You may read about it in
Professor Mazziotti's monograph; but whoever wishes to go to the
fountain-head must peruse the Historia Erectionis Pontifici Collegi
Corsini Ullanensis, etc., of old Zavarroni - an all-too-solid piece of
work.
Founded under the auspices of Pope Clement XII in 1733 (or 1735)
at San Benedetto Ullano, it was moved hither in 1794, and between that
time and now has passed through fierce vicissitudes. Its president,
Bishop Bugliari, was murdered by the brigands in 1806; much of its lands
and revenues have been dissipated by maladministration; it was
persecuted for its Liberalism by the Bourbons, who called it a "workshop
of the devil." It distinguished itself during the anti-dynastic revolts
of 1799 and 1848 and, in 1860, was presented with twelve thousand ducats
by Garibaldi, "in consideration of the signal services rendered to the
national cause by the brave and generous Albanians." [Footnote: There
used to be regiments of these Albanians at Naples. In Filati de
Tassulo's sane study (1777) they are spoken of as highly prized.] Even
now the institution is honeycombed with Freemasonry - the surest path to
advancement in any career, in modern Italy. Times indeed have changed
since the "Inviolable Constitutions" laid it down that nullus omnino
Alumnus in Collegio detineatur, cuius futura; Chris-tianae pietatis
significatio non extet. But only since 1900 has it been placed on a
really sound and prosperous footing. An agricultural school has lately
been added, under the supervision of a trained expert. They who are
qualified to judge speak of the college as a beacon of learning - an
institution whose aims and results are alike deserving of high respect.
And certainly it can boast of a fine list of prominent men who have
issued from its walls.
This little island of stern mental culture contains, besides twenty-five
teachers and as many servants, some three hundred scholars preparing for
a variety of secular professions. About fifty of them are
Italo-Albanians, ten or thereabouts are genuine Albanians from over the
water, the rest Italians, among them two dozen of those unhappy orphans
from. Reggio and Messina who flooded the country after the earthquake,
and were "dumped down" in colleges and private houses all over Italy.
Some of the boys come of wealthy families in distant parts, their
parents surmising that San Demetrio offers no temptations to youthful
folly and extravagance. In this, so far as I can judge, they are
perfectly correct.
The heat of summer and the fact that the boys were in the throes of
their examinations may have helped to make the majority of them seem
pale and thin; they certainly complained of their food, and the cook was
the only prosperous-looking person whom I could discover in the
establishment - his percentages, one suspects, being considerable. The
average yearly payment of each scholar for board and tuition is only
twenty pounds (it used to be twenty ducats); how shall superfluities be
included in the bill of fare for such a sum?
The class-rooms are modernized; the dormitories neither clean nor very
dirty; there is a rather scanty gymnasium as well as a physical
laboratory and museum of natural history. Among the recent acquisitions
of the latter is a vulture (Gyps fulvus) which was shot here in the
spring of this year. The bird, they told me, has never been seen in
these regions before; it may have come over from the east, or from
Sardinia, where it still breeds. I ventured to suggest that they should
lose no time in securing a native porcupine, an interesting beast
concerning which I never fail to enquire on my rambles. They used to be
encountered in the Crati valley; two were shot near Corigliano a few
years ago, and another not far from Cotronei on the Neto; they still
occur in the forests near the "Pagliarelle" above Petilia Policastro;
but, judging by all indications, I should say that this animal is
rapidly approaching extinction not only here, but all over Italy.
Another very rare creature, the otter, was killed lately at Vaccarizza,
but unfortunately not preserved.
Fencing and music are taught, but those athletic exercises which led to
the victories of Marathon and Salamis are not much in vogue - mens sana
in corpare sana is clearly not the ideal of the place; fighting among
the boys is reprobated as "savagery," and corporal punishment forbidden.
There is no playground or workshop, and their sole exercise consists in
dull promenades along the high road under the supervision of one or more
teachers, during which the youngsters indulge in attempts at games by
the wayside which are truly pathetic. So the old "Inviolable
Constitutions" ordain that "the scholars must not play outside the
college, and if they meet any one, they should lower their voices." A
rule of recent introduction is that in this warm weather they must all
lie down to sleep for two hours after the midday meal; it may suit the
managers, but the boys consider it a great hardship and would prefer
being allowed to play. Altogether, whatever the intellectual results may
be, the moral tendency of such an upbringing is damaging to the spirit
of youth and must make for precocious frivolity and brutality. But the
pedagogues of Italy are like her legislators: theorists. They close
their eyes to the cardinal principles of all education - that the waste
products and toxins of the imagination are best eliminated by motor
activities, and that the immature stage of human development, far from
being artificially shortened, should be prolonged by every possible
means. . If the internal arrangement of this institution is not all it
might be as regards the healthy development of youth, the situation of
the college resembles the venerable structures of Oxford in that it is
too good, far too good, for mere youngsters. This building, in its
seclusion from the world, its pastoral surroundings and soul-inspiring
panorama, is an abode not for boys but for philosophers; a place to fill
with a wave of deep content the sage who has outgrown earthly ambitions.
Your eye embraces the snow-clad heights of Dolcedorme and the Ionian
Sea, wandering over forests, and villages, and rivers, and long reaches
of fertile country; but it is not the variety of the scene, nor yet the
historical memories of old Sybaris which kindle the imagination so much
as the spacious amplitude of the whole prospect.
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