All the more so in an environment which, on the one hand, is extremely fertile ground for satire, but on the other, is characterised by a frenetic succession of publications and an equally frenetic turnover of editorial teams and editorial lines, whilst the work of Carpinteri and Faraguna remained consistently and obsessively true to itself.
A fidelity signalled right from the very first issue of 27 March 1947, marked not only by the customary ‘Year I, No. 1’ but also by a parallel ‘Year III – No. 66’, signalling continuity with the previous student magazine “Il Caleidoscopio”, where the two met in 1945. This loyalty takes many forms. It is continuity in collaborations, for one cannot imagine a “La Cittadella” without the contribution of the illustrators (Renzo) Kolmann and José (Talarico), who were immediately drawn into C&F’s collaborative, dialogical and maieutic working method. There is a consistency in form, as in the titles – both “Il Caleidoscopio” and “La Cittadella” are taken from the Scottish novelist A. J. Cronin, and the former recurs obsessively in the titles of the columns in the latter (Visioni caleidoscopiche etc.) – and in the columns themselves, which remained unchanged for over 50 years: Cosa dirà la gente (What Will People Say?), the source of several hilarious publications, appeared without interruption every week from 31 October 1949 to 26 March 2001. Finally, the pseudonyms of the two editors also remained unchanged – with the exception of Faraguna’s slight ‘downgrade’, as he soon switched from ‘Padreterno’ to ‘Angelicus’ – with Carpinteri signing his articles ‘Ruben’ from the very first to the very last issue.
Part of this monolithic identity and continuity of views certainly stemmed from the period in which the friendship and collaboration between the two was cemented: the chaotic and dramatic post-war period in Trieste, the TLT, the fluctuating relationship with the Anglo-Americans, opposition to the independence movement and to Yugoslav positions, which reached their peak in the invention of Druse Mirko, a parody of the politicised Slovenian from the countryside – a controversial figure, strongly contested by the Slovenian side and later disavowed (Carpinteri would eventually describe him as ‘a mistake’), yet a testament to the duo’s satirical talent and a testing ground for their comic and humorous devices: Mirko’s failure to understand the world – which invariably results in resounding punishments meted out with the ratapalz (a stick) – is largely due to the ambiguity and self-serving fickleness of turncoat politicians – “bifrontism ad usum politicorum”, as Stelio Mattioni calls it in his introduction to Borghesia eroica – and it foreshadows Siora Nina’s bêtise in Maldobrie.
