Bomarzo: Grove of the Monsters

The Unmuseum ^ | 2007 | Lee Krystek

[SunkenCiv]

The story starts with a young nobleman named Duke Pierfrancesco "Vicino" Orsini. Orsini was born around 1516 and married a noblewoman named Guilia Farnese in 1544. He worked as a military officer and diplomat until 1553 when he was captured in the same battle that killed his best friend. He was held for ransom for three years and then, shortly after his release, his beloved wife died. Depressed, Orsini retreated to his family's holdings near Bomarzo where he began to plan his strange, melancholy garden.

What is known of the garden is mostly just what historians have found by visiting it. Orsini left no records telling what his intentions were in creating the peculiar grove filled with macabre statuary. Fortunately, Orsini placed inscriptions near many of the objects, giving us some clue to what he was thinking. Upon entering what Orsini called his Bosco Sacro ("Sacred Grove") visitors are greeted with the message:

TU CH'ENTRI QUI CON MENTE PARTE A PARTE ET DIMMI POI SE TANTE MARAVIGLIE SIEN FATTE PER INGANNO O PUR PER ARTE.

This challenge to visitors translates as "You who enter this place, observe it piece by piece and tell me afterwards whether so many marvels were created for deception or purely for art."

[SunkenCiv]

Strange Places in Italy:  Garden of Bomarzo, Lions, Monsters and Bears, Oh My! [Jerry Finzi]

[BenLurkin]

Oh shoot!

I knew I shouldn’t have taken the brown acid today....

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.accenti.ca/news-archives-issue-13/travel-the-garden-of-monsters-jesper-storgaard-jensen

http://untappedcities.com/2013/05/22/parco-dei-monstri-italys-renaissance-park-of-monsters/

http://imgur.com/a/2QlK6

http://www.bomarzo.net/index_en.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardens_of_Bomarzo

[SunkenCiv]

this is the same source as the one above, probably the best of the bunch, although the links given in msg 3 (I hope) were also very strong.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

http://italianexcursion.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/BOMARZO-GARDEN-OF-MONSTERS054.jpg

http://italianexcursion.com/sample-itinerary/

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Bookmark

[NewHampshireDuo]

Alberto Ginastera wrote an opera (Bomarzo) on the subject. It was recorded many years ago, very strange as I remember.

[afraidfortherepublic]

All these names are rampant throughout a book I read a couple of years ago on the Borgias. Orsini, Farnese, Borgia, and one of the Popes (Alexander, I think) romp through its pages. Orsini and the Borgias were enemies, but they formed a coalition to keep the Pope in power. The Borgias (including the Pope) were Spanish and they needed the Orsinis to keep them in power in Italy. If this is the same generation, I believe that Giulia Farnese was the mistress of the Pope and the mother of the infamous Lucretia.

But, the way names were re-used, I could have the dates all wrong, and the melancholy duke could be the grandfather, or the grandson, of the people in my book.

[fella]

Bump

[bunkerhill7]

Beats Disneyland

[elcid1970]

I always thought the gaping mouth was inscribed “Abandon hope all ye who enter here”.

[JoeProBono]

[SunkenCiv]

Might be fun if someone did a film version *in* the gardens...

[SunkenCiv]

Scorecard, can’t keep the players straight without a scorecard...

[Texan5]

I saw something like that stuff once-but drugs were involved...

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Dunno, but that’s from Dante, so, could be, not a reader or a speaker of Italian here.

I’ve always wondered why Dante is always served a la Gary — some kind of Renaissance gay love story?

[afraidfortherepublic]

I’ll try to look it up when I get home. The book is on my Kindle. I have a hard time navigating that device, but I’ll try to find dates and pertinent names.

[SunkenCiv]

Bumbles bounce!

[SunkenCiv]

That took a minute to get...

ogni pensiero vola (Every thought flies)

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’ intrate (Abandon all hope, ye who enter here)

I recall a picture (probably in an encyclopedia from childhood) of an ancient tomb (no doubt *very* restored) in Iraq somewhere, same kind of idea, entrance to it was through the scary mouth of some humanoid critter. An attempt at a search just now yielded bupkis...

[’Civ leaves keyboard, footsteps recede in the distance]

Nope, couldn’t find it. Maybe it was in one of the Yearbooks back then.

Found a picture of this, an old favorite, from the big expensive cemetery split by Hall Street in Grand Rapids:

http://www.therapidian.org/sites/default/files/article_images/021.jpg