Abbecedario: Roma

Published to coincide with the latest edition of literary festival "più libri più liberi", Alessio D'Ellena's Abbecedario: Roma explores the relationship between the city and the alphabet, and examines the idea of the monument.

Alessio D'Ellena, Abbecedario: Roma, Corraini edizioni, Mantua 2012 (pp. 48; € 10.00)

The curiosity that designers of urban spaces have reserved over the course of history for the inscriptions on the base of Trajan's Column in Rome or the architrave of the Temple of Sibyl at Tivoli bears witness to the long-standing relationship between the design of alphabetical letters and architecture. What of the letters constructed, deliberately or otherwise, in urban space from the combinations of architectural elements of the actual buildings? Who has not seen in a colonnade a series of lower case "m"s and "n"s?

This is the basis for Alessio D'Ellena's Abbecedario: Roma. The alphabet becomes an interesting pretext rather than an objective that enables the author to construct a series of bright and textural illustrated plates. It becomes possible for the reader to observe from a different angle, perhaps by half-closing the eyes, both well known and lesser known buildings, solid presences in the images of Rome stored in the minds of its inhabitants. The various forms of the letters, skilfully carved in linoleum, accompany the reader in a collection that pays tribute to the most stratified city in urban history.

Each illustration consists of an association between a capital letter and a significant architectural object from the urban fabric of Rome. The superimposition is made using transparent inks that make it possible to compare the structures of the objects under scrutiny. The silhouette of the Pyramid of Cestius at Porta San Paolo becomes an "A", while the columns of the Tangenziale Est, seen for example from via dello Scalo San Lorenzo, make up a continues series of "T"s, connected by the viaduct above. In the same way, the colonnade of the Colosseo Quadrato at EUR seems to be formed from a series of upside-down "U"s, neatly arranged in a typographic grid.

Top and above: Alessio D'Ellena, <em>Abbecedario: Roma</em>, Corraini edizioni, Mantua 2012. Page detail. On the background, Nolli and Piranesi, <em>Nuova Topografia di Roma</em> ["New Topography of Rome"], 1748 — Top and above: Alessio D'Ellena, *Abbecedario: Roma*, Corraini edizioni, Mantua 2012. Page detail. On the background, Nolli and Piranesi, *Nuova Topografia di Roma* ["New Topography of Rome"], 1748

The project was conceived during an illustration course lead by Chiara Carrer at Urbino's ISIA: the brief was to come up with an illustrated alphabet that explored the relationship between letters and urban space. From here it was a short step that led to considering the city monument and the weight that buildings carry in the collective imagination: a parallel identity to the institutional patina of metropolitan life that is fuelled day after day. The Tangenziale Est, like the Gasometer or the Mattatoio di Testaccio, occupy a place of equal relevance with respect to the monuments consumed daily by thousands of tourists.

Alessio D'Ellena, <em>Abbecedario: Roma</em>, Corraini edizioni, Mantua 2012. Page detail. On the background, Nolli and Piranesi, <em>Nuova Topografia di Roma</em> ["New Topography of Rome"], 1748 — Alessio D'Ellena, *Abbecedario: Roma*, Corraini edizioni, Mantua 2012. Page detail. On the background, Nolli and Piranesi, *Nuova Topografia di Roma* ["New Topography of Rome"], 1748

It is worth noting the successful marriage between typography and illustration, a constant weakness, except for some rare cases, in the production of illustrated volumes in Italy. It would have been interesting however to come up with a different solution for the notes at the end of the book, a Gutenbergian residue that has little in common with the illustrated plates. The architecture of the book is well-organised, three-sixteenths, stitched and bound in paperback — a format that is perhaps rather too small, but subtly references pocket guides, the cross and delight of every tourist. Roberto Arista

The alphabet becomes an interesting pretext rather than an objective that enables the author to construct a series of bright and textural illustrated plates

"Un giorno una Signora forastiera,
passanno còr marito
sotto l'arco de Tito,
vidde una Gatta nera
spaparacchiata fra l'antichità.
— Micia che fai? — je chiese: e je buttò;
un pezzettino de biscotto ingrese;
ma la Gatta, scocciata, nu' lo prese:
e manco l'odorò.
Anzi la guardò male
e disse con un' aria strafottente:
Grazzie, madama, nun me serve gnente:
io nun magno che trippa nazzionale!"
— Trilussa, Romanità, 1913

"One day a foreign Lady
Passed with her husband
Under the arch of Tito
She saw a black cat
Sprawled amid the antiquities
Pussy what are you doing? She asked and threw
A piece of biscuit
But the Cat, annoyed, didn't take it
Didn't even sniff it
In fact he looked at it with disdain
And said with an impudent air
Thank you madam, I need nothing
I eat only national tripe!"
— Trilussa, Romanità, 1913

Abbecedario: Roma

Published to coincide with the latest edition of literary festival "più libri più liberi", Alessio D'Ellena's Abbecedario: Roma explores the relationship between the city and the alphabet, and examines the idea of the monument.

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