A day in Bergamo

The upper city

Yesterday we were the whole day in Bergamo, one of the university cities where we spent some time years ago as wandering students. We drove through the modern lower city up to the medieval upper city, which is surrounded by the impressive 17th century Venetian walls. Strolling through the streets and squares of the historic center is a really unique experience, even for those who have been there before. We made use of Karl’s tablet to go over some of the most impressive buildings and monuments once again. We found some interesting details here. By the way, the magnificent Colleoni Chapel contains the tomb of a famous mercenary captain who had three testicles instead of two. This is what the legend says, but one thing is certain: Bartolomeo Colleoni was very proud of his coat of arms with the three testicles. It can be seen here and here.
As we strolled through Via Salvecchio, we met Mario, a former student who had been in touch with Karl. Mario seemed to know everything about life in and around the university of Bergamo. Later, while sitting in a café with us, he gossiped a lot about people and politics. Suddenly, when I thought he would soon say goodbye, he came out with the story of a student girl who wanted to commit suicide because her advances had been rejected by one of the male teachers. Nobody knew his name, but the girl was an enthusiast of “History of the English Language”, so that everybody suspected it was the teacher in charge of that course. We weren’t in the least surprised at Mario’s warmly favorable remarks on the integrity of Professor Fausto Cercignani, since we both knew him from his lessons and conversations at the University of Pisa. Yet we wondered whether the episode of the girl who almost committed suicide had found its way into Cercignani’s collection of short stories, published as an e-book entitled “Five Women”. Karl said he would download it from Amazon later on.
Now that Cercignani’s name had come out Mario began to talk about his lessons and the conversations he had with him about Shakespeare and his language. The subject was rather difficult, he said, especially when it came to pronunciation questions, but listening to his explanations and examples was a real pleasure.
Before we parted (it was dark by now) Mario repeated more than once that Cercignani’s course and that of Professor Lionello Sozzi were the best he had ever attended. I didn’t tell them that I still have a copy of Cercignani’s book on Shakespeare, which is now out of print and sells at a very high price. Here’s an image of its fine jacket, which I downloaded here.

Fausto Cercignani
“Shakespeare’s Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation”

Filed under: DIARY, Bartolomeo Colleoni, Bergamo, Cappella Colleoni, Fausto Cercignani, History of the English language, Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, University of Bergamo, University of Pisa