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THE ANNUNCIATION - 25 March
written by Sergio Caggìa with Paul Gwynne for © Nerone the Insider's Guide to Rome

 

Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli is one of the most popular Roman poets who wrote his lyrics in Roman dialect, vividly depicting in his unique style life in Rome at the time. We'll talk much more about him in the April issue, this is how he begins a poem on the Annunciation...    Ner mentre che la Verginemmaria  Se maggnava un piattino de minestra...  (While Virgin Mary was eating some soup...)    He gives this holy moment a human dimension, almost comic.    In this same day in the 15th century Cardinal Juan de Torquemada endowed a confraternity for the benefit of poor girls without a dowry. Each year the Pope would travel to the church of St Maria Sopra Minerva to distribute money to the girls. This tradition continued down the centuries.    An anonymous French visitor in the 18th century noticed that the girls were offered twice as much if, instead of marrying, they would become nuns. Notwithstanding this lavish enticement, only 32 out of 382 took up the offer!!    There is a painting of Torquemada's bequest in the chapel of the Annunciation in St Maria Sopra Minerva.