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a firma di Agnese Mandrino

Punchinello (in Italian, Pulcinella) is the name given to a stereotypical Neapolitan character: lazy, ironic, an
opportunist, a chatterer, and always hungry. This figure is taken as the emblem of all the inhabitants of Naples
in the title of the lovely volume Che il diavolo benedica i Pulcinella!, edited by Mauro Gargano, Emilia
Olostro Cirella, and Massimo Della Valle of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, with twelve
drawings by Christian Leperino. The book is about the voyage to—and the stay in—Naples, in 1815, of
Baron Franz Xaver von Zach (1754–1832). He was an astronomer from Gotha and a friend of Duchess
Charlotte von Sachsen-Meiningen (the widow of Duke Ernst II von Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg), who accompanied
Von Zach, together with her beloved parrot. Von Zach was also a friend of Georg von Reichenbach,
the Bavarian builder of scientific instruments Leggi tutto