Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-05-02
ITALIAN MECHANICS.

1t is puzzling to novice in the study
OF the history of art to find that the
names by which he knows most of the
Italian masters are not their family
names. He reads of Pietro Vannucci,
and is surprised to discover after a
time that he has known that artist be-
fore under the name of Perugino; or
he sees an engraving from a picture
by Antonio Allegri, and afterwards
hears photograph of the same picture
spoke of as Correggio. To one who
lives in Italy this nomenclature seems
most natural, as few are called by their
proper names.
The Italian masters are known to us
either by their Christian names, as
Giotto, Raphael, or Michael Angelo, or
by corruptions of the baptismal name,
as acknowledgement hulking Tom,"
Ruskin calls hIm,-Giorgione, and Do
menicho. Others we know by names
derived from the fathers trade or
occupation, as Andrea del Sarto, CHR
landajo, and Tintoretto. Some are
called from their birthplaces or the
cities of their adoption, as Luini, Yer
onese, Caravaggio, Romano, and Sasso-
ferrato. Lastly. large number are
known to posterity by nicknames,-
soprunno1'ai the Italians say,-received
on account of some characteristic or
physical popularity, such as Verocchio,
the true-eyed; Moretto, the darkroom
plexioned; Riccio the curly haired;
and Pinturicchio, the little painter, or,
as he was also called. Sordicchio. the
little deaf man.
Among Italians of to-day we find
names used in the same way. Gentle
men and ladies are known to their
neighbOrs and retainers, as well as to
their friends, by their Christian names,
the first question put to a newcomer
is the familiar one from the catechism,
"What is your name?" and by that
name he or she will hereafter be called.
''La SignOra Mini" may be a grand
mother, but she still bears her baby
name. III Signor Franceschino" may
be old, and bowed. and gray-haired,
but his nursery name will cling to him
as long as he lives. Often the surname
is so seldom used that it is almost for
gotten.
The corruption of the Christian
name is also frequent. Our contddino
is known far and wide as Pello, a con-
tradiction for Ptetro, and our car
penter is called Tita, from Battista.
We often hear young people called from
their fathers trades, as in Germany:
Lorenzo del Sarts," the tailor's Law
renee, or ''Giulia del Pollajuolo," the
poulterer's Julia.
Names from the place of residence
or birth are very common, and some
times the adjectival form is used. One
often hears of II Genovese, II Triestino,
III Nouarese. A man who worked for
us was always called Sesto, and it was
only after some months acquaintance
that we learned that that was his place
of abode, and not his real name.
A great many s0prG1a91Onai are per-
sonal, gwen on account of some
popularity, but these are inherited by
the children, nephews and nieces. [
had cook once who delighted in nick
names. She never called her husband
by his classical name Oreste, but al
ways al Secco," the dried-up one, a
name singularly appropriate, as his
face was yellow and wrinkled, like a
dried apple. The butcher she called
I'll Guercio,n because he was so cross
eyed, or, as she would have said in the
polite Tuscan phrase. because he looked
in the cabbages. His rival across the
street was I'll Zucco," the squash, and
l even saw letter addressed to him by
it follows that the art of slow-burning
construction is little known outside
the limits of New England, and until
very lately it was little known even
there except to those who had become
accustomed to the construction of tex
tile factories, paper-mills, and other
works which are customarily insured
by the factory mutual insurance COM
panies. 1t is only within very short
time that the methods which have been
practiced for many years in the con-
struction of textile factories-which
are only the old methods of almost pre-
historic time, when timbers were shap-
ed by the ak or by hand, before the
modern saw-mill had rendered the con-
struction of a sham building possible
have been taken up by a few archi-
tects of capacity and responsibility to
be applied to warehouses, churches,
college buildings, and occasionally to
dwelling-houses."
Some Rich Bachelors.