BOOKWORM

Jesi and Rafael Sabatini

More often than not, the biographical notes about Rafael Sabatini published in periodicals, their data obtained from publishers' handouts, would stress the medieval aspect of Jesi, Rafael's birthplace, when the child was growing from new-born to three and a half. They sometimes even implied crumbling stonework, mouldy, dank, and dark.  There is no way anyone can verify what Jesi looked and felt like between 1875 and 1878.

But here is a photograph of a crumpled photocopy of a photograph taken at some time early in the last century. It shows the Palazzo Magagnini, next-door neighbour of the house where Rafael was born. Doesn't look crumbly or mouldy to me.

Jesse F. Knight and Dollie C. Smith took some photographs in Jesi on a visit decades later (possibly in 2001). I believe they were taken with an eye to the impression created by the biographical notes I've mentioned, and to the impression in their minds of descriptions in novels and short stories by Rafael - the ones set in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

All of Jesi doesn't look like this! The Palazzo Magagnini today is brightly attractive with a cafe and shops; the whole square is full of sunshine and pleasing views. But these 6 photographs are quite imaginatively evocative ... or so I think. (There are no captions to the original photographs as received by me. Even the Palazzo above was identified by my detective work.)