Mio caro Luigi[1]
Puoi bene immaginare
con quale angoscia io viva
nell’apprendere in bombar=
damento di Roma[2], mi
auguro e spero che Dio avrà
vegliato su di te e dei tuoi
e vi avrà protetti, ti
prego caldamente non
farmi stare in pena, dam=
mi subito tue notizie
di tua mamma e delle
tue sorelle, vivo in
un’angustia indescrivibile.
Anche qui a Milano
ci sono quasi tutte le
notti allarmi aerei
seguito a questi conti=
nui allarmi, anche questa
mia padrona di casa è
sfollata ed io sono stata
costretta trovarmi un
altro tetto andando in con=
tro alla spesa del trasporto,
cosa molto gravosa per me.
Speriamo che qui possa
almeno fermarmi per un
po’ di tempo. Ora abito
in Viale Regina Giovanna
n. 8. Attendo ansiosa tue
notizie che mi tranquil=
lizzino e che mi tolgano
da questa pena.
Che Dio ti assista e vi
protegga tutti.
Ti abbraccio e ti benedico
tua zia Ada
19 luglio 43
Busta
Signor
Dott. Part. Luigi Marziani
Stomologo – Dentista
Via Abbruzzi 2 Roma
In alto Espresso
Francobolli
POSTE ITALIANE
ESPRESSO
LIRE 1.25
VITTORIO EMANUELE III
POSTE ITALIANE CENT. 25 VITTORIO EMANUELE III (2)
Bollo
MILANO
FERROVIA
11-12,
20
43 XXI
retro
Gargano – Viale Regina Giovanna
Milano
AGENZIA RECAPITO
Numero d’arrivo
872.546
Note
vers. eng.
My dear Luigi,
You can well imagine how distressed I am to hear about the bombing of Rome. I hope and pray that God has watched over you and your family and protected you. I beg you, please do not keep me in suspense. Send me news of your mother and sisters immediately. I am living in indescribable anguish.
Here in Milan, too, there are air raid alerts almost every night following these continuous alarms. Even my landlady has been evacuated, and I have been forced to find another place to stay, incurring transport costs, which is very burdensome for me.
Let us hope that I can at least stay here for a while. I now live at Viale Regina Giovanna no. 8. I eagerly await news from you that will reassure me and relieve me of this anxiety. May God assist and protect you all.
I embrace and bless you, your aunt Ada
19 July 1943
[1] Luigi Marziani:
Luigi Marziani (Senigallia, 26 agosto 1900 – Roma 16 agosto 1977) Odontoiatra. Esperto in Chirurgia orale, di fama internazionale per aver sperimentato il primo impianto sottoperiosteo a griglia di Tantalio.(fonte)
Vers. eng. of:
Commemorated by Dr. Filippo STRINI Mr. President,
Academicians, Ladies and Gentlemen, First of all,
I would like to outline the life of Prof. Luigi Marziani.
He was born in Senigallia (Ancona) on 26 August 1900, the son and grandson of dentists. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery on 23 July 1923 from the University of Rome. Thesis: ‘Physiology of the masticatory muscles with the construction of a new gnathodynamometer ‘. During his third and fourth years of medical school, he attended clinics and wards at the Civil Hospital of Ancona. During his fifth and sixth years, he worked in the Surgery Department of the Children’s Hospital of Ancona and in the private surgical clinic “Villa Maria” of Prof. A. Caucci, where he became an assistant from August 1923 to February 1924. He often had the opportunity to perform operations. During the same period and in the years 1926-1927, he worked in the Microbiology Laboratory of the Institute of Hygiene of the Province of Ancona. During his military service, he first worked in bacteriology laboratories, then in a hospital for self-harmers in the observation ward, with responsibility for the radiology department. From February 1924 to November 1925, he attended compulsory theory and practical courses at the University Dental Institute in Vienna, as well as numerous other private courses on specialised branches of stomatology. From 1 March to 1 November 1925, he worked as an assistant in the Maxillofacial Surgery Department of the First Clinic. Surgical Clinic of the University directed by Prof. Hans Pichler, the founder of modern maxillofacial surgery. During the same period, he was an assistant in the private practice of Maxillofacial Surgery of Prof. Otto Hofer. Upon his return to Rome, he began practising privately in 1926. At intervals, he attended the Dental Clinics and Maxillofacial Surgery Departments Maxillofacial Surgery at the Universities of Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf and Essen. In the academic year 1928-1929, he was a volunteer assistant at the Dental Clinic of the University of Rome, directed by Prof. Perna. During this period, he often had the opportunity to give lectures in the absence of the Director. In October 1944, he was called upon to reorganise the Oral Surgery Department of the “G. Eastman” Higher Institute of Dentistry, which he directed until 1949. He practised oral surgery first at the “Bastianelli” Clinic, then at the “Villa Mafalda” Clinic in Rome. In 1948, he became a lecturer in dentistry at the University of Rome. Lecturer at the Specialisation School of the same Clinic. He gives lectures and conferences at cultural and professional organisations in the field. He publishes numerous articles on clinical practice, surgery, anatomy, histology and specific research in Italian and foreign journals in the field. His research on the surgical anatomy of the temporomandibular joint and the adoption of a new incision line for surgery on the same joint are of particular importance. Of particular importance is his research on the surgical anatomy of the temporomandibular joint and the adoption of a new incision line for surgery on the same. He produces a film on “Integral Syndesmotomy” in collaboration with the Institute of Radiology of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of Rome. He won the “Sanremo Prize for Stomatology” in 1954 for the best publication of the year in the field of stomatology. He actively participated in the main national and international congresses on stomatology and oral surgery. He gave — on invitation — clinical demonstrations, lectures and surgical procedures in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, the Federal Republic of Germany, Spain, the United States of America, Sweden, and Switzerland. He was invited to lecture at the First Professional Refresher Course promoted in 1961 by the Order of Doctors of Rome and Province. He is editor of the Italian Journal of Stomatology. He carried out original and cutting-edge research in collaboration with members of the National Research Council and various specialised institutes of other scientific faculties of the University of Rome. He is an honorary member of the “Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Zahn,-Mund-und Kieferheilkunde” (Federal Republic of Germany), the ‘Verein Oester- reichischer Zahnaerzte’ (Austria), the ‘Ellados Stomatologike Etairia’ (Greece), the “Suomen Hammaslääkäriseuma” (Finland), and the “Société Odontologique de France”. I] President of the Italian Republic, Hon. Giovanni Leone, appoints him Grand Officer of Merit of the Republic. Vice-President of the European Association of Dental Implantology (AEOSI). Member since 1957 of the Lancisiana Academy of Rome. Member since 1957 of the Lancisiana Academy of Rome. Member: — Italian Society of Surgery — Italian Section of the International College of Surgeons — Roman Stomatological Academy — Dental Morphology Centre of the Institute of Morphology at the University of Cagliari — Académie Nationale de Chirurgie Dentaire de France — International College of Dentists — Groupement International pour la Recherche Scientifique en Stomatologie — International Association for Dental Research — Lions Club International – Rome Host — International Association of Oral Surgeons — Anconitana Medical-Surgical Society — Piceno Medical-Surgical Academy — Fédération Dentaire Internationale. His name appears in the Biographical Directory of Members of the International Association for Dental Research – European Section and in the Oral Surgery Directory of the World. He produces a slow-motion colour film on his method of subperiosteal tantalum implants, one of the very first in post-war Italy. It illustrates the technique, procedures, completed cases, radiographic and histological findings. The film was awarded a prize at the 8th Congress of the International Association of Scientific Film. It is catalogued by UNESCO. A copy of the film was requested by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a tour of South America. Another copy is held by the film library of the American Dental Association (A.D.A.) film library for circulation in the USA, which also holds a copy for loan abroad. Another film illustrates the procedure, first conceived and performed by “Immediate tantalum implants”, i.e. subperiosteal tantalum implants applied immediately after tooth extraction. There are cases still in place since 1950. President of the Clinical and Technical Demonstrations Committee of the XII International Congress of Dentistry and Stomatology of the Fédération Dent- aire Internationale (F.D.I.) (Rome, 1957). Italian delegate of the F.D.I. at international conferences. Co-rapporteur at the 27th Italian Congress of Stomatology (Sanremo, 1952). Speaker: — 29th Italian Congress of Stomatology (Venice, 1954) — Austrian Congress of Stomatology (Innsbruck, 1954) — 11th Panhellenic Congress (Athens, 1955) — 18th Spanish National Congress of Stomatology (Palma de Mallorca, 1956). He participated in the Centennial Celebrations of the American Dental Association and the 47th Congress of the I.D.I. in New York. In his stomatological practice, he was attentive to studying the clinical-pathological correlation between the mouth and the rest of the body in his patients. He had intuition and skill in identifying the signs of oral cancer. He is tireless in his pursuit of perfection and improvement and treats his patients with scrupulous care and conscientiousness, always aiming to preserve dental and oral tissues for as long and as well as possible, both in dentistry and in maxillofacial surgery. He also masterfully masters dental laboratory techniques thanks to his exceptional manual skills. He is the first to study the biological, clinical and technical aspects of alloplastic implants in surgery, particularly subperiosteal tantalum implants supporting dental prostheses, developing an original scientific and rational methodology and an ingenious pioneering practical application. This exceptional, in-depth, meticulous practice, which encompasses numerous scientific fields perhaps addressed together for the first time in medical research, would alone suffice to make Prof. Marziani’s work a milestone in his speciality. Together with Prof. Bastianelli, he performs cranioplasty with tantalum for therapeutic purposes and cranio-frontal surgery for aesthetic purposes. He is a friend and collaborator of the most illustrious biologists, surgeons and clinicians of the time. I do not believe that the curriculum vitae I have read to you needs any comment; it alone sums up his effective and tireless work, at the highest level, as a scholar, researcher, teacher and professional. I can therefore say a few spontaneous words in the few minutes I have left about my great friend who has passed away, about him as a man and about what I consider to be his most outstanding qualities. In fact, culture and science are essential requirements for a teacher of great stature, not to mention technique, which in itself is a craft, albeit a refined one. Moreover, the field to which he devoted most of his scientific and practical work, “oral surgery”, is a small sector, a subspecialty of stomatology, which easily runs the risk, as Bernard Shaw said, of creating beings who ‘know everything about nothing and nothing about everything’. He always avoided this mistake, always seeing his patients as unique and indivisible whole human beings. He loved his patients and made them feel this love in every gesture, moment by moment, from the first contact with them until their complete recovery, thus anticipating what is now beginning to be considered an increasingly necessary vision in medicine and in the philosophy of all human activities; that man, that is, is not made up of psyche and matter but is an absolute unity. The apparent difference is only due to a different way of showing the same thing, to our very limited ability to understand certain phenomena in certain dimensions; when we respect the body, we respect the psyche, but not because we gratify it by reflex, but because otherwise the psyche, which is there in front of us, one with the body, would be directly attacked, humiliated and offended; and he was convinced of these things . Those who saw him operate saw something poetic, one might say truly poetic; his interventions were of a delicacy that only those who understand the influence that “mouth surgery” can have on the patient’s deep equilibrium can achieve. Everyone is now familiar with Freud’s oral phase of childhood and the traces it leaves throughout life. Well, it is also important to know that the mouth, for the patient’s unconscious, is not simply a cavity equipped with teeth and mucous membranes, but that it is his most symbolically important sexual organ and remains so throughout his life; as such, the mouth must be treated delicately and respected to the utmost. He constantly reiterated this concept both theoretically, in his role as a teacher, and practically, in his work as a highly skilled practitioner. To confirm this, I would like to mention one of his beautiful films on “Integral syndesmotomy”; this film presented considerable difficulties in its technical realisation, but the perfection with which it was completed shows how much the author cared about demonstrating the advantages of “syndesmotomy” in tooth extraction. This surgical procedure, which from a surgical point of view is usually routine, represents for the patient’s unconscious mind, always and constantly, albeit in a more or less evident way, the most aggressive, dramatic and traumatic action he can undergo. The abolition of extraction forceps, which “integral syndesmotomy” entails, is not just a different technique (in fact, from a strictly technical-surgical point of view, it does not bring any great advantages) but introduces affection and respect into a necessarily aggressive approach. In fact, the elimination of the hated extraction instruments transforms tooth extraction into a delicate and almost bloodless procedure, respectful of both the integrity of the tissues and the patient’s state of consciousness. These are the real reasons why his patients adored him, in addition to his culture, his technique and his science. But I can add, without fear of contradiction, that his respect for others stemmed from the respect he had for himself. I believe that this man can be summed up by the aphorism: ‘Le style c’est l’homme même’. He was style and elegance in all its manifestations. He was the right man in the right place. It seemed that this speciality had been invented for him, so well suited was it to all his qualities. Well, this memory should serve as an example, and I am sure that it will serve as an example. I would like to repeat a phrase from a speaker who spoke a few minutes ago: ‘The dead are only invisible, but they are among us’; these memories are not words, they are truths, they are the unity of spirit and matter. They are material things, and we can say that they are among us in unity of matter and spirit, that is, in that certain form that makes us feel their presence in every moment of our lives. And we must be grateful to these people who passed through the world so quickly, so delicately but so effectively, leaving us examples that we must recognise as admirable. Divine inspiration? Certainly, divine inspiration. That is why I wanted to remind you, and will always remember, my friend Luigi Marziani with affectionate admiration, for his character so rich in human nobility in every expression of his exceptional personality.(fonte)
Dott. Filippo Strini. Medico chirurgo stomatologo (dentista) Già presidente dell’Associazione Medici Dentisti Italiani
Categ.; Medicina (Odontoiatria)(fonte)
[2] Il primo bombardamento di Roma avvenne il 19 luglio 1943, durante la Seconda guerra mondiale, ad opera di bombardieri statunitensi delle forze aeree alleate del Mediterraneo, guidati dal generale James Doolittle.
Storia
L’attacco, sferrato la mattina da quasi trecento bombardieri pesanti quadrimotori Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress e Consolidated B-24 Liberator e nel pomeriggio da altri duecento bombardieri medi, incontrò solo una debole resistenza; la città di Roma subì pesanti danni materiali e le perdite umane furono numerose. Il bombardamento di Roma fece grande scalpore ed ebbe importanti conseguenze militari e soprattutto politiche, favorendo l’ulteriore indebolimento del regime fascista e accelerando verosimilmente la caduta di Benito Mussolini che aveva appreso dell’attacco mentre si trovava a Feltre per l’incontro con Adolf Hitler.
Il bombardamento
Dopo un triennio di ipotesi intorno all’inserimento della capitale italiana nel novero degli obiettivi aerei alleati, San Lorenzo fu il quartiere più colpito dal primo bombardamento degli Alleati mai effettuato su Roma, insieme al Tiburtino, al Prenestino, al Casilino, al Labicano, al Tuscolano e al Nomentano. Le 4.000 bombe (circa 1.060 tonnellate) sganciate sulla città provocarono circa 3.000 morti e 11.000 feriti, di cui 1.500 morti e 4.000 feriti nel solo quartiere di San Lorenzo.
Al termine del bombardamento papa Pio XII si recò a visitare le zone colpite, benedicendo le vittime sul Piazzale del Verano. Benché tra i soccorritori morti (morirono ventiquattro vigili del fuoco) vi fosse anche il comandante dei carabinieri generale Azolino Hazon, fedelissimo monarchico che era accorso sul posto, la limousine di Vittorio Emanuele III fu fatta oggetto di sassate e di grida ostili che gli consigliarono un rapido dietro-front mentre un coro di donne gli gridava: “non vogliamo le vostre elemosine, vogliamo la pace, fate la pace”. Mussolini, nel suo Rapporto sul 25 luglio che scriverà l’anno dopo a Salò, ammise di aver aspettato il 25 luglio per una breve visita ai feriti.
Seguiti bellici
Lo stesso argomento in dettaglio: Caduta del fascismo.
Il 14 agosto 1943 il Governo Badoglio dichiarò Roma città aperta e il suo Ministro degli Esteri Raffaele Guariglia, con l’aiuto della Santa Sede e del canale diplomatico dei paesi neutrali Svizzera e Portogallo, comunicò ai governi di Londra e Washington la nota ufficiale che conteneva tale dichiarazione.
Il Comando Supremo italiano ordinò immediatamente alle batterie antiaeree della zona di Roma di non reagire in caso di passaggio degli aerei nemici sulla città, comandò poi lo spostamento di sede dei comandi italiani e tedeschi e delle rispettive truppe, si impegnò a trasferire le infrastrutture militari e le fabbriche di armi e munizioni, e a non utilizzare il nodo ferroviario romano per scopi militari, di smistamento, di carico o scarico, e di deposito.
Le direttive italiane vennero largamente ignorate dai tedeschi, che continuarono ad utilizzare la capitale italiana per scopi militari. Di conseguenza Roma venne bombardata dagli Alleati altre volte, fino ad arrivare ad un totale di 51 al 4 giugno 1944, giorno della sua liberazione.
Citazioni
Al bombardamento del 19 luglio il cantautore romano Francesco De Gregori ha dedicato il brano musicale San Lorenzo, contenuto nell’LP Titanic («Cadevano le bombe come neve/ il 19 luglio a San Lorenzo»).
Alcuni superstiti del bombardamento compaiono nel film-documentario Roma sotto le bombe dell’autore romano Pino Nazio, proiettato nel 2003 a Piazzale Tiburtino in occasione del 60º anniversario della tragedia.
In precedenza, il documentario San Lorenzo, uomini e case del 1963 (con la regia di Lino Del Fra ed il testo di Felice Chilanti) era stato girato sotto forma di lettera visiva, indirizzata al Ministro dei lavori pubblici: vi si denunciava l’abbandono del quartiere di San Lorenzo da parte delle istituzioni, dopo i bombardamenti alleati di 20 anni prima.
Nel film Roma, Federico Fellini vi allude mostrando, all’alba di un giorno di luglio del 1943 segnato dalle esplosioni in lontananza, l’imbocco del tunnel che – sotto il tronco ferroviario ed alle spalle della chiesa di Santa Bibiana – collega il quartiere Esquilino al quartiere San Lorenzo.
L’episodio compare inoltre nel romanzo storico di Elsa Morante, la Storia, in cui Ida e il figlio ‘Useppe rimangono senza casa proprio a seguito del bombardamento che distrugge la loro casa nel quartiere di San Lorenzo.(fonte)
