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Authors: Andrea Camilleri

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Notes

Madonna biniditta
:
A Sicilian expression of surprise, shock, or alarm, equivalent to something like “Oh my God!” in English. Literally, it means Blessed Madonna!

the horns on his head were so tall that they could have been used as lighthouses
:
In Italy, the fact of having or wearing horns means that one is a
cornuto
— that is, a cuckold.

Marchesina ’Ntontò . . . Marchesino Rico
: The Italian nobility has the custom of calling the offspring of a titled parent by the dimunitive of that same title. Thus the son of a marchese (Eng. Marquess, Fr. marquis) is a
marchesino
, the daugher of a contessa is a
contessina
, and so on.


A ricò! Cu a voli a ricò!

:
Sicilian dialect. Literally: “Ricotta! Who wants ricotta?”

field watcher
:
In Sicily, major landowners often resorted to the use of private guards, called
campieri
, to protect their lands and crops from bandits.

“The cuckolded bastard,” . . . “Do you mean that in a manner of speaking, or is it true?”
: In Italy, especially Southern Italy, the word
cornuto
(“cuckold”; see note to p. 17, above) is a common insult that doesn’t necessarily imply that its target is actually a cuckold.

Sicilian nobles customarily signed with an X. . . . Reading and writing were for miserable paper pushers and clerks
: By the nineteenth century a fair part of the Italian nobility, particularly in the South, was uncultured. One may recall that Fabrizio del Dongo, the young aristocratic protagonist of Stendahl’s novel
The Charterhouse of Parma
, was similarly uneducated, though from the north of the peninsula.

They were playing briscola
: An Italian card game.

Fùttiri addritta e camminari na rina, portanu l’omu a la rovina
: “Fucking while standing and walking on sand will lead a man to his ruin” (Sicilian proverb).

The marchese touched his balls dramatically
:
A superstitious gesture for warding off bad luck.

the Piedmontese officer decided to uphold a tradition of his people and show his courtesy
:
There is an Italian saying that the “
piemontese è falso e cortese
”; that is, “the Piedmontese is false and courteous.” Thus the young lieutenant shows his courtesy here by being false—i.e., pretending to miss his quarry.

a distant relative of Vittorio Alfieri and had a natural bent for such things
:
Like Emiliano di Saint Vincent, Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803), the famous poet and dramatist considered the father of Italian tragedy, was a Piedmontese nobleman from Asti. His life and work were full of troubled love affairs, usually involving the nobility.

There is a famous British film about a man, a member of the cadet branch of a noble family, who gets it in his head that he must, at all costs, become the bearer of the title
: A reference to
Kind Hearts and Coronets
(1949), directed by Robert Hamer, starring Dennis Price in the central role, and Alec Guinness playing no less than eight different roles, including Lady Agatha.

Notes by Stephen Sartarelli

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