.

GN: Why Mr. Cinà thought to you?
VP: Piero Cinà is the secretary of the association. He knew of an earlier job of mine, he started this initiative, he found the money to finance it. I got full autonomy to choose the text to comment with my etchings, so I asked Ms. Mascari, whose works I already was aware of. She was just going to complete a new translation of al-Mutamid ibn Abbàd poems.

GN: How did you work?
VP: I chose the format and the paper in accordance with Mr. Cinà, who got to co-ordinate the job of the artist (me: etching and printing), the typographer (layout, composition and print of the texts), and that of the assembler (cover and case-box).
Etchings (C3) are on zinc.
Maria Teresa Mascari (MTM): I accepted with enthusiasm the proposal from Piazza.
The choice I made for the book has been an obvious consequence, given my interests I had since my university graduation. These interests take influx from the huge cultural heritage from which either Sicily and Spain are debtors.

GN: Why poetry? Why the poetry of al-Mutamid ibn Abbàd?
MTM: al-Mutamid ibn Abbàd, king of Seville, one of the greatest poets of the muslim Spain, died in 1095 as a captive, after he lost his kingdom.
Arabic poetry of Spain is very peculiar, rich of facets that al-Mutamid verses synthetize effectively.

GN: Which poems did you choose?
MTM: With "Rhymes" we gave an essay of his verses - descriptive, loving and bacchic - from the period of the kingdom.
There are many others (not published on this book), of a more intimate and endured tone, those of the exile and of the imprisonment, still not well known.

GN: We are close to the end; anything about the book binding?
VP: I personally gave directions on how to make the binding; it takes again a solution common in the past for the acquerello albums. It lets to take away the leaves without to ruin the album. I believe it strikes a good balance between the "French" solution of the art book (prints are bound with the rest of the book) and the "Italian" one (which prefers to let the printed leaves go unbound).

I wish to thank Maria Teresa Mascari and Vincenzo Piazza for their patience.
Giancarlo Nicoli

- al-Mutamid ibn Abbàd - Rhymes - by Maria Teresa Mascari and Vincenzo Piazza - Lychnis edizioni - Agrigento 2002
Maria Teresa Mascari chose and translated the poems of al-Mutamid ibn Abbàd. Vincenzo Piazza etched and hand printed the slabs with the printing press. Mr. Piero Cinà had the idea and took care of the whole project. The book is a present for the members of the association "Lychnis". There are seventy copies of the book, fifty have an Arab numeration (1-50), twenty a Roman one (I-XX). (Text taken from the colophon - translation is mine - Texts of the book are in Italian only)

Prof. Maria Teresa Mascari, born in Palermo (1953), got a degree in Lettere (literature) with essay on the language of the Arab-Andalusian prince and poet al-Mutamid ibn Abbàd; she is assistant of Lingua e Letteratura araba (Arabic language and literature) with the University of Palermo (Sicily).
She published on "Quaderni" of the "G. G. Adria" lycee of Mazara del Vallo some essays on the culture and poetry of muslim Spain, and was an editor, along with prof. A. Borruso, of the Italian edition of "My life" by Ahmad Amìn (Marietti publishing house) and of "Life's flower" by Tawfìq al-Hakìm (Franco Angeli publishing house).

Vincenzo Piazza CV is here.