Rivista Mensile del Touring Club Italiano, Vol 18, No 12
Articles in this issue
- The Christmas leader marks the Nativity that the Crespi gallery of Milan has given to the State for the Pinacoteca di Brera, and surveys Antonio Allegri's other treatments of the subject — the Dresden Notte and the Madonnas at the Uffizi, Naples, Modena, Parma and Pavia.
- Prof. Camillo Manfroni traces five centuries of Italian dealings with the Osmanli Turks: Genoese, Venetian and Neapolitan seamen who built and manned the first Turkish war fleet, Marino Sanudo Torsello's unheeded warnings, Pietro Zeno's naval expedition of 1334, the fall of Constantinople, Prevesa and Barbarossa, Lepanto, Morosini and the last defence of Corfù in 1716.
- Banner opening the issue's Macedonian feature, illustrated with the twelfth-century relief of Alexander borne to heaven in St Mark's, Venice, Le Brun's Alexander canvases in the Louvre and the Issus mosaic from Pompeii.
- Prof. Attilio De Marchi recalls the three-day triumph of Paulus Aemilius over the conquered Macedonia in 167 B.C., Philip II's gold from the Pangaeus mines and the coining of the 'filippi', Aristotle of Stagira as Alexander's tutor, Demosthenes' Philippics, and the province Cicero placed 'in gremio imperii'.
- Ten-photograph plate of the war theatre: Adrianople and one of its streets, Scutari of Albania, Uskub, Salonika, the gorge of the Maritza, Ciatalgia and its barracks, Santo Stefano and the great mosque of Brussa.
- Prof. Aristide Calderini on Thrace before the Turks: the Megarian triremes that founded Byzantium, Xenophon's banquet with king Seuthes after the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, Herodotus on Thracian polygamy and contempt for farming, the Pizos foundation stele, and the reliefs of the Theodosian column at Constantinople.
- Prof. Paolo Revelli sizes up the territory the peace of Lausanne has assigned Italy — about 1,050,000 square kilometres, with 523,178 inhabitants in Tripolitania proper by the Turkish census of 3 July 1911 — and reviews Phoenician Lepcis and Oea, Cyrene, the Berbers and the Tuareg, Maggiolo's Genoese chart of 1324 and travellers from Ibn Battuta to Rohlfs, Camperio and Haimann.
- Prof. Roberto Papini on the inventory of art held by Italy's churches, communes and charitable bodies: Ferdinando Martini's decree of 1893, stalled for want of funds under Adolfo Venturi, revived by Corrado Ricci, who presented the first fascicle — the commune of Aosta — to minister Credaro in March 1912; private collections, galleries and museums stay outside it.
- Prof. Giuseppe Castelli, director general of the Istituto Nazionale Artistico of Rome, argues for landscape protection: the pineta of Ravenna made a national monument in 1905, the Horatian scenery of Vicovaro threatened by the diversion of the Aniene for Rome, the hanging garden of Villa Aldobrandini, Punta San Vigilio on Lake Garda, and the mutilation of the Rava-Rosadi bill of 1909.
- Ten war photographs: Turkish guardsmen at an 'Allah' after Lule-Burgas, the Bulgarian lieutenant Loultscheff landing at Mustafa Pascià after flying over Adrianople, Serbs gathering their wounded at Kumanovo, Sofia Jovanovitch the 'Joan of Arc of Serbia', and Bulgarian gunners, volunteers and field telephones.
- The Touring explains why its third winter caravan must cross into the Engadine — six or seven years of propaganda have still not produced an Italian winter station able to rival the foreign ones — and regrets that the De Giacomi brothers' hotel at Madesimo will not be converted in time to house the party.
- Programme of the 3-10 February 1913 sledge crossing: assembly at Chiavenna and the heated Albergo Posta at Campodolcino, some seventy sledges up the Spluga valley to the customs house at 2,040 m, then Vicosoprano, Maloja, St. Moritz in its derby and gimkana week, Pontresina, the Bernina and Tirano.
- Report on the Paris aeronautical Salon and the machines of 1913: the Blériot, Borel, Nieuport, Morane-Saulnier and Deperdussin monocoque monoplanes, Maurice Farman, Sanchez-Besa and Breguet biplanes, the Donnet-Lévêque and Borel hydro-aeroplanes and Breguet's aerial ship La Marseillaise, and rotary and fixed engines by Gnome, Le Rhône, Salmson Canton-Unné, Renault and De Dion-Bouton.
- Inside Italian military aeronautics: the Battaglione Aviatori with over 100 officers and fields at Mirafiori, Venaria Reale, Somma Lombardo, Aviano and Pordenone, the Stabilimento di esperienze e costruzioni aeronautiche with its aerological observatory at Vigna di Valle, the 4,200 cubic metre P1 of 1907 stationed at Bracciano, and the 12,100 cubic metre M1 of 1912 with two 250 HP engines.
- The little motor boat Marietta of the Genoese brothers Carlo and Tommaso Massone, built for the Venezia-Roma cruise, photographed on her run out of Genoa to Portovecchio and Calacuccia in Corsica, Bastia, the harbour of Capraia and Portoferraio.
- News in pictures: the Italo-Turkish peace greeted at Homs and Tripoli, the naval review at Naples with the royal yacht Trinacria and the Duke of the Abruzzi, the cruiser Libia launched at Sestri Ponente on 11 November, the Nobel prizes to Sabatier, Hauptmann, Gustaf Dalén and Carrel, Cagliani's Livorno-Bastia flight, and Carlo Oriani's win in the Giro di Lombardia.
- Where each free member publication has reached: the Sassari and Cagliari sheets of the Carta d'Italia in the post with Tempio Pausania, Foggia, Trento and Lecce to follow, the Tripolitania and Cyrenaica map and the monograph Il bosco contro il torrente still going to new members, and the second edition of the Annuario Generale in distribution.
- From 1 January 1913 every bicycle, motorcycle and car on the public roads must carry the metal tax badge required by art. 7 of the regulation of 31 August 1910, on pain of a fine at double the tax; the notice explains exactly how to clamp the badge to the steering tube.
- The monthly news department, running through aeronautics, motoring and cycling, aviation, railways, geography, geology, hygiene and miscellaneous notes.
- The Parseval III's 560 km overnight run from Biesdorf to Königsberg at 80 km/h, the repaired German army airship M III at the Tempelhoferfeld review, an Astra-Torrès aerial cruiser ordered for the British Admiralty, the Victoria-Luise's 25,680 km in 183 outings carrying 3,902 passengers, and Zeppelin's L 1 for the German navy.
- New York proposing a 25-30 km/h limit, 80,000 cars in London against 170,000 touring cars and 130,000 motorcycles in England, a petrol-buying league of English owners, Caleb Bragg's Fiat winning the American Grand Prize at 113 km/h and Di Palma the Vanderbilt Cup at Milwaukee, and Zurich's draft rules requiring third-party insurance of 20,000 francs.
- Nino Cagliani's Antoni monoplane crossing from Pisa to Bastia on 9 October in 1 h 13 min at about 1,000 m, watched by the torpedo boats Spica, Clio and 107; 362 new machines bought for the French army; a monument to Wilbur Wright at the Auvours field; and Lieut. Seddon's British altitude record of 1,800 m at Eastchurch.
- Electric traction to be extended over the Lecco-Olgiate, Olgiate-Usmate and Usmate-Monza lines with 58 electric locomotives shared with the Giovi route, and a new 14 km military railway of 75 cm gauge opened round Tripoli by the fortifications office.
- Serbia's economy since its emancipation from Austria-Hungary, with 60 inhabitants to the square kilometre and 934 km of railway working and 365 building; amber fishing off East Prussia worth some seven and a half million lire a year; Raunkiær's Danish crossing of central Arabia from el-Kueit to Riad and Bahrein; India's 1911 census of 315,132,537.
- Boussac dating the first Alpine orogenic movements to the lower Oligocene rather than the Miocene, Howchin of Adelaide on three Australian glaciations — Cambrian, Permo-Carboniferous and Pleistocene — Lacroix on new gem pegmatites of Madagascar, and German coal output reaching 160.7 million tons in 1911.
- The altitude sun cure for tuberculosis: patients tan to the colour of mulattos, which toughens the skin, speeds the healing of sores and confers local immunity, and their beds are wheeled at sunrise onto broad terraces open to the sun all year.
- Genoa to hold an Esposizione Internazionale di Marina, Igiene Marinara e Mostra Coloniale Italiana in 1914, with a physical-education division under maggior generale Vittorio Carpi covering gymnastics, shooting, cycling, alpinism, fencing and nautical sport; and a correction naming ing. Anelli of Pavia as co-reporter on the river landing-stage competition.
- Reviews of Ansbert Vorreiter's Jahrbuch der Luftfahrt 1912, Jousset's La France géographie illustrée, Aldo Chierici's war-correspondent diary A Tripoli d'Italia, Alexandre Sée's Les lois expérimentales de l'aviation, Franklin's Palestine depicted and described, and Petit's Le pneumatique in the Bibliothèque du Chauffeur.
- Books presented to the Touring: Marcel Aubert's Senlis in the Grands Édifices de la France, the Touring Club de Belgique's Condroz and Luxembourg panoramas, Sergiacomo on St Peter's in the Vatican, the Michelin and Continental road guides for 1912, and the yearbooks of the Aero Clubs of France, Belgium, Austria and the United Kingdom.
- Draws for the propaganda medals: in September a gold medal to a member at Bahia Blanca in Argentina and silver to Enrico Cairoli of Milan and Giuseppe Biancoli of Sesto Calende; in October gold to Tito Innocenti of Rimini and silver to Fortunato Rossi of Lavis in the Trentino and rag. Franz Glaenzer.
- The month's resolutions of the Direzione, from the commemoration of the late dott. Guastalla and adherence to the Italian Botanical Society's move for the protection of natural monuments to the Florence road congress, the Guida d'Italia commission and the aerial and nautical tourism committees.
- The Vice Direttore Generale reads the commemoration of the late dott. Guastalla, in whose memory a portrait is voted for the council chamber.
- The Vice Direttore Generale and the president of the Commissione Strade are deputed to represent the Direzione officially at the road congress in Florence, and every councillor is circularised to encourage a large attendance.
- On the Aero Club d'Italia's request, the Touring will approach the Italian authorities so that balloons competing in the Gordon Bennett may land in Italy without customs difficulty, each carrying a standard identifying document.
- The Touring grants its moral support and a silver medal as prize in the competition the Milan institute for working-class housing is running among its tenants for the floral decoration of windows.
- The Direzione notes the signing of the agreement with Pro Venezia, which will run the Touring's Venice branch office on the terms already approved.
- Report on the second national road convention at Florence, attended by 450 congressisti with 65 provincial deputations and as many municipalities represented, held to prepare Italy's part in the third international road congress in London the following year.
- An internal administrative commission for the Guida d'Italia is appointed, made up of the present Direzione, the Segretario Generale and councillors ing. Binda, avv. Guasti, rag. Moro and dott. Moldenhauer.
- The aerial tourism commission is to meet over Prof. Pericle Gamba's Lancio dei palloni piloti, the forthcoming third Annuario dell'Aeronautica, the Touring's part in the Paris aeronautical Salon, an airmen's referendum, and studies on customs formalities, cartography and signalling.
- The nautical tourism commission is to be convened to settle the competitions for landing stages, craft and river signals, the award of the guidone, and the programme of the Annuario della Nautica.
- New five-year members, who pay L. 30 in advance for the quinquennium, from Alessandria d'Egitto, Bahia Blanca, Bologna, Borgosesia, Buenos Aires, Milan, Riposto, Savona, Spezia, Turin, Venice, Vicenza and Zuara.
- Eleven members declared benemeriti for presenting ten new subscribers each, from S. Paulo, Fiume, Chivasso, Cuneo, Santa Maria, Venice, Milan, Turin, Spalato, Aosta and Verona.
- Gold medals, given for a hundred new members introduced, to Paolo Almeda of Trieste, avv. Guido Gerardi of Giaveno and Giuseppe Storni of Buenos Aires.
- Candidates who applied for membership between 1 and 31 October 1912, listed as life, five-year and annual members, from Aquila and Asti to Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Montevideo, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Tobruk and Zuara.