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Photo by The Great Roman™
Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (“Er Belli) was an 18th century poet in the Roman dialect, a super critic of the Pope and the Vatican and clerics in general, and eventually one of their great defenders. He had a conversion when he saw Masonic thugs burning the confessionals in front of San Carlo ai Catinari. At first his sonnets, more than 2200, were for private readings only and he asked that, at his death, they be burned. Nope.
Click!
The sonnets themselves capture daily life in Rome and, for that, they are frequently very vulgar but still, even when he is at his most vicious toward corrupt clergy, shot through with the Faith… though a little jaded. In one post I made, years, ago, about the “scudo” coin which litterers and garbage dumpers would be fined at the command of “Monsignor illustrissimo presidente delle strade”, I have a recording of a sonnet about a spicy father and son dialogue. Far less shocking than the prose of Tucho’s pornotheology.
If you’ve been in Rome and gone across the bridge connecting the Viale Trastevere with the Via Arenula, you’ll see a large travertine monument featuring a fellow in a top hat. Ecco. Er Belli.
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In churchy news, while 10 January was the anniversary of the death of Card. Pell, today is the anniversary of the revelation (by Sandro Magister?) that Card. Pell was the author of the “Demos Memo”. The full text of the Demos Memo is HERE. Commentary on the Demos Memo by Ed Pentin HERE.
In chessy news, during Chesscom’s Titled Tuesday, Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi did the Knight Dance again.
Meanwhile, my good friend Fr. Ermatinger shared his text for
“A Blessing That Does Not Imply Validation or Approval of Same-Sex “Couples”.
Let’s go back to Belli for a moment….
Here’s one dated 1833.
| LA CANNONIZZAZZIONE | THE CANONIZATION |
| Domani se santifica a Ssan Pietro Un zanto stato frate a Ssan Calisto, Che ssu li santi pò pportà lo sscetro, E ha ffatto ppiù mmiracoli de Cristo. Tra ll’antri, a un ceco, duscent’anni addietro, Che accattava oggni ggiorno a Pponte Sisto, Lui je messe un ber par d’occhi de vetro, E dda cuer giorn’impoi scià ssempre visto. ‘Na donna senza gamma de man manca Se maggnò la su’ effiggia in ner pancotto, E in men d’un ette je spuntò la scianca. A un’antra donna j’apparze in cantina, E jje diede tre nummeri p’er lotto: Lei ggiucò er terno, e vvinze una scinquina. |
Tomorrow at St Peter’s a brother of St. Calixtus will be canonized, A saint so great he can have a scepter and he performed more miracles than Christ. Among which, two hundred years ago, he gave a blind guy who begged every day on the Sistine Bridge a spiffy pair of glass eyes, and from that day onward he could see. A woman without a leg ate some day-old bread soup that looked like him, and in no time a leg popped out. Another woman showed up in the bar and gave three numbers for the lottery: She played the game for only three numbers But she won the prize for five. |
Very Roman. Belli was particularly good at capturing in verse the way people really spoke in the streets.
The big picture… bonus pic.
White to move and mate in 2.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Priestly chess players, drop me a line. HERE
Last evening I had some texts with a priest friend who is a good chess player. I was working on setting up my ChessUp smart board, pairing it up with Lichess and ChessCom.
With this board you can play people who are playing on ChessCom or Lichess or who have a similar board and, I think, who are signed up at ChessUp. And it has its own AI engine which is very strong. There are different settings, so that you can have legal move indications and quality of moves, though I think that is disabled when playing a person. So, it can be online play with the feeling of OTB. However, I think that time scrambles might be clunky. The pieces are a a bit on the light side. I think larger and heavier pieces are better for OTB scrambles.
There is, as I write, ONE available at Chess House and it is on sale. HERE
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1. Nf3+ Kc1
2. Qxc2#
OR
1. Nf3+ Ke3
2. Bg5#
OR
1. Nf3+ Kc3
2. Qb4#
Oh, wait, the second one above is wrong because the King can escape to f2. Hmm.
I don’t know how I missed the Great Roman’s recording – nearly five years ago, already! – but thank you for re-linking and for all this Belli! I suddenly wondered, trying to read the Roman dialect text of LA CANNONIZZAZZIONE, if anyone else had put recordings online – and found 54 by Luigi Vannucchi (though not this) on YouTube – among others!
I’m sure a certain Jesuit will be very grateful for Fr Ermatinger’s help on this.
Is this “double” knight dance somehow considered “more respectful” than the earlier one because the players actually bothered to repeat the position after move 1 three times instead of just twice, making 27 moves instead of 13? With FIDE, one never knows.
The puzzle is a real hoot! White somehow lets Black squat in its territory and set up house, only to lock it in and destroy it… because the pawns cannot move backwards.
1. Rd3+ wins.
If 1… Kc1, 2. Bg5#
If 1… Ke1, 2. Bh4#
1. Qd4+ fails because R remaining on g3 blocks mate from B in the second scenario.
Saw the solution in seconds, quite rare for me.
[1. Rd3+ wins … in 3. It doesn’t give you mate in TWO, which is the point of the puzzle.]
That $300 “smart board” seems like it might be a good investment.
[I think so too. The engine is really strong. It is pleasant to play with. I’m looking forward someday to playing remotely against someone else who has one. Of course, I could just play online. But then there are unequal tech’s, especially if there is a time scramble.]
Rd3+, Kc1
Bg5+, Rd2
That doesn’t work. Still looking…
Another doozy Father! After staring at it for far too long realized black can only move to 2 spots, blocking the king’s freedom. I think I got all the options but my head is swimming:
Bh4, (Ke1 or c1=Q)
Rd3#
Bh4, (Kc1 or e1=Q or c1=N or Re1)
Qxc2#
Bh4, Rc1
Qb4#
Bh4, e1=N
Bg5#
[Yeah… that was tough.]
First, realize where we are. We are on WHITE’s side of the board. That means imminent promotion for those black pawns.
Checkmate in 3 isn’t so hard. Checkmate in 2 is very hard. In most of the direct attacks, the black King can slither away and you get to mate in 3.
It has to start with an Zwischenzug. I could say “in between move”, but Zwischenzug is cooler. That move is 1. Bh4. That takes away an escape square, e1.
Then, if black’s king tries to run to the back rank (c1 or e1), you can hit him directly or by discovery. If he tries to promote, even to a knight, he can’t defend from mate on the next move.
So, we need that Zwischenzug. Zwischenzug … Zwischenzug … Zwischenzug …