English (UK)
On March 30th, starting at 5:30 PM, our shop at Corso di Porta Romana 1 will host a presentation of Vanna Ghiringhelli and Marco Briccola's new book, "Gold Damascus, Silver Damascus," about Asian weapons. "Having these weapons at home, on our walls, before our eyes, was like seeing in person everything my husband Mario and I had studied, like reliving our adventurous travels in Asia. It was a sort of badge we always wore with pride. Preserving the various types of Asian weapons gave us the feeling of saving a world that everyone was forgetting." Vanna Ghiringhelli, a refined collector and author of this book, captures its full meaning: much more than a catalogue raisonné of a precious collection, "Gold Damascus, Silver Damascus" is an act of love and care for a historical and cultural heritage at risk of being lost. A journey "on the cutting edge" that starts from Persia and arrives in the Philippines, passing through the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia (and beyond).
Vanna was born in Reggio Emilia in 1934 into a wealthy family; An only child, she was surrounded by her nanny Artemisia, her father Giuseppe, a lawyer, and her mother Velia, who recalls: "My mother was a very original person; she read a lot, she was a bit distant from everything, she had to invite the ladies to tea for social reasons, but it was difficult for her. She did it because she had to, but she much preferred reading... I remember she read for me; at the end of the room there were two gray velvet armchairs, I in one and she in the other... I was used to reading because there were lots of books at home, and the first ones were ones like Salgari's Pirates of Malaysia. I really liked these pirate adventures and dreamed of being like the Black Corsair, this was my passion..."
"One day I was on the tram in Rome and I saw a yellow poster with tiny writing advertising the language courses at the Italian Institute for the Middle and Far East (Is.MEO). I decided to go there because I remembered that when I was little – and it was my first time in Rome – in In a guesthouse, I met an Egyptian girl, a speaker on the midnight radio news, who asked me if I wanted to learn Arabic. I agreed, so when I found myself in the Is.MEO office, I decided to say I wanted to learn Arabic, but my request was rejected because Arabic was not part of the geographical areas and languages covered by Is.MEO. So, at that moment, since I was reading Il pellegrinaggio alle fonti by Giuseppe Lanza del Vasto, which recounts the Sicilian philosopher's long journey to India to meet Gandhi, I decided then and there to enroll in the Hindi language course.
In 1959, the family moved to Milan. Vanna continued her studies at the Lombardy branch of the Is.MEO, earning a diploma in Hindi. In 1964, at the request of the director (Guglielmo Scalise), she became secretary; it was a prestigious position that Vanna loved dearly, as the Is.MEO was, at that time, the only cultural reference point for those wishing to study, learn, and travel in the East. The Institute was housed within the State University, and its honorary president was the university's rector, Giuseppe Menotti De Francesco. At the Is.MEO, Vanna met Mario Ghiringhelli, who would become her husband in 1968. The students who attended the Institute organized alternative trips, very different from those of today; they traveled by car to India, crossing Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, encountering realities still untouched by mass tourism. Vanna and Mario shared a great desire to explore and learn about different cultures and peoples.
Meanwhile, they started a collection of European bladed weapons: "We talked about European weapons, and I remember giving him a Persian sword at an auction, and then, for our engagement, I gave him the sword of the Nordlingen executioner," Vanna laughs. They then focused on Malay and Indonesian kris, due to the cultural background of this particular dagger and its Indian origins. They discovered that in the 1970s, in Italy, there was no bibliography on kris; the very few existing texts were in Indonesian or referred only to Malay kris. Meanwhile, they continued to travel to Africa and Asia, and made contact with other foreign collectors. Vanna, who by then was teaching Hindi, became the mother of Mila, who would accompany her parents on some of their travels.