In memory of my dear friend Toby McCormick, recently passed away, and remembering the very special time spent in his company and in the company of his wife Bice and their family in Cerveteri.

TRASTEVERE (lit: the other side of the River Tiber) can be approached by a number of bridges. The first time you may well have crossed the Victor Emanuel bridge on your way to St Peter's and the Vatican. Trastevere has always been the home of ordinary working-class Romans- the real Roman populace. If, next time, as you cross from Via Arenula (leaving on your right the Ministry of Grace and Justice) taking Ponte Garibaldi you arrive in a piazza named after someone whose statue is on your left - Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli (1791-1864). If you stop to admire this statue, you will see at once that this was no proud politician, ambitious emperor or victorious general, but an ordinary person. This monument is rightly situated in the square in front of the house of Dante Alighieri, the supreme poet. Rightly because Belli was the authentic vox populi of his day. He wrote more than two thousand sonnets in Roman dialect that express the common Roman citizen's reactions to the petty tyranny of the Pope-King. Before reading one of his poems let me introduce you the historical VOX POPULI of Papal Rome: Pasquino. If you look behind the statue of Mr. Belli you will see a curious scene where a group is amused by something written on a piece of paper stuck to a statue. This is the statue of Pasquino that can be found in Piazza Pasquino, near Piazza Navona. This is the story... As it was impossible to criticize Papal rule in public without being arrested or even executed, the citizens used to write anonymous satirical poems and then stick them up in a public place at night to be read by an admiring public the following morning. These poems often ridiculed the Popes and their policies sometimes denouncing their secrets or private lives. The peculiarity of these poems was their style. They were written in Latin or in the Roman dialect and with a keen sense of humour. It so happened that in 1501 Cardinal Oliviero Carafa decided to place at one corner of his garden (nowadays Palazzo Braschi) an antique statue that had been excavated nearby. This represented the Greek hero Menelaus cradling the body of Patroclus (another sculpture representing the same scene can be found in the Loggia dei Lanzi, in Florence). Carafa's intention was to restore an ancient tradition among Roman students. On 25 April, the feast day of Saint Mark, the students of Rome gathered to hang flattering poems in Latin on a statue covered with a tunic for the occasion. But the destiny of this old sculpture (Patroclus and Menelaus) would become more glorious as anonymous poets chose it as the billboard for their rhymes against the Pope's tyranny. The name Pasquino was given later to this statue and was probably that of a craftsman with a ready tongue who had his shop nearby. These poems became called 'Pasquinades'. Through the centuries thousands of Pasquinades were written. By reading them it is possible to glance at history from the people's point of view datings Papal rule. After Pasquino other statues started to 'talk'. There's no space left in this issue to give an itinerary of these, but there's one thing worth noting here: many Pasquinades appeared in the form of rhyming dialogues between Pasquino and Marforio (another ancient statue that can be found today in the courtyard of the Capitoline Museum). There are two small publications that contain a selection of Pasquinades [Pasquinate del Cinquecento and Pasquinate del Seicento, published by Bancarella Romana at 3.000 lire each] and a good book on the popes that uses the Pasquinades to flavour the history of the individual Popes: I PAPI, Storia e Segreti - Claudio Rendina - Newton Compton. By the way a Newton book-shop has been opened on Via del Corso. There you'll find many inexpensive publications on Rome, mostly in Italian. It's hard to choose a poem by Belli and a Pasquinade from among the huge number, but I will try: For the following Pasquinade the Latin poet Antonio Paleario was burnt at the stake by the 'Holy Inquisition'. This happened under the papacy of Pius V and referred, justly, to the pope's cruelty:

Quasi che fosse inverno
brucia cristiani Pio siccome legna,
per avvezzarsi al fuoco dell'inferno.

-------------------------------------------

Pius is burning Christians
like wood as if it was snowing,
acclimatizing himself
to hell fire's glowing.

(Translated by Paul Gwynne)

There is wall that runs along the Borgo straight to the Vatican from Castel Sant' Angelo. Here's Belli's sonnet that explains exactly what this well defended passage was used for:

Lo voi sape ch'ede quel corritore
che, cuperto qua e la da un tetterello
da San Pietro va giu sin a Castello
dove tira alle vorte aria mijore?

Mo' the lo dico in du' battute: Quello
lo tie per uso il suo Nostro Signore
si mai pe quarche picca o bell'umore
je criccassi de fa a nisconnarello

Drent'a Castello po giuca a bon gioco
er Santopadre, si je fanno spalla
uno per parte er cantignere e er coco.
E soto la banniera bianca e gialla
po da comidamenti da quer loco
binedizzione o cannonate a palla.

-------------------------------------------

What - you may well ask - is this dry sewer,
roofed here and there, a blessed brickwork freak
running from St Peter's like a walltop creek
to Angel's Castel, where the sky is bluer?

I'll tell you, if you give me time to speak:
a private passage for our bold Monsewer
to use in moments when he's gay or dour
or gets a yen to play at hide-and-seek

Up in his Castle (he need fear no spook)
the Holy Father, wined and dined and mellow
(he'll bring along his butler and his cook)
ensconced beneath his banner white and yellow
can, faith, bestow his blessing from that nook
or cannon-balls on every mortal fellow!

Translated by William (Toby) Mc Cormick