The ten days which never happened
by ignazio salvatore basile
Foreword
This is the reconstruction of the biography of a man
called Jesus, sent to earth by God for the salvation of humanity, made in ten
days by four poets at the end of the seventeenth century, perhaps from October
5 to October 14, 1690 and is based on the canonical sources of new Testament
(and not only ) to tell the story of the earthly Son of God, by His Origins
until his Resurrection.
Wanting to
write and disseminate their work in the Italian language, the original authors,
although their intentions were honest and pious, because of the absolute
prohibition of vulgarization of the Bible that the Roman Catholic Church introduced by Pope Clement VIII in 1596 (who
had commissioned the Holy Office to crack down harshly any related violation ),
they decided not only to remain anonymous, but also to change the dates of
their meetings and replace them with those that go from 5 October to 14 October
1582.
They had in fact studied the issue from a legal point
of view and had come to the conclusion that if they were discovered, the charge
against them would have to fall before the infamous Inquisition Tribunal ( the
armed wing of the Holy Office ) for the fact that following the decree by Pope
Gregory XIII, which had reformed the
Julian calendar, from October 4, 1582 all
the events in the Catholic States had to
pass directly to 15 October 1582. So that no public office of the Papal
States, much less his Court, could convict someone of a crime committed in a
period never existed.
The authors furthermore thought to hide themselves behind the names of the
four canonical evangelists, attributing to their occasional guests and
employees the fictitious identity of the closest disciples of Jesus to detect their true identity only after the
printing of the book.
The reconstruction work was carried out on fragments
of the original writings that have allowed,
with obvious difficulty , this publication . The original idea was
therefore to tell the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man on the
earth, in the vernacular, converging into a single literary context, all of the
events narrated by eyewitnesses. For their greater protection, at any rate, as
mentioned above, the authors concealed their identities behind the pseudonyms of
Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, attributing to their friends and associates, willing to
make a personal contribution to the history of Jesus, the identity of Peter,
Andrew, James the Greater, James the Younger, Jude Thaddeus, Nathanael,
Bartholomew, Simon the Zealot, Philip, Thomas and Judas Iscariot.
Even the place where the four got together and hosted
their occasional collaborators remained a secret, though it is believed that
they were housed in an isolated house in Lamole, now under the administration
of the Tuscan territories but at the time
subject to the sovereignty of the Pope.
In the drafting
of their literary work the authors seem to have favored the terza rima
classical form, although there are adaptations of Petrarch's Lyric, Ballad of
the Great, and many quatrains of Sonnet septenaries interspersed with
octosyllabic .
First Day - October the 5th, 1582
morning
[Luke , Matthew and John , waiting for Mark, who will join them in the
afternoon with two much unexpected
guests, laying the foundations of their history , presenting their
character both in its divine origin ( In the beginning was the Word ), and in
the earthly ( Ancestors of Jesus) , continuing with the Annunciation, the
conception and Birth of Jesus ]
Luke : - Well, friends , do we agree ?
John - Yes, I do! It seems to me the wisest thing . You, Matthew, what
do you think ?
Matthew : - It might be all right for me ! Although we'll miss a good
increasing reputation ‘You know?.... Think about whether this book
, which in practice will be the first gospel in the vernacular, were spread all
around! After all, today , with the press , it could also happen .....
Luke : - Well, but our opus is a story , a novel, as they say today ,
not a theological Bible ....
Matthew : - Though we vowed to be faithful in bringing the authentic
words and the real events of the life of Jesus! And then, just the characters
of originality are correct reason for the attribution of authorship that I
claim, even if , on the other hand , I'd be afraid of the consequences. The
glory and fame would attract the attention of the Inquisition .....
Luke : - If you put it on this way I agree with you, but I have an idea
that can save the wine and the barrel .....
Matthew : - An idea ? What an idea ?
Luke : - Listen, we could fill a testamentary paper , claiming
authorship of the work with it but we can
instruct the notary not to
publish our paper before the last of us has left this vale of tears .....
Matthew - I think it’s a nice idea , is not it John ?
John - Yes, of course ! But will
Mark agree ?
Luke : - Just ask him the
afternoon , when he arrives ! But I bet that he will agree !
John: - On the other hand it would be prudent to fill out the card at
the end of the story .......
Matthew : - Yeah! You never know what a spy of the Inquisition ...... If
they discover that we are translating
excerpts of the New Testament in the vernacular, poor of us .......
Luke - Better safe than sorry , even if here in Lamole, the judges of
the Papal States are certainly not close!
Matthew : - Well, never mind then: how does our story begin ! ?
Luke : - From the beginning , of course!
John: - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God .....
Matthew : - Beautiful ! How does it sound good! So this will be
first page of our book ?
Luke. - I think so ! But this will be up to the printer to be decided!
Do not forget that you are using prefix the title and then the preface ... We
try to number our scrolls according to the established order .
Matthew : - It 's true ! You're right! I'm sorry , but I tremble with
emotion : this should be my first book to be printed !
Luke : - Even for me. But it does not appear with our name ! Funny is
not it?
Matthew : Yeah! The name will appear after our deaths !
Luke : We do not think. Come on John, read us your first whole song !
- "In the beginning was the
Word
And the Word was with God,
Who held in His mind
To redeem the sin
and the corruption of humanity
By sending His Son
Who descended from pure lily
It is His revelation
In one with the Spirit
But you can list three !
How the Law to Moses
Was given , the grace Christ
Brought for us and the Truth.
Nevertheless Manhood
Didn’t recognize Him
And He was treated with cowardice
.
But to those who have recognized Him
He has made them brothers
Giving them the most beautiful
gifts
Without receiving so much in
exchange.
The Word became flesh and history
Coming to live here !
We saw His glory
On the only begotten Truth!
There was a man sent
By God , on behalf of John ;
was in the same years ,
he testified the Light !
He was not the Light,
but he was a witness ,
the True Lord came afterward !
All things were made by Him,
but nothing is created !
He was not accepted ,
Star shining among dark skies !
No one has never seen God
But He has revealed Himself in Christ !
...to be continued...
