Perseverance wins prize
Reader in Translation Studies Dr Marco Sonzogni is set to receive an award for his trilogy on Eugenio Montale (1896–1981).
Dr Sonzogni says Montale has been the centre of his reading and study since high school. He has spent the last couple of years working on the third book of his trilogy, which follows the story of Montale’s muse, Dante scholar Irma Brandeis, and retraces the provenance of an object he sent her.
“It was literally a chance encounter in Dublin. A woman asking for directions turned out to be the literary executer of Irma Brandeis. That’s when I became interested in Irma’s side of the story.”
Using funding he received through Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences research grants, Dr Sonzogni went to New York to look through Brandeis’s papers and while there noticed a brown box with ‘stationery’ written on it.
“Inside the box there’s an object and a piece of paper with the words ‘Etruscan amulet, EM to IB il pegno’. It was clear to me this was the amulet Montale talked about sending to her in his letters. This was the object many scholars of Montale had been looking for and I found it.”
Dr Sonzogni spent several years trying to find out what the amulet was. Then in December 2016, while searching YouTube, he found a man who reconstructs and plays an Etruscan flute. “In the video, he talks to Simona Rafanelli, Director of the Museo Civico Archeologico Isidoro Falchi in Vetulonia, a museum that houses Etruscan remains and artefacts.”
Rafanelli knew what it was—a 2000-year-old Etruscan nail file. In gratitude, Dr Sonzogni donated the artefact to the museum.
Now, the Premio Montale Fuori di Casa, an organisation that celebrates the legacy of Eugenio Montale, has selected Dr Sonzogni as winner of this year’s Literary Critic Section prize for his trilogy. The award ceremony is to take place at the Museo Civico Archeologico Isidoro Falchi on 1 July and will include a conversation about the book and a visit to the artefact.
“I am very humbled and very happy to be selected for such a prestigious award,” says Dr Sonzogni. “The whole thing has touched me deeply because on the day I finished the book my father passed away. I really have such gratitude for the funding and opportunity the Faculty has given me to pursue these stories.”