Happy Birthday to faraday_writes and southindian

[fpb]

Friends are among the most precious things we have, and I have let mine pass by much too often. My new year's day resolution is to treat my friends, near and far, better

Comments

[southindian]

Dear FPB

[fpb]

The name Barbieri is widespread across Italy, but my family belongs to one of two thick clusters of it - one in eastern Sicily, and the other, the Barbieris of the lower Po, around - mostly the south side - the mighty river Po as it approaches the sea. The Barbieris in question are found in the historical provinces of Verona, Ferrara, Modena and Bologna, and include many distinguished people. Guercino and St.Clelia certainly are of our lot; Cento, Guercino's home town, is within walking distance of Ferrara, where my grandfather was born. Other impressive Barbieris include Giovanni Maria of Modena, who was the first man (in the late sixteenth century) to make a scholarly study of post-Latin and mediaeval languages, and Ulisse, a remarkably pugnacious nineteenth-century anarchist who spent more time in jail than out but who also was a talented self-taught poet. On the other hand, Blessed Domenico/Dominic Barbieri was, according to Cardinal Newman, born in the Viterbo area, north-west of Rome and hundreds of miles away from my lot, and