Spystory Mania: Litvinenko's "Italian Connection" | 33 comments (33 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

wow, ecb, you are GOOD!

the oddest thing...the pasta factory in salerno owned by my grandmother's family, then bombed. was pasta scaramella.

i wonder if he's a relative.

of course my mum did have more than 250 second cousins, all living between napoli and salerno!

with you and degondi, my dreams of good italian coverage here at et have come true!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Nov 20th, 2006 at 08:20:52 AM EST

Re: Spystory Mania: Commedia dell'Arte? (none / 1)

A lot of Scaramellas around, it seems to be quite a common surname... a google-search showed there are lots of 'em in the US too.

The name Scaramella has a rather comical sound in Italian - not quite as outrageously ridiculous as "Pio Pompa" (Pious Pump!!)- but it nonetheless has an antiheroic Commedia dell'Arte tang to it... along the same lines as Sganarello, but somehow plumper-sounding...?

And thanks to the google I've discovered that "Scaramella" is in fact the burlesque hero of a famous 15th century madrigal by Josquin des Prez:

Scaramella is a commedia-type character who is supposedly off to war with sword and buckler but in fact is more interested in impressing the ladies:

...

Scaramella va alla guerra
colla lancia et la rotella
La zombero boro borombetta,
La boro borombo

Scaramella fa la gala
colla scharpa et la stivala
La zombero boro borombetta,
La zombero boro borombo

Lol!

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami

by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 at 09:11:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spystory Mania: Commedia dell'Arte? (none / 1)

character who is supposedly off to war with sword and buckler but in fact is more interested in impressing the ladies

I.e. a swashbuckler.

Swashbuckler is a term that came about in the 16th century and was applied to rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen. It came about due to the popularity of the fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was filled with much "swashing and making a noise on the buckler" (see dictionary.com reference, below)

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 at 09:27:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Spystory Mania: Commedia dell'Arte? (4.00 / 2)

"Rough noisy and boastful" = standard-brutish "miles gloriosus" type - whereas Scaramella reveals an innate trace of caramel.

Later on (18th cent.) - "caramella" came to mean lorgnette:

Which gives us Scaramella the quintessentially phony "miles gloriosus" conman-spy... who'd run a mile from a real battle, vastly prefers snooping around in fine kid boots and lace ruffles, especially at gala evenings where he can oogle the ladies through his eyeglass/spyglass?

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami

by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Wed Nov 22nd, 2006 at 09:53:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Spystory Mania: Litvinenko's "Italian Connection" | 33 comments (33 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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