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GLOBAL CULTURE AND SPORT SERIES

Motorsport and Fascism

Living Dangerously
Paul Baxa
Global Culture and Sport Series

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Carnegie School Of Sport
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 Paul Baxa

Motorsport and
Fascism
Living Dangerously
Paul Baxa
Ave Maria University
Ave Maria, FL, USA

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To the memory of my father, Tino Baxa (1929–2019)
 Preface and Acknowledgments

The year 2022 marks the centenary of two events that are central to this
book: the inauguration of the Monza Autodrome near Milan and the
coming to power of Fascism. Although they were two separate events,
one sporting while the other political, both the autodrome and the Fascist
regime found important points of convergence. Motorsport, above all
other sports, came to express in the most comprehensive way the values
and ideology of Mussolini’s regime. While Fascism’s predilection for
motorsport has been recognized in general histories of sport under the
regime, no English-language monograph on the subject exists. Most
studies of sport under Fascism emphasize how the regime used sport for
propaganda purposes. This is true of motorsport, but the relationship
between Fascist ideology and racing goes much deeper. Events like the
Mille Miglia were genuine Fascist artifacts, designed to communicate the
Fascist Revolution via technology, speed, and Fascist heroism and martyr-
dom, in ways that could not be expressed by other sports.
This book is not a comprehensive overview of motorsport under
Fascism; rather, it is a cultural study of how motorsport became a vehicle
for Fascism’s project of anthropological revolution. Through motorsport,
the main strands of Fascist discourse came together to form a powerful
nexus between politics and sport. In the exploits of men such as Tazio
Nuvolari and Achille Varzi could be seen the inspiration of the decadent,
nationalist poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, the “First Duce,” and the
vii
viii Preface and Acknowledgments

modernist cult of speed celebrated by F.T. Marinetti and the Futurists.

The Fascist New Man was a race car driver, while the Mille Miglia trans-
formed half of Italy into a “landscape of speed.” Fascism, meanwhile,
helped save Grand Prix racing from a period of crisis in the 1920s through
events like the Italian and Tripoli Grand Prix races. In short, Italian Fascism
saved Grand Prix racing, and laid the basis for the future rise of Formula 1.
This book has been several years in the making and a great debt is owed
to many. I am especially grateful to my fellow members of the “Conspiracy”
led by Don Capps and Pat Yongue, whose vision and initiative have led
to the Michael Argetsinger Symposium, soon to celebrate its sixth annual
edition. Many of the ideas developed in this book began with presenta-
tions at the symposium. I wish to thank many of the other presenters at
the symposium over the years such as Daniel Simone, Mark Howell, Skip
McGoun, and Michael Stocz. I also wish to thank the staff at the
International Motor Racing Research Center at Watkins Glen, NY, espe-
cially Bill Green, Jenny Ambrose, and Josh Ashby. This project would not
have been possible without the Revs Institute in Naples, Florida. Many
thanks to Scott George, Mark Vargas, Nadia Taliceo, Lindsay Mancuso,
and Bryan Gable. I am indebted to valuable input from Enrico Landoni
and Simon Martin during my presentation at the British School in Rome
in 2019. Many thanks to Emanuela Sommaruga at the Museo Mille
Miglia in Brescia. Thanks are owed to Stephen Wagg, David Lawrence
Andrews, Sharla Plant, and Md Saif.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my colleagues at Ave Maria University,
Roger Nutt, Dan Davy, Michael Breidenbach, Mary Blanchard, and
Mike Sugrue. To Gabriel Martinez, Michael Dauphinais, and Tom
Scheck, I am grateful for your friendship and support. I am grateful to
Barry David and John Colman, who gave me the opportunity to present
my research on this book at faculty and student colloquia. This project
was also helped immensely by two grants from the Laurel Family Grant,
and for that I am grateful to Mrs Mary Laurel and the grant committee.
Finally, I wish to thank my editorial and research assistants, Brady
Beckerman, Olivia Althoff, Abigail Starcher, and Page Kuenstle. Last, but
not least, I am grateful to my family, including my brother, Bruno Baxa,
 Preface and Acknowledgments ix

who introduced me to motorsport many years ago, and to my son, John-­

Paul, who shares my love of motorsport. Most of all, I am grateful to my
wife, Patrizia, without whose love and patience none of this would
have been possible.

Ave Maria, FL, USA Paul Baxa

 Contents

1 Introduction  1
Summer of 1924: Triumph in Lyon, Tragedy in Rome    1
Fascism, Sport, and Motorsport    6
Why Motorsport?  11
The Fascist Sport par Excellence: Chapter Summaries   18
Living Dangerously  24

2 Speed & Death 27

Death on a Sunday Afternoon   27
“More Beautiful Than the Victory at Samothrace”: Futurism,
Decadentism, and Motorsport   41
The “Snarling Beast”: From FIAT to Alfa Romeo   47
The Race Car Driver as Hero and Martyr   54
Nuvolari or Varzi? The D’Annunzian or the Marinettian?   71
Conclusion  83

3 Autodromes 85
The New Autodrome   85
The Iron City   88
Machines in the Garden   90

xi
xii Contents

Italian Motorsport’s National Stadium   97

Grand Prix Racing’s Place of Rebirth  105
The Race for Millions  108

4 Fascist Rome: Motorsport Capital121

Gallenga Stuart’s Dream  121
The Reale Premio di Roma 130
The Monte Mario Circuit (1925)  132
The Valle Giulia Circuit (1926)  137
The Parioli Circuit (1927)  146
The Tre Fontane Circuit (1928–1930)  155
Autodromo del Littorio (1931–1932)  164
Conclusion: A Failed Vision  173

5 The Mille Miglia: Going Toward the People179

A New Beginning  179
A Return to Origins  190
The Anti-Giro  200
The Mille Miglia and the Cult of Speed  203
The Mille Miglia and the New Man  212
“The Era of the Mille Miglia is Over”: The 1938 Tragedy  217

6 The Invisible Race231

The Mille Miglia: A Romance  231
Mapping the Race: 1927, 1934, and 1938  241
A New Sense of Place  251
Three Heterotopic Sites: Piazza della Vittoria, Ponte Littorio,
and Piazzale Milvio  254
The Mille Miglia and Place Making  262
The “Lost Aura”: The 1940 Mille Miglia  268
Conclusion 272
 Contents xiii

7 Conclusion275
The “New” Mille Miglia  275
Grand Prix Racing and Authoritarianism: A Not So Secret
History 278
Return to Rome  285

Bibliography293

Index307
 About the Author

Paul Baxa is the author of Roads and Ruins: The Symbolic Landscape of
Fascist Rome. He is Associate Professor of History at Ave Maria University
in Florida. His research interests include Italian Fascism, motorsport his-
tory, and Italian-Canadian history.

xv
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Materassi’s wrecked Talbot in the Monza trench. (Private

Collection)29
Fig. 2.2 Ancients and moderns: Achille Varzi and the P2 Alfa Romeo,
1930 Targa Florio. (Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.
wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Achille_Varzi_in_his_Alfa_Romeo_
at_the_1930_Targa_Florio_(2).jpg)57
Fig. 2.3 The death of Antonio Ascari at Montlhéry, July 1925.
(Montlhéry, 26/7/25, Grand Prix ACF, accident [mortel]
d’Ascari: [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol] by Agence
Rol. Agence photographique—1925—National Library of
France, France—No Copyright—Other Known Legal
Restrictions. https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200518/
ark__12148_btv1b53151636k)61
Fig. 2.4 A FIAT 514 passes the Masetti Memorial Plaque on the Passo
della Futa during the 1932 Mille Miglia. (Wikimedia
Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1932_
or_1931_Mille_Miglia_Muraglione_di_Futa_Fiat_514.jpg)65
Fig. 2.5 Giulio Masetti, gentleman racer. (Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giulio_Masetti_at_
the_1922_French_Grand_Prix_(4).jpg)67
Fig. 2.6 Masetti’s fatal accident. (Wikimedia Commons: https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giulio_masetti_delage.jpg)70

xvii
xviii List of Figures

Fig. 2.7 Tazio Nuvolari wearing the turtle pin given to him by
Gabriele d’Annunzio. (Wikimedia Commons: https://upload.
wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/TazioNuvolari.jpg)76
Fig. 3.1 Mussolini arrives at the Monza Autodrome, 1923. (9/9/23,
Monza, Grand Prix d’Europe [course automobile], arrivée de
Mussolini: [photographie de presse]/[Agence Rol] by Agence
Rol. Agence photographique—1923—National Library of
France, France—No Copyright—Other Known Legal
Restrictions. https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200518/
ark__12148_btv1b531184684)93
Fig. 3.2 Racing cars on display at Monza’s City Hall, 1922. ([10-9-22,
Grand Prix d’Italie] les voiturettes gagnantes exposées à Milan
[piazza del Mercanti]: [photographie de presse]/[Agence Rol]
by Agence Rol. Agence photographique—1922—National
Library of France, France—No Copyright—Other Known
Legal Restrictions. https://www.europeana.eu/en/
item/9200518/ark__12148_btv1b53094267r)97
Fig. 4.1 Start of the 1926 Reale Premio di Roma in front of the Galleria
Nazionale. Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.
wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1926-­03-­28_GP_Roma_start_
Galleria_Nazionale.jpg139
Fig. 5.1 Clemente Biondetti’s thinly disguised Grand Prix Alfa Romeo
P3. Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:1936-­04-­05_Mille_Miglia_Alfa_P3_Biondetti_
Cerase.jpg219
Fig. 6.1 The classic “figure eight” layout of the Mille Miglia.
Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:1936-­04-­05_Mille_Miglia_percorso.jpg 240
Fig. 6.2 Piero Taruffi’s Maserati at Piazzale di Ponte Milvio checkpoint
in Rome, 1934 Mille Miglia. In the background is the Church
of the Great Mother of God, built in the 1930s. Wikimedia
Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:1934-­04-­08_Mille_Miglia_Maserati_4CS_
Taruffi%2BBertocchi.jpg260
 1
Introduction

 ummer of 1924: Triumph in Lyon,

S
Tragedy in Rome
On Sunday, August 3, 1924, the Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini
opened the second day of the Fascist Party’s inaugural leadership council
amid a general state of crisis for his government and his party. Nearly two
years after being appointed Prime Minister, and four months after win-
ning the general election, Mussolini’s government was at a crossroads.
The leader of the Independent Socialists, Giacomo Matteotti, had disap-
peared in June just days after making an accusatory speech in parliament
against Mussolini. Although Matteotti’s fate was still unknown, there was
little doubt that he had met his demise at the hands of Fascist Blackshirts.
Now there were calls for King Victor Emanuel III to remove Mussolini as
Prime Minister. To aggravate matters, Mussolini was facing a split within
the Fascist Party between so-called Intransigents, led by the violent ras
(local Fascist leader) of Cremona, Roberto Farinacci, and the Revisionists,
led by Giuseppe Bottai and Alfredo Rocco. The meeting of the leadership
council was called specifically to deal with this growing split. On the one
hand, the Intransigents wanted to keep Fascism both violent and

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 1

P. Baxa, Motorsport and Fascism, Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97967-6_1
2 P. Baxa

mass-based, a permanent revolution aimed at purging Italian society of

all non-Fascist elements. The Revisionists, on the other hand, aimed at
“normalizing” Fascism and working toward building a party of techno-
crats whose goal was the modernization of Italy. This entailed winding
down Fascist violence and working with non-Fascist elements of society.
At 5 pm, Francesco Giunta, a member of the Intransigent faction, and
former Party Secretary, interrupted the meeting to make an announce-
ment. News had come in from Lyon, France, that Giuseppe Campari, at
the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, had won the Grand Prix de l’A.C.F, European
motorsport’s most prestigious race.1 Although a sporting event in France
had no direct connection to the dramatic events in Rome that summer, it
provided something for the divided Fascists to rally around, and it served
as a distraction for Italians in the midst of the Matteotti Crisis. It was also
the second major sporting triumph to come from France that year. In
July, Ottavio Bottecchia became the first Italian to win the Tour de
France, cycling’s most important event. This, along with the 13 medals
won by Italian athletes at the Olympic Games in Paris, made France the
stage of Italian sporting prestige in a year that was proving politically
disastrous for Mussolini’s regime.
The significance of the motorsport victory in Lyon could be seen the
next day on the front page of Italy’s leading national newspaper, the
Corriere della Sera. Coverage of these two events, the Fascist assembly and
the Alfa Romeo victory in France, dominated the front page of Monday’s
edition of the newspaper. In fact, they were given equal coverage at the
top of the page. The confluence of these events and their recognition by
the Milanese newspaper were rich in significance. It provided one of the
first examples of the growing importance of sport in the 1920s. Indeed,
in 1924 alone, 17 new sports magazines and newspapers went into circu-
lation.2 It was also a recognition of the prestige of the Grand Prix in Lyon.
First run in 1906, when the sport was in its infancy, the Grand Prix de
l’A.C.F. had become a battleground for nations eager to show who was
more advanced in automotive technology. In the heightened nationalism

1
Automobile Club de France. The race was more commonly known as the French Grand Prix.
2
In 1919, 24 sports magazines and newspapers circulated in Italy, up from only 10 in 1914. See
Paolo Facchinetti, La Stampa Sportiva in Italia (Bologna: Edizioni Alfa, 1966), 54.
 1 Introduction 3

of the World War I era, and with the close connections between automo-
tive progress and war technology, the race took on an even greater signifi-
cance.3 The 1924 race was particularly important in this context, as it was
run on the Lyon–Givors circuit as a tribute to the great race of 1914
when, just days before the outbreak of World War I, French and German
teams engaged in an epic struggle that foreshadowed the events that soon
engulfed Europe. The race was given added luster with the title of Grand
Prix of Europe.
The importance of the Italian victory at Lyon was not lost on the
Italian press. In describing the triumphant moment when Campari’s Alfa
Romeo crossed the finish line, the reporter for the Corriere della Sera
could hardly contain his emotions:

It is Campari! Evviva! Evviva! The emotions pent up during this last lap
overflows in shouts and applause. The Italians are moved and even the
disappointed Frenchmen join them in celebration. Campari and his
mechanic are embraced and kissed. The band plays the Marcia Reale (the
anthem of the Savoyard dynasty), the crowd listens with hats removed […]
there is general enthusiasm. The Italian winner greets the second-place
Frenchman and they embrace while the crowd continues to applaud.4

The Fascist Party’s newspaper, Il Popolo d’Italia, which did not report
on sporting events except for motor racing, ran an ad from the Pirelli tire
company that took up half a page.5 The ad claimed that the Grand Prix
was the “Olympics of Racing,” and that the triumphant Italian duo of
Alfa Romeo and Pirelli won against “formidable international” opposi-
tion.6 Meanwhile, the country’s most popular illustrated magazine,
L’Illustrazione Italiano, devoted its cover page to the victory. The issue’s
introductory article by Tartaglia recounted how the son of his building’s

3
The link between automobility and the role it played in preparing Europeans for war in 1914 has
been noted. See Kurt Möser, “The Dark Side of ‘Automobilism’, 1900-30: Violence, war and the
motor car,” The Journal of Transport History, vol. 24, no. 2 (2003): 238–258.
4
Arnaldo Fraccaroli, “Vetture e piloti italiani vittoriosi nel secondo Gran Premio d’Europa,”
Corriere della Sera, 4 agosto 1924, 1–2.
5
Felice Fabrizio, Sport e Fascismo. La politica sportive del regime (Firenze: Guaraldi Editore,
1976), 160.
6
Pirelli ad. Il Popolo d’Italia, 5 agosto 1924, 2.
4 P. Baxa

door attendant greeted him that Monday morning with the exciting news
of the Alfa Romeo victory in France, and that this had given him great
pleasure. Why should this young man going about his daily chores be so
happy about that news? For Tartaglia this was a defining moment:

It is not that the doorkeeper’s son knows Campari personally, nor that he
has any business connections with Nicola Romeo (the company’s President).
He is satisfied because Italy had won with an Italian driver in an Italian car.
The son of my doorkeeper is no different from the sons of other doorkeep-
ers, or merchants, or mechanics everywhere. He is a young man who only
reads the sports pages, his main passion is sport, with a preference for
motorsport. He is not as enthusiastic about cycling, even though one day
he may be able to afford a bicycle. An automobile, however, remains
beyond his wildest dreams but this is why he is more attracted to cars—his
eyes light up when he sees a new one!7

From the reaction of his doorkeeper’s son, Tartaglia came to realize the
emotional impact of international sporting events. The boy, like all
Italians, according to Tartaglia, was moved by a love of country that was
inflamed during events like these: “[The masses] want to participate in
the event or at the very least receive bulletins. They are not satisfied with
reading the summaries the next day in the newspaper. They want to know
the results immediately and await the telegrams that are posted on town
bulletin boards throughout the country.”8 Sporting heroes were now
more famous than government ministers, except for Mussolini himself,
and even movie stars, concluded Tartaglia. It seems that the Italians had
become the Ancient Greeks in their passion for sport. In a nod to the
Matteotti Crisis, Tartaglia noted that the public cares only for two things:
great sporting events and great crimes. Once the news of the race in Lyon
had been digested, the readers would return to the missing Matteotti and
to the rumors, conspiracies, and false leads that had proliferated in the
newspapers. Tartaglia finds relief from the tension caused by the Matteotti
disappearance in the sports pages, and especially in the news of the Italian

7
Tartaglia, “Il figlio del mio portiere,” L’Illustrazione Italiana, anno LI, n. 32 (10 agosto 1924): 154.
8
Tartaglia, 154.
 1 Introduction 5

triumph in Lyon: “Alfa Romeo…driven by Giuseppe Campari…one can

breathe again.”9
The Alfa Romeo triumph in Lyon appeared to transcend the stark
political divisions of that summer. Whether it was the liberal Corriere
della Sera, the Fascist Popolo d’Italia, or the non-political popular illus-
trated magazines like L’Illustrazione Italiana, the news from Lyon pro-
vided a needed distraction from the looming national crisis. Their
responses also revealed the multiple layers of meaning that sport in gen-
eral, and motorsport in particular, provided for Italians in the 1920s, as
well as the emotional investment they made in sports in the interwar
years.10 Reactions to the result demonstrated the importance of national-
ism, of industrial progress via the Pirelli ad, and of popular enthusiasm
especially among the lower classes. There was nothing necessarily Fascist
about these reactions. Tartaglia guessed that the son was not interested in
politics but, if pressed on the issue, would probably express Communist
sympathies. Still independent in 1924, the Corriere della Sera was critical
of Fascism and did not exalt the Alfa Romeo triumph as a victory for the
regime but rather as evidence of Italy’s industrial progress that started
long before Mussolini came to power.
The successes on the racetrack by the Alfa Romeo team coincided with
the establishment of the Fascist dictatorship. A few days after the success
at Lyon, Matteotti’s body was found in a shallow grave north of Rome.
Murdered by Fascist Blackshirts, Matteotti’s death made Mussolini’s
future uncertain. The following January, Mussolini took responsibility
for the murder in a famous speech in Parliament. This gained him the
trust of King Victor Emanuel III, who re-confirmed him as Prime
Minister. Mussolini used this as a launching pad to finally dismantle the
Liberal State and establish the one-party dictatorship that lasted until
1943. This was done with the help of the Intransigents in the Fascist
Party, whose side Mussolini took during the leadership conference of

9
Tartaglia, 154.
10
Daphné Bolz, “Sport and Fascism,” in Alan Bairner, John Kelly, and Jung Woo Lee, eds. Routledge
Handbook of Sport and Politics (London: Routledge, 2020), 55.
6 P. Baxa

August 1924. In the meantime, Blackshirt violence was unleashed on the

regime’s opponents.11
While these dramatic political events unfolded, the Alfa Romeo team
dominated the Grand Prix events of Europe, winning the first ever World
Championship for manufacturers in 1925. By the end of that year, the
identification between motorsport success and the Fascist Revolution was
complete. The apogee of this identification came in the summer of 1925,
when Antonio Ascari was killed during the running of the Grand Prix de
l’A.C.F. at the Montlhéry Autodrome near Paris. Of all the Alfa Romeo
drivers, Ascari was the most popular and considered the most talented.
He was dominating the race and well on his way to victory when his Alfa
crashed. Thousands attended the funeral in Milan and Ascari was cele-
brated as a Fascist martyr by Lando Ferretti, head of the Italian Olympic
Committee (CONI), a Fascist of the first hour, and one of the most
important influences on the development of sport under Fascism.12
Accompanying Ascari’s coffin on the train journey from France was a
large wreath from Mussolini. It simply read, “To the Intrepid One.”

Fascism, Sport, and Motorsport

One of the key themes of this book is the mutually beneficial relationship
enjoyed by Fascism and motorsport. The success of the Alfa Romeo team
in 1924 and 1925 helped give the country an international prestige that
deflected some attention from the Matteotti Crisis. Similarly, motorsport
benefited from the patronage of the Fascist regime, especially in the sec-
ond half of the 1920s when Grand Prix racing fell into a slump caused,
in part by a lack of interest from the major auto manufacturers. The
attention paid to motorsport by Fascism, due to the regime’s love of speed
and modernity which it took from the Futurists, aided the sport in its
time of need. Conversely, motorsport served to reconcile some of the

11
Adrian Lyttelton, The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919-1929 (New York: Routledge, 2004),
196–222. Lyttelton’s work is still the best English-language account of the events surrounding the
Matteotti Crisis and its role in launching the Fascist dictatorship.
12
Patrizia Dogliani, “Sport and Fascism,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies, vol. 5, no. 3 (2000): 329.
 1 Introduction 7

tensions and divisions within Fascist culture and ideology. Both

Intransigents and Revisionists took pride in the Alfa Romeo success in
1924 not only because of the sporting prestige bestowed on Italy, but also
because motorsport was uniquely placed to express the values of both fac-
tions. Motorsport was both technocratic and violent at the same time. It
was a sport made up of specialized engineers and drivers working in an
environment that transcended national boundaries. At the same time, it
also appealed to populist nationalism.
The Alfa Romeo Company and race team serves as an excellent exam-
ple of this synergy between motorsport and Fascism. Tim Edensor has
argued that the 1920s saw a close identification between cars and national
virility in England, best represented by an elite group of “iconic cars.”13
In Fascist Italy, Alfa Romeo produced “iconic cars” like the P2 and the
1500 and 1750 series sports cars in the late 1920s. According to Rudy
Koshar, the interwar period was especially important in the convergence
between cars and the image of the nation, due to the “dramatically differ-
ent routes to automobility” taken by European countries.14 The victory at
Lyon appealed to the interests of industrialists, the nationalist ambitions
of politicians, and the fantasies of the populace. This was not new and
had already been achieved by the Turinese company FIAT, which carried
Italy’s racing glory in the early years of the sport before 1914; however, in
the mid-1920s, FIAT turned away from racing to focus on mass-­
produced cars.
This left a gap that was filled by Alfa Romeo from Milan, the birth-
place of Fascism. Founded in the early years of the century as the Italian
subsidiary for a French company, it was bought by the Neapolitan indus-
trialist Nicola Romeo in 1918.15 With the change in management came
an increased focus on racing. In 1923, the company poached FIAT’s chief
engineer, Vittorio Jano, who went on to design the world-beating,

13
Tim Edensor, “Automobility and National Identity: Representation, Geography and Driving
Practice,” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 21, no. 101 (2004): 103.
14
Rudy Koshar, “Cars and Nations: Anglo-German Perspectives on Automobility between the
World Wars,” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 21, no. 121 (2004): 122.
15
David Owen, Alfa Romeo: Ninety Years of Success on Road and Track (Sparkford, Somerset: Patrick
Stephens Limited, 1993), 22–23.
8 P. Baxa

supercharged P2 Alfa Romeo Grand Prix car.16 In their approach to rac-

ing and industry, Alfa Romeo expressed a wide range of Fascist values.
On the one hand, Alfa appealed to the elite automobile enthusiast in
contrast to the mass-produced FIAT automobiles. On the other hand,
Alfa’s aggressive approach to performance and winning on the racetracks
of Europe had something of the Intransigent spirit about it. A case in
point was their crushing performance at the 1925 Grand Prix of Europe
in Belgium where the Alfa Romeos were the only cars to finish the race,
much to the bitter disappointment of the Belgian crowd. The team’s
withdrawal from the French Grand Prix after the death of Ascari, thus
sacrificing a sure victory from their other drivers, gave the impression of
a united team effort rallying around their dead leader. The collective
identity of Alfa Romeo was heightened by the team’s tendency to wear
matching uniforms with the team logo prominently displayed, which was
uncommon in that era.
In a recent study of Fascism, David Roberts has argued that a proper
understanding of Fascist ideology required a close study of how it inter-
acted with all areas of political, social, and cultural life.17 Fascism’s inter-
action with motorsport is a fertile topic for investigation that historians
have generally ignored. This is surprising, considering the obvious affinity
between Mussolini’s movement and automobile racing. Motor racing was
also one of the most popular sporting activities in Italy, especially after
the Fascist seizure of power. In fact, Italy hosted more motor races than
any other European country in the late 1920s, during a time when Grand
Prix motor racing—the highest form of motorsport made up of specially
designed, high-performance racing machines—was in crisis.18 Of the 148
Grand Prix races run between 1922 and 1929, 77% were held in Italy.19
In 1928, the sport’s lowest point, Italy held the only national Grand Prix

16
Griffith Borgeson, The Alfa Romeo Tradition (Automobile Quarterly, 1990), 68–93.
17
David Roberts, Fascist Interactions: Proposals for a New Approach to Fascism and its Era (Berghahn
Books, 2016).
18
George Monkhouse, Grand Prix Racing: Facts and Figures (London: G. T. Foules & Co.,
1950), 9–10.
19
One hundred and fourteen races were run in Italy in this period. These statistics were compiled
using the excellent Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing database compiled by Leif Snellman. It can
be found here: http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/main.htm.
 1 Introduction 9

of the season. France, once home of Grand Prix racing, was displaced by
Italy in terms of number of races and drivers. In addition, Italy continued
to host one of the pioneering races in motorsport, the Targa Florio in
Sicily and, in 1927, became the home of the open road Mille Miglia race
run over half of Italy—a race that claimed to bring motorsport back to its
origins. Prominent Fascists like Roberto Farinacci, Costanzo Ciano, and
Giacomo Acerbo patronized several of the Grand Prix races in Italy. The
Mille Miglia, on the other hand, found a powerful patron in Party
Secretary Augusto Turati.
A study of motorsport under Fascism can tell us a great deal about
Fascism in theory and practice. As I will demonstrate in this book, motor-
sport not only celebrated the technology and modernization desired by
the regime, something that it shared with other non-Fascist ideologies,
but also became an ideal tool for what Fernando Esposito has called the
“mythical modernity” extolled by Fascist ideology.20 As Jeffrey Herf
argued in the case of Nazism, Italian Fascism also practiced a kind of
“reactionary modernism” that looked both forward and backward at the
same time.21 This was reflected in Fascism’s ability to identify with both
the city and the countryside; the Nietzschean “superman” and the masses,
to be a “political religion” while at the same time professing a radical anti-­
bourgeois and modernist avant-gardism. While the regime struggled to
reconcile these antinomies, motorsport proved an activity that could
express all of these at the same time.
The historiography of Italian Fascism has also had difficulty reconcil-
ing these divisions. A case in point is the interpretive framework associ-
ated with Roger Griffin, who argues that Fascism promoted a
“programmatic modernism” that was decidedly revolutionary and mythi-
cal.22 Motorsport is one example of an activity that fits into this frame-
work. Nonetheless, apart from Esposito’s analysis of aviation, the Griffin
school has generally ignored the roles of both sport in general and

20
Fernando Esposito, Fascism, Aviation and Mythical Modernity (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2015).
21
Jeffrey Herf, Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third
Reich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984).
22
Roger Griffin, Modernism and Fascism: The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 61.
10 P. Baxa

motorsport in particular. Perhaps this is due to the popular or folkloristic

character of sport, which does not fit well with the modernist thesis
advanced by Griffin and others.
Historians of sport and Fascism are also ambivalent about the impact
of Fascist ideology on sport. Whatever the regime’s pretensions, histori-
ans of sport generally agree that sport remained autonomous and imper-
vious to Fascist ideology. A recent work on the topic concludes, “In the
end […] fascism never managed to get a complete hold of the people and
a complete ‘fascistization’ of the sports movement did not take place.”23
Felice Fabrizio, who wrote the first major study of sport under Fascism,
has argued that Fascism inherited a sporting infrastructure built up under
the Liberal Monarchy.24 Furthermore, an increased interest in sport was a
general post-World War I phenomenon stoked by a desire among the
masses for increased leisure and entertainment. While sport benefited
from the attention of the regime, it never became Fascist. Additionally,
sport failed to unite Italians and transform the masses into Fascists. If
anything, sports like soccer exacerbated already existing divisions between
regions and cities.25 While the regime aimed at a sport for the masses, this
only meant that Italians became mass spectators rather than mass partici-
pants.26 The masses as spectators were “positively embraced” by the
regime, according to Simon Martin, since it was “an opportunity to
establish a type of Dionysian rapture and intoxication that Nietzsche
referred to.”27
This is not to say that Fascism did not have a real impact on sport.
Enrico Landoni has argued that not only did Fascism have a coherent and
consistent sporting policy, but the regime also achieved a “perfect osmosis
between politics and sport.”28 Patrizia Dogliani, too, points out that
Fascism was crucial in making sport a mass phenomenon: “Until the

23
Bolz, “Sport and Fascism,” 64.
24
Felice Fabrizio, “Introduzione,” in Cannella and Giuntini, 10.
25
Simon Martin, Football and Fascism: The National Game under Mussolini (Oxford: Berg, 2004),
213–214.
26
Fabrizio Sport e Fascismo, 51.
27
Simon Martin, “In Praise of Fascist Beauty?” Sport in History, vol. 28, no. 1 (March 2008): 69.
28
Enrico Landoni, Gli atleti del Duce. La politica sportiva del Fascismo, 1919-1939 (Milano:
Mimesis, 2016), 11.
 1 Introduction 11

1920s, sports were practiced by a middle-class elite […] In the late 1930s,
the Fascist regime changed all that to make sport a mass phenomenon
with specific aims of propaganda and social control.”29 In both cases,
there is no mention of how the regime’s policies impacted the sports
themselves and there remains a general view that sports remained an
autonomous activity. Much of the literature on sport and Fascism also
lacks engagement with the newer scholarly trends in Fascist studies.

Why Motorsport?
This consensus on sport and Fascism applies to motorsport, which has
not received the same kind of specialized attention as other sports such as
soccer and cycling.30 There have only been two, Italian-language only,
monographs on motorsport in Italy, one dealing with the Mille Miglia
from its origins to its demise in the 1950s, and the other on motor racing
under the regime.31 Neither of these books engage with the more nuanced
studies of Fascism that have proliferated since the 1990s. Part of the rea-
son for the ambivalence shown by sports historians to motorsport is rac-
ing’s ambiguous place in the world of sport. It is often dismissed as being,
in the words of one historian, primarily an “engineering contest.”32 To
some extent, the critics are correct. “As a sport,” writes Daryl Adair,
“motor racing was somewhat unusual, involving as it did contest between
both manufacturers and drivers […] To some ‘purists’, however, this

29
Dogliani, “Fascism and Sport,” 341.
30
There have been some excellent monographs and essay collections that have come out in recent
years on cycling and soccer. See Mimmo Franzinelli, Il Giro d’Italia. Dai pionieri agli anni d’oro
(Milano: Feltrinelli, 2017); Gianni Silei, ed. Giro d’Italia e la società italiana (Rome: Piero Lacaita
Editore, 2010); John Foot, Pedalare! Pedalare! A History of Italian Cycling (London: Bloomsbury
Publishing, 2014); John Foot, Winning at all Costs: A Scandalous History of Italian Soccer (New
York: Nation Books, 2007); and Simon Martin, Football and Fascism: The National Game under
Mussolini (Oxford: Berg, 2004).
31
Daniele Marchesini, Cuori e Motori. Storia della Mille Miglia (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2001); Enrico
Azzini, Bolidi Rossi & Camicie Nere. Storia delle competizioni automobilistiche durante il Fascismo
(Roma: IBN Editore, 2011).
32
Simon Martin, Sport Italia: The Italian Love Affair with Sport (London: I. B. Taurus, 2011), 7. In
fairness to Martin, his book pays a great deal more attention to motorsport than most other sports
history books.
12 P. Baxa

contest between machines, not just men, was contrary to the ‘value’ of
sport.”33 For Fascism, however, these unique qualities made motorsport
valuable. These qualities included racing’s ties to industry, its foreground-
ing of technology, as well as an ability to appeal to the masses and elites,
to transform landscapes, to change its rules, to connect to the experience
of World War I, and to exalt the violent nature of speed.
The first unique characteristic of motorsport compared to other sports
is its close connection to industry and national infrastructure like roads.
Whereas other sports have ties to industry through financial or technical
sponsorship—cycling, for example—motorsport is connected to the
powerful automotive industry.34 It also contributed to the growing sense
that the automobile represented “national virility.”35 Thus, any develop-
ment in motorsport reflects directly or indirectly on that industry.
Motorsport also uses public roads as well as purpose-built autodromes.
Here too a comparison can be made to cycling, but events like the Giro
d’Italia did not need finished or asphalted roads—they could be held on
country lanes and on unpaved surfaces. Motor races, on the other hand,
required proper and advanced roads that could allow cars to perform at
high speed. This was one of the rationales behind the Mille Miglia race.
It was hoped that the race might encourage the development of better
roads, and thus promote the advancement of automobility.36 The Fascist
regime’s oft-touted building of the autostrade (freeways) is one example of
how motorsport could promote an important public works initiative that
advanced Fascist ideology.37
The centrality of technology and its development also set motorsport
apart from stick and ball games. Whereas other sports benefited from
technology such as new stadiums and training equipment, evolving tech-
nology was the centerpiece of motorsport and determined its
33
Daryl Adair, “Spectacles of Speed and Endurance: The Formative Years of Motor Racing in
Europe,” in David Thoms, Len Holden, and Tim Claydon, eds. The Motor Car and Popular Culture
in the 20th Century (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1998), 132.
34
After World War I, FIAT became Italy’s third largest corporation after the two steel manufactur-
ers, Ilva and Ansaldo. James J. Fink, The Automobile Age (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990), 75–76.
35
Edensor, “Automobility and National Identity,” 103–104.
36
Giovanni Canestrini, Mille Miglia (Rome: Automobile Club d’Italia, 1967), 11–14.
37
Massimo Moraglio, Driving Modernity: Technology, Experts, Politics, and Fascist Motorways,
1922-1943, Erin O’Loughlin, trans. (Berghahn Books, 2017).
 1 Introduction 13

development and the character of its competition. The main appeal of the
sport was the automobile and its performance capabilities. In the 1920s,
Grand Prix racing was defined by its avant-garde technology. The Grand
Prix car was the racing equivalent of a thoroughbred, designed for speed
and racing. It typically used technology that could not be transferred to
everyday cars, at least not in the short term. The torpedo-shaped bodies
of the 1920s cars were designed for aerodynamic efficiency and the
engines were supercharged to provide more horsepower. Even sports car
racing, a category that emerged in the 1920s based on ordinary produc-
tion cars, evolved into highly sophisticated racing machines before too
long.38 Notably, Alfa Romeo was at the forefront of both of these types of
racing by the early 1930s.
Motorsport’s elite nature is also what sets it apart from other sports.
Soccer could be played by anyone anywhere as long as there was a ball,
and the bicycle was a technology accessible to the masses. The high-speed
performance automobile, however, was not accessible to them. While the
son of the doorkeeper could imagine having a bicycle one day, the car
remained a dream. Since its origins in the 1890s, motor racing competi-
tors were almost exclusively from the elite of society. The nobility, in
particular, were attracted to dangerous sports since, according to Kurt
Möser, they were socialized to have a “heroic indifference to danger.”39
Adair points out that at the 1903 Gordon Bennett Trophy Race (one of
the earliest motorsport competitions involving national teams), the
Automobile Club of Germany refused to enter a team made up of drivers
who did not have aristocratic titles.40 With the advent of the profession-
alization of sport after World War I, Grand Prix racing was exclusive to
elite drivers, many of whom, but not all, came from privileged back-
grounds.41 To be sure, elite athletics characterized most sports of the

38
The term “sports car” is generally vague and its origins are unclear. It is possible to discern its
development in the 1920s as what one automotive historian called a “hybrid” of the racing car and
the family sedan. See T. R. Nicholson, Sports Cars, 1928-1939 (London: Blandford Press, 1969), 1.
39
Möser, “The Dark Side of ‘Automobilism,’” 240.
40
Adair, “Spectacles of Speed and Endurance,” 123.
41
This included the “folk hero” of Italian racing, Tazio Nuvolari, who came from a wealthy, land-
owning family in the Po Valley. Dogliani, “Sport and Fascism,” 344.
14 P. Baxa

Fascist era, outpacing the regime’s hopes of mass athleticism.42

Significantly, the Mille Miglia competition was opened to amateurs driv-
ing so-called utility cars.43 They never had a chance at winning the event,
though, since the professionals racing the specialized racing cars always
won. However, being able to participate alongside famous aces allowed
even the ordinary motorists to imagine themselves as racing heroes, at
least for a day.44 Still, only a fraction of the Italian population could hope
to participate in the Mille Miglia since automobile ownership remained
the privilege of a small minority.45 In fact, this class tended to attract
celebrities from film and politics such as Vittorio Mussolini.
Motorsport was a means of exposing the masses to the most advanced
automotive technology, especially in parts of Italy that were still relatively
technologically backward. For those populations accustomed to seeing
cars, motorsport was a means to re-enchant automotive technology. By
the 1920s and 1930s, the ordinary automobile no longer enthralled the
public the way it once did. Only motorsport, with its exotic sports and
Grand Prix cars, could awe the public. This was one of the attractions of
autodromes like Monza, where Grand Prix cars could show what they
were capable of. However, it was also true for races held on public roads
where a contrast could be seen between the performances of high-speed
cars and ordinary cars. Fascist Italy proposed both forms of racing,
although road racing became increasingly popular into the 1930s. Racing
was born on the open roads in the 1890s, but a series of disastrous acci-
dents in the early years of the century forced it to shift to autodromes.
Although Italy built its first autodrome at Monza near Milan in 1922,
most of the races were held on closed public roads. The Mille Miglia,
meanwhile, was run on open roads. Thus, motor racing appealed to both
aristocrats and the masses. In his study of motorsport in England before

42
Fabrizio, Sport e Fascismo, 51.
43
Adair, “Spectacles of Speed and Endurance,” 128.
44
Daniele Marchesini, Cuori e motori, 10.
45
In 1930, there were 31,000 vehicles registered in Italy compared to the 3 million in the United
States, 225,000 in the United Kingdom, and 97,000 in Germany. Source: Enzo Angelucci and
Alberto Bellucci, Le automobile. 1000 modelli di tutto il mondo dalle origini ad oggi con dati tecnici
(Milano: Mondadori, 1974), 257.
 1 Introduction 15

World War I, Ian Boutle has shown how “depictions of speed icons com-
bined the dual themes of egalitarianism and elitism.”46
The choice to run motor races on public roads distinguished racing
from other sports (apart from cycling), as the latter always required
purpose-­built venues. After the regime issued the Charter of Sport in
1928, numerous sports facilities were constructed throughout the penin-
sula.47 Motor racing did not need these venues. Racing was brought
directly to the masses in a way that mirrored Fascism’s official policy of
“going toward the people,” introduced in 1933. This ability to bring the
sport to the masses allowed elite technology to be displayed in action,
thus giving credence to the regime’s claims about the advancement of
Italian industry. Even though the mass of spectators had little knowledge
of the technology in front of them, and no hope of owning such an auto-
mobile, the spectacle it offered was rich in significance. Writing about the
popularity of NASCAR in America, Mark Howell and John Miller have
argued that “it is the cultural symbolism inherent in motorsports and its
relationship to technology that fans relate to, more than the technology
itself or even the action that they witness on the track.”48 This was espe-
cially the case in Italy where, according to Marchesini, the “cult of speed”
is widely shared.49
The result of holding races on public roads gave motorsport the ability
to transform one’s experience of the landscape. Through races like the
Mille Miglia, half of Italy became what John Bale has called a “landscape
of speed.”50 It also united the urban and rural masses. Enrico Azzini has
pointed out that the regime’s support for motor racing places it at odds
with Fascism’s privileging of rural life and the anti-urbanizing policies
that went with it.51 I will argue that the proliferation of motor races on

46
Ian Boutle, ‘“Speed Lies in the Lap of the English’: Motor Records, Masculinity, and the Nation,
1907-14,” Twentieth Century British History, vol. 23, no. 4 (2012): 452.
47
Fabrizio, Sport e Fascismo, 23. On the building of soccer stadiums under Fascism, see Martin,
Football and Fascism, 88–91.
48
“Introduction,” in Mark D. Howell and John D. Miller, eds. Motorsports and American Culture:
From Demolition Derbies to NASCAR (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), viii.
49
Marchesini, Cuori e Motori, 9.
50
John Bale, Landscapes of Modern Sport (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1994), 14.
51
Enrico Azzini, Bolidi rossi, 7–8.
16 P. Baxa

public roads provided an opportunity for the regime to show that it had
harmonized these two antithetical spheres of cultural and social life. In
each case, the events showcased the cities as well as the surrounding coun-
tryside. Bringing city and country together offered a solution to the cul-
tural division with Fascism between stracittà and strapaese (pro-city and
pro-country).
Motorsport also served to remind Italians of World War I. Like all
sports, motor racing benefited from the demand for sport after the Great
War.52 Next to the Olympics, motorsport responded to a heightened
sense of nationalism. In 1921, the Italian Grand Prix became the first
national race after the 1906 French Grand Prix. By the mid-1920s, it was
joined by the Spanish, German, and British Grand Prix races. Furthermore,
after the war, national color schemes for cars became an accepted prac-
tice. Italian cars were red, German cars white (and later silver), French
cars blue, and American cars blue and white. Moreover, automotive tech-
nology benefited from developments made in aviation during the war.
New materials for engines and chassis were introduced, as were develop-
ments in engine design such as the supercharger.53 Superchargers were
necessary to keep airplane engines running at a constant speed at high
altitudes. The use of superchargers on racing cars was for performance
only, and their use demonstrated the growing divide between racing cars
and ordinary road cars.
Along with shared technology, there were other important links
between World War I aviation and motorsport. Race car drivers and avia-
tors shared a similar cultural mystique, and they became folk heroes in
the 1920s.54 Both appealed to the aristocracy, and both managed to bring
elites and the masses together. There were several examples of men who
did both. Georges Boillot of France and Eddie Rickenbacker of the
United States are famous examples of individuals who went from racing

52
Patrizia Dogliani, “Roundtable,” in Canella and Giuntini, 480.
53
Jeff Daniels, Driving Force: The Evolution of the Car Engine (Somerset, UK: Haynes Publishing,
2002), 59.
54
The aviator as folk hero and even as a kind of Messianic figure can be seen in the response to
Charles Lindbergh’s epic flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. See Robert Wohl, The Spectacle
of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920-1950 (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 2005).
 1 Introduction 17

cars to flying planes in war. There were others, especially in Italy where,
as we will see, aviation and motorsport were seen as the most Fascist of
sporting achievements. The Futurists exalted both in their arts. Dead
aviators in war and dead race car drivers were both treated as martyrs.
Another aspect of motorsport’s appeal was its violence. This too formed
a connection to the war experience. Racing was a blood sport—compa-
rable to bullfighting and boxing—but it involved technology and even
claimed spectators as victims. For example, the massacre that occurred at
the Italian Grand Prix in 1928, discussed in Chap. 3, threatened the very
existence of the sport due to condemnations from important places, such
as the Vatican. Despite this, the Fascist regime remained firmly commit-
ted to the sport, and even claimed that this was the price to pay for prog-
ress. Italy lost a high percentage of racing drivers in the 1920s and 1930s
to accidents, many of them star drivers like Pietro Bordino, Antonio
Ascari, and Giuseppe Campari.55 In each case, the drivers were treated as
martyrs in the newspapers and sporting journals. To be sure, the acci-
dents were seen as unfortunate and tragic, but so many of them occurred
that the regime adopted fixed rituals that transformed them into heroes
who died for the Fatherland. They became part of what Emilio Gentile
has called the “holy militia” made up of Fascist martyrs, which in turn
made up Fascism’s “political religion.”56
Fascism thus adopted the violence intrinsic to the sport as a positive
value and an essential part of modernization. The infamous Carrera
Panamericana race in Mexico in the 1950s made a similar connection.57
The blood sport aspect of racing also had the merit of recalling the days
of the Roman Empire, a key point of Fascist propaganda. Race car driv-
ers, even more than aviators, were modern gladiators. Their arena was the
autodrome, a fact not lost on the Vatican in the aftermath of the Monza
disaster of 1928, when it accused the regime of indulging in pagan games.
Furthermore, the violence of the sport was not simply down to its acci-
dents. Racing is an assault on the senses through the speed and noise it
55
Of the 49 drivers killed in racing accidents between 1922 and 1939, 16 were Italian. Source:
Monkhouse, Grand Prix Racing, 291–292.
56
Emilio Gentile, Il culto del littorio (Bari: Laterza, 1993), 35–54.
57
J. Brian Freeman, “’La Carrera de la Muerte’: Death, Driving, and Rituals of Modernization in
1950s Mexico,” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, vol. 29 (2011): 2–23.
18 P. Baxa

generates. The noise, smell, speed, and death made it akin to the war
experience.
Finally, motorsport stands apart from other sports since it allows for
constant rule changes. The history of motorsport is marked by changes in
technical regulations that are introduced for a variety of reasons. After the
domination of Alfa Romeo in 1924 and 1925, the AIACR58 changed the
rules in order to allow for greater competition. While these changes gen-
erally failed to improve the situation with the major automobile manu-
facturers staying out, they did offer Fascist Italy the opportunity to
influence the development of the sport. Through the Sporting
Commission of the AIACR, individuals like Vincenzo Florio, the wealthy
Sicilian nobleman who came up with the Targa Florio race, and Silvio
Crespi, northern industrialist and builder of the Monza Autodrome, were
able to bring Fascist values to an international level. Thanks to these men,
the Royal Automobile Club of Italy (RACI), which became a govern-
ment agency in 1926 along with the other sporting federations, had a real
say in the development of motorsport in the 1920s in a way that bene-
fited the sport in Italy.59

 he Fascist Sport par Excellence:

T
Chapter Summaries
The following chapters will trace the close connection between motors-
port and Fascism in the 1920s and 1930s. They are organized roughly
chronologically so as to show how developments in the Fascist regime
and motorsport overlapped into the 1930s. What follows is not simply a
competition history: much will be said about the sport, its competitors,
and most of all its venues. Although motor racing was not the most pop-
ular sport in Italy, taking a back seat to cycling and soccer, these chapters
will demonstrate that no sport came to embody Fascist values more than
58
The forerunner of the current Fédération Internationale d’Automobile—motorsport’s governing
body headquartered in Paris.
59
An example was the introduction of the Formula Libre regulations for 1928 that allowed engines
of any capacity to be used in Grand Prix events. This allowed the venerable Alfa Romeo P2 to be
dusted off and used for racing again.
 1 Introduction 19

racing. Mussolini’s regime provided the atmosphere from which party

leaders, automobile club enthusiasts, industrialists, and race car drivers
took the initiative to make Fascist Italy Grand Prix racing’s most fertile
ground. In return, motorsport provided Fascism with an activity that
could reconcile its contradictions and inner tensions. In short, motors-
port was the Fascist sport par excellence. This will be demonstrated
through a study of the Grand Prix of Rome, the construction of auto-
dromes, the exaltation of race car drivers as exemplars of the New Man,
and the organization and geography of the Mille Miglia.
The second chapter analyzes how motor racing became the ideal vehi-
cle for promoting Fascist ideology and for resolving the ideology’s contra-
dictions. This chapter seeks to go beyond the axiomatic connection
between Futurism and Fascism. Rather, motor racing was able to bring
together two strands of Fascist ideology that were often at odds, notably
the Futurism of Marinetti and the Decadence of Gabriele D’Annunzio.
The former emphasized the future and an overcoming of the past, while
the latter turned to a mythic view of the Italian past against the deca-
dence of the bourgeois present. While Marinetti gave Fascism its celebra-
tion of technology, D’Annunzio inspired the Fascist style during his
takeover of the disputed city of Fiume in 1919.60 Both movements, how-
ever, shared a love for technology, especially the automobile and the air-
plane. Indeed, D’Annunzio preceded Marinetti in making “aeroplanes
the subject of a literary cult.” 61 They also idealized war and the need to
destroy the bourgeois present. The discourses around motorsport bene-
fited from both men since speed, technology, and death played a key role
in the Marinettian and D’Annunzian mythos. Both involved a “death
cult” that exalted martyrdom. In the case of Futurism, death served prog-
ress while for D’Annunzio it was a sacrifice for the mythic values of the
Fatherland. The popularity of the sport with the masses, seen especially

60
Michael Ledeen, D’Annunzio: The First Duce (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers,
2002). D’Annunzio not only gave Fascism its style and some of its slogans, he also contributed to
the theme of redemption in Fascist ideology. See Han Ulrich Gumbrecht, “I redentori della vittoria:
On Fiume’s Place in the Genealogy of Fascism,” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 31, no. 2
(April 1996): 253–272.
61
Tim Benton, “Dreams of Machines: Futurism and l’Esprit Nouveau,” Journal of Design History,
vol. 3, no. 1 (1990): 25.
20 P. Baxa

with the Mille Miglia but also with the large turnouts for other Grand
Prix events, allowed the regime to present these two poles of its ideology
to the public. To participate in motor races was to participate in the
Fascist Revolution.
Both Futurism and D’Annunzianism also contributed to the Fascist
ideal of the New Man in a way that impacted sport.62 Moreover, both
contributed to Fascism’s “rhetoric of virility.”63 I will argue that the race
car driver expressed the variety of dimensions found in the New Man. In
sport, the Fascist New Man fit into the mold of the Fascist Blackshirt and
Great War warrior while at the same time shaped being by the culture of
celebrity and divismo. Stephen Gundle has shown how glamor and celeb-
rity were important in the Cult of the Duce.64 This rubbed off on the
automotive industry and motorsport. For example, Mussolini’s frequent
appearances in an Alfa Romeo gave the marque a degree of glamor that
added to the prestige of its on-track successes. By the 1920s, glamor had
become a defining characteristic of motorsport.65 Ian Boutle has argued
that it went back even further to the pre-1914 era, when the distinction
between “heroes” and “celebrities” in motorsport began to diminish.66
Tapping into the war experience, the Fascist New Man was at once both
grim warrior hero fighting for an ideal and folk hero who pleased the
masses. As will be seen, all Italian racers fit into this mold but none more
so than Tazio Nuvolari.67
The third chapter examines the two sites built for the exaltation of
motorsport and speed—the autodrome. The opening of the Monza

62
Gigliola Gori, “Model of Masculinity: Mussolini, the ‘New Italian’ of the Fascist Era,” The
International Journal of the History of Sport, vol. 16, no. 4 (1999): 27–61.
63
Barbara Spackman, Fascist Virilities: Rhetoric, Ideology, and Social Fantasy in Italy (University of
Minnesota Press, 1996), 1–33.
64
Stephen Gundle, Mussolini’s Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy (New York:
Berghahn, 2016).
65
Glamor remains a defining characteristic of Formula 1 racing. The Monaco Grand Prix, first held
in 1929, embodies this aspect of the sport, so much so that it explains why this anachronistic race
is still kept on the racing calendar.
66
Boutle, “Speed Lies in the Lap of the English,” 452.
67
This has been expressed in numerous publications on Nuvolari but pop artist Lucio Dalla best
expresses it in his song “Nuvolari.” It can be found on his 1976 album Automobili. In the song,
Nuvolari is depicted as a muscular warrior who is adored by the crowds. Remo Bassetti, Storia e
storie dello sport in Italia. Dall’Unità a oggi (Venezia: Marsilio Editori, 1999), 124.
 1 Introduction 21

Autodrome initiated this process, as did the construction of the Melhalla

Circuit in the Italian colony of Tripolitania. By 1932, Italy boasted more
autodromes than any other country in Europe and hosted numerous
Grand Prix events on closed public roads, all patronized by prominent
Fascist leaders. Not only did Fascist Italy provide the stage for Grand Prix
races, but it also presented itself as the sport’s savior, especially in 1928
when the Italian Grand Prix was the only national Grand Prix held that
year. Furthermore, Italians were at the forefront of organizing new types
of racing teams in the wake of the official factory teams leaving the sport.
These privately run teams, or scuderie (stables) as they became known,
served as the template for how Grand Prix racing teams were organized in
the future. The most famous example of this was the Scuderia Ferrari cre-
ated in 1929 by Enzo Ferrari, a former race driver from the all-­conquering
Alfa Romeo team. This team became so important that Alfa Romeo
entrusted it with its cars well into the 1930s. Finally, the chapter traces
how Italy took the lead in redefining Grand Prix racing, and how this
redefinition bore the stamp of Fascism. The sport’s development in the
late 1920s was crucial to its ultimate survival and growth in subsequent
years. In the mid-1930s, the Nazi regime in Germany heavily invested in
its Grand Prix teams and started a technological revolution that eventu-
ally allowed Grand Prix racing to become Formula 1 in the late 1940s.
This would not have been possible, I argue, without the support given to
Grand Prix racing by the Italian Fascist regime.
The fourth chapter examines the Automobile Club of Rome’s attempts
to transform the city into an “automotive capital.” The Roman chapter of
RACI was unique in that it was founded after the March on Rome in
1922, whereas the more established clubs dated from the turn of the cen-
tury under the Liberal Monarchy. The club’s first president, Romeo
Gallenga Stuart, was an example of a formerly liberal politician who
became a Fascist via Nationalism. Throughout the 1920s, Gallenga Stuart
led a crusade to make Rome Italy’s center of automotive progress through
various initiatives, which included the organizing of the Grand Prix of
Rome, the first edition of which was run in February 1925. The club’s
initiatives, which included two hill climb events as well as the sponsoring
of the city’s first parking garage and car show, came in the wake of
Mussolini’s call for Rome to be re-developed according to “necessity and
22 P. Baxa

grandeur.”68 These words touched off Fascism’s massive remaking of the

city over the next few years, which saw the city completely transformed.69
The chapter follows the club’s search for an ideal venue for a Grand Prix
race, which involved city streets, country roads, and, ultimately, the con-
struction of an autodrome in 1931. Emphasized throughout is how the
venues reflected and followed Fascism’s broader political and cultural
objectives. These ranged from the city street circuits expressing the liberal
and bourgeois politics of the early 1920s, to the Tre Fontane circuit in the
Agro Romano reflecting the pro-agrarian policies of the late 1920s. The
Littorio Autodrome, meanwhile, came to represent the totalitarian turn
of the early 1930s.
Chapters five and six are devoted to Fascism’s most important contri-
bution to motorsport, and the Fascist racing artifact par excellence: the
Mille Miglia. Organized by the Automobile Club of Brescia, one of Italy’s
oldest and most important motoring clubs, the race was an ambitious
trek on Italy’s open roads with the start and finish in Brescia via Rome.
First held in 1927, when motorsport was in the doldrums, the race was
conceived originally for ordinary passenger cars. However, it did not take
long for the race to become a competition between the most advanced
sports cars and a showcase for the Alfa Romeo cars well into the 1930s. It
also became a battleground between the top stars of the day, especially
Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi, Italy’s two greatest racing rivals. The
race became one of Fascist Italy’s “big three” sporting events along with
the soccer championship and the Giro d’Italia.70 Although the race was
the creation of local automobile enthusiasts, it would not have taken
place without the crucial support of the Fascist Party Secretary, Augusto
Turati, who was from Brescia. The organization required to get the race
going involved several levels of government, police, and Fascist militia
and took the better part of a day to complete. Chapter five examines the
Mille Miglia as a sporting idea that had close connections to Fascism’s
vision for Italy and was organized on the Fascist model. It also shows how
68
Benito Mussolini, “La Nuova Roma (31 dicembre 1925),” Benito Mussolini, Discorsi, Scritti e
Articoli, accessed January 11, 2022, http://www.adamoli.org/benito-mussolini/pag0342-.htm.
69
Paul Baxa, Roads and Ruins: The Symbolic Landscape of Fascist Rome (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 2010).
70
Dogliani, “Sport and Fascism,” 333–334.
 1 Introduction 23

the organizers fostered a carnival-like atmosphere in the towns along the

route. This was not merely a sporting event, but a “carnival of speed.”
The sixth chapter focuses on the geography and rich iconography of
the Mille Miglia, beginning with its most famous icon: the “figure of
eight” circuit that covered nearly half of the Italian peninsula. The race
transformed half of Italy into a “landscape of speed” where speed records
were expected to be broken every year. A study of the race reports, which
commanded front page news in Italy’s leading newspapers, made record-­
breaking even more important than simply winning the race. Marinetti’s
dream of a new “religion morality of speed” was made real by the annual
race.71 The familiar landscape of Italy became a giant racetrack where the
distances between towns were obliterated by high-performance race cars.
Speed created a new perception of Italy’s geography on the part of com-
petitors and spectators. Italy became, for one day, a heterotopia, or other
space, with its own rules, symbols, and structures.72 The Mille Miglia
created a new sense of time and space. In his study of sporting places in
England, John Bale has argued that sport has the ability to create “sport-­
place images” that contribute to a sense of national identity.73 Sport also
has the ability to give an extra layer of meaning to an already familiar
landscape, according to Alan Bairner.74 Such was the case of the
Mille Miglia.
Not only were familiar spaces de-familiarized by speed, noise, and the
iconography of the race, but the Mille Miglia also provided a space for
new Fascist sites to be promoted alongside the older Italy. While the
Roman roads were used, so too were the regime’s autostrade. Massive
urban renewal projects like Brescia’s Piazza della Vittoria and its tower
became iconic sites because of their association with the Mille Miglia.
The race also used the new vehicular bridge into Venice and promoted
other Fascist projects along the way. The Mille Miglia was thus a kind of

71
Jeffrey Schnapp, Modernitalia (New York: Peter Lang, 2012), 1–22.
72
Michel Foucault, “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias,” Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, accessed January 11, 2022, https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1.pdf.
73
John Bale, “Sport and National Identity: A Geographical View,” The International Journal of the
History of Sport, vol. 3, no. 1 (1986): 18–41.
74
Alan Bairner, “National Sports and National Landscapes: In Defence of Primordialism,” National
Identities, vol. 11, no. 3 (September 2009): 223–239.
24 P. Baxa

tourism, much like the Giro d’Italia, where a sporting event became an
opportunity to showcase the country. The Mille Miglia, as Simon Martin
has pointed out, was known for juxtaposing the old with the new.75 I will
argue that the race did more than juxtapose old and new: it fused them
via the speed and sound of the race. While some have argued that the
Mille Miglia was a form of tourism, akin to the Giro d’Italia, which was
sponsored by the Touring Club Italiano, the Brescian race could be seen
as a high-speed pilgrimage through what Eric Leed has called the “mythi-
cization of the landscape” involving the “creation of a meaningful
world.”76 Since the route varied little over the years, the myth of the Mille
Miglia created its own imagined space in a manner similar to the motor-
cycle Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man in Great Britain.77 Like the
Tourist Trophy, the race represented a “counter geography” over and
against existing spaces. This entailed the promotion of contested Fascist
projects that represented a violent intrusion into the traditional land-
scape of Italy.

Living Dangerously
Mussolini opened the inaugural meeting of the Fascist Party leadership
on Saturday, August 2, 1924, by exhorting his party to “live dangerously
for the defense of the Fatherland and of Fascism.”78 The exhortation,
quoting Nietzsche, was intended to mobilize the forces of Intransigent
Fascism during the Matteotti Crisis. Mussolini desired that it become the
“motto of the youthful passion of Fascism. It means being ready for any-
thing, to make any sacrifice, face any danger, undertake any action.”79
Mussolini’s “commandment” gave the green light for Intransigents like
75
Martin, Sport Italia, 92.
76
Eric Leed, The Mind of the Traveller: From Gilgamesh to Global Tourism (New York: Basic Books,
1991), 148.
77
Ray Moore, Matthew Richardson, and Claire Corkill, “Identity in the ‘Road Racing Capital of
the World’: Heritage, Geography and Contested Spaces,” Journal of Heritage Tourism, vol. 9, no. 3
(2014): 228–245.
78
“Il comandamento del Duce: ‘Vivere pericolosamente per la difesa della Patria e del Fascismo!” Il
Popolo d’Italia, 3 agosto 1924, 1.
79
Ibid., 1.
 1 Introduction 25

Roberto Farinacci, the ras of Cremona, to unleash a wave of violence

from his Blackshirts in northern Italy. Just two months before the meet-
ing, Farinacci had been presiding over the Grand Prix of Cremona, one
of the many sporting events that he patronized as the most powerful
Fascist in the Lombard city.80 The ceremonial flag waver for the race was
Aldo Finzi, President of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and
Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior. The Monday following
the race saw the kidnapping of Matteotti in Rome by a group of Blackshirts
who worked for the ministry under Finzi. With the ensuing crisis, Finzi
lost both of his jobs. At CONI, Lando Ferretti, who would go on to
shape Fascist sporting policy, replaced him. Farinacci, on the other hand,
was elevated to Party Secretary.81
It would be easy to dismiss the rise of Alfa Romeo and the political
events of 1924 and 1925 as having nothing to do with each other. “Living
dangerously” soon became a central motif in the regime’s sporting poli-
cies.82 Nothing exemplified this more than motorsport. Informed by new
directions in the study of sport, this book argues that motorsport did not
merely provide diversion or reflect broader political issues. Rather, in the
words of Simon Martin regarding the place of sport in Italian history, this
book will show that “over a long period of time, sport has proven to be
both an agent of change and a subordinate feature of a larger, more pow-
erful system.”83 Recent trends in the history of sport argue that sport
must not be seen as only reflective but also constitutive of social, cultural,
and political practice.84 Jeffrey Hill stated it best in his introduction to a
special issue of The Journal of Contemporary History focusing on Sport and
Politics (the italics are his):

Sport is perceived as something reflecting or illustrating other historical pro-

cesses. But what is lacking in this emphasis is any sense of sport being in

80
Maurizio Mondoni, “Sport e Fascismo a Cremona,” in Canella and Giuntini, Sport e Fascismo,
381–392.
81
Landoni, Gli Atleti del Duce, 76.
82
Fabrizio, Sport e fascismo, 126–127.
83
Martin, “In Praise of Fascist Beauty?” 65.
84
Amy Bass, “State of the Field: Sports History and the ‘Cultural Turn,’” The Journal of American
History, Vol. 101, no. 1 (June 2014): 150.
26 P. Baxa

itself something capable of exerting social and cultural influence; of being

a process, a language, a system of meaning through which we know
the world.85

The symbiosis between sport and Fascism reveals the deep affinities
between Fascist ideology and sport. Remo Bassetti has identified five
essential points of convergence between sport and Fascist “doctrine”:
action, the hero, the body, youth, and the ideal of the New Man.86 In
other words, the relationship between the two was not parasitical, with
Fascism simply taking advantage of sporting achievements; rather it was
reciprocal. Motorsport, this book contends, was the best representative of
this reciprocity among all other sports. While all sports contributed to
the regime’s policy of “going toward the masses,” automobile racing was
ideally placed to bring together the various and at times contradictory
strands that made up Fascist ideology. Fascism was not simply imposed
on motorsport; rather motorsport supplied a host of symbols and cultural
signifiers through race car drivers, auto manufacturers, journalists, politi-
cians, and ultimately fans used by the regime. In short, motorsport
ignited the Fascist imagination.

85
Jeffrey Hill, “Introduction: Sport and Politics,” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 38, no. 3
(July 2003): 361.
86
Remo Bassetti, Storia e storie dello Sport in Italia. Dall’Unità a oggi (Venezia: Marsilio, 1999), 81.
 2
Speed & Death

Death on a Sunday Afternoon

Lap 18. The four leading cars, separated by only 13 seconds, had just
crossed the start/finish line at the Monza Autodrome. The Italian Grand
Prix of 1928 was just over an hour old and the massive crowd along the
rettifilo (straight) were entranced by the magnificent spectacle. Seconds
after the race leaders passed through, two cars appeared out of the last
turn. One was a Bugatti driven by Giulio Foresti, two laps behind the
leaders, and the other was the red Talbot driven by the Italian champion
Emilio Materassi, furiously trying to catch the leaders after having lost
some time in the pits. Anxious to get past Foresti as quickly as possible,
Materassi moved to the left to overtake the slower Bugatti. Suddenly,
inexplicably, Materassi’s car bolted to the left and straight off the track at
a high speed where it plunged into the crowd—killing its driver and 22
spectators, and leaving 30 more badly wounded.
It was a horrific scene. Witnesses described Materassi’s body flying
through the air and the broken bodies strewn about. Photographs in the
Fascist newspaper, Il Popolo d’Italia, showed young men in militia uni-
forms carrying makeshift stretchers. The victims are greeted by Fascist

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 27

P. Baxa, Motorsport and Fascism, Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97967-6_2
28 P. Baxa

salutes from onlookers. La Stampa’s correspondent, Giuseppe Tonelli,

described the scena spaventosa, where some 60 persons were lying on the
ground, “some already with the immovable rigidity of death” while others
cried for help.1 “The shocking scene surpassed all imagination,” accord-
ing to sports newspaper Il Littoriale; “it resembled a battlefield.”2
According to observers, the scene was cleared up in about 15 minutes.
Materassi’s damaged car was left at the scene. It lay in a trench that sepa-
rated the track from the spectator enclosure, where it became an object of
morbid curiosity for spectators and photographers (Fig. 2.1).
Up until the accident, the race lived up to its much-hyped billing. The
day was sunny and warm, and thousands were taking advantage of the
Royal Park and its surroundings to watch the race and have a picnic or a
stroll. Photographs and newsreels showed the filled carpark and the happy
crowds. The race itself proved exciting with several lead changes and close
racing among the favorites. After the accident, the race officials were
forced to make the hurried decision regarding whether to continue or
not. The race’s Chief Steward, Renzo Castagneto, consulted not only
with other race officials, but also with prominent politicians attending
the event. Among these were Arnaldo Mussolini, the Duce’s brother who
also happened to be the director of Il Popolo d’Italia, and the guest of
honor, Francesco Giunta, Undersecretary of State, and prominent “Fascist
of the First Hour.” Although they considered stopping the event, they
decided to continue for the sake of public order, fearing that panic
might ensue.
The race took another three hours to complete; by then, the dead and
injured had been taken to the hospital named after King Umberto I, the
sovereign, who had been assassinated at Monza in 1900. Although the
autodrome had taken lives in the past, those killed were usually race par-
ticipants. The small city of Monza had never seen anything like the pro-
cession of dead and injured as it did on that day. Reporters and family
members immediately made their way to the hospital and the morgue.
Newspaper accounts described heartbreaking scenes. The victims were

1
Giuseppe Tonelli, “La corsa automobilistica di Monza funestata da una tremenda sciagura,” La
Stampa, 10 settembre 1928, 1.
2
V.V., “Il tragico salto nella folla,” Il Littoriale, 10 settembre 1928, 2.
 2 Speed & Death 29

Fig. 2.1 Materassi’s wrecked Talbot in the Monza trench. (Private Collection)

mostly in their 30s, with the youngest being 13. Tonelli in La Stampa
remarked on the young blonde and brunette women who lay side-by-side
in the morgue. Over the next few days, Italians began to learn more about
the victims including the fate of two young lovers, Ida Cavoli and Aldo
Pestalozza. Both had been in an embrace when Materassi’s car hit them.
Their bodies were found several meters apart, and the damage to Ida had
been so extensive that it took a day or so to positively identify her.
30 P. Baxa

Meanwhile, her boyfriend turned out to be a rising young star in the

Milanese fascio. Days later, Pestalozza was given an impressive funeral
with a full Fascist ceremony, which included his comrades giving him the
Fascist salute, Presente! The Podestà of Milan attended the funeral, giving
official sanction to the Fascist appropriation of this sporting tragedy.3 The
not too subtle point being made was that these spectators, who came out
to enjoy a day of motorsport, were now considered Fascist martyrs.
The accident received full, front-page coverage in all the newspapers in
Italy, and the funerals of the victims, including that of Materassi, received
equally ample coverage. The next day, the bodies were carried in proces-
sion to the Monza railway station where they were subsequently repatri-
ated to their hometowns. This procession was an impressive event
attended by many of the Grand Prix drivers. Materassi’s body was last in
the procession. The following day, Materassi’s body arrived in Florence
and was then moved to his hometown of Borgo San Lorenzo for a funeral
involving “Fascist ritual.”4 That same day, in Bergamo, an astonishing
25,000 people showed up for the public funeral of the five spectators
from Bergamo killed in the crash. All the shops were closed in the city,
and the dead were given a civic funeral.5
The funerals and front-page headlines reflected the impact of the acci-
dent on Italian public opinion. It was the worst racing accident in the
history of the sport, even exceeding the disastrous 1903 Paris–Madrid
race, which pushed governments throughout Europe to ban city-to-city
races. That accident forced the supporters of Alfa Romeo to look for
alternative venues like closed road circuits and autodromes. The Monza
Autodrome, built in 1922 just outside Milan, was considered a state-of-­
the-art venue that seemed to guarantee a modicum of safety for specta-
tors. It is true that, in 1927, two spectators were killed in a motorcycle
race, but that was deemed the fault of the spectators who were standing
in a prohibited area. Nonetheless, the Monza tragedy reopened the debate
on the utility of motorsport, just as in 1903. The ensuing debate that
took place in the newspapers and journals of Italy threatened to expose

3
“Lutto sul Circuito di Monza,” La Stampa, 12 settembre 1928, 4.
4
“Le onoranze di Firenze alla salma di Materassi,” La Stampa, 12 settembre 1928, 4.
5
“Venticinquemila persone ai funerali dei 5 bergamaschi,” La Stampa, 12 settembre 1928, 4.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Capm. xv. O quam virginitas prior omni laude refulget,
Agnum que sequitur cuncta per arua poli;
Splendet et in terris deitati nupta, relinquens
650 Corporis humani que genus acta docet.
Fetet vt incasta, fragrat sine labe pudica,
Ista deum retinet, illa cadauer habet.
Centeno trina fructu cumulata perornant
Virginis ante deum florida serta caput:
Angelicas turmas transcendit virginis ordo,
Quam magis in celo trina corona colit.
Iura sequens aquile mens virginis alta cupiscens
Celsius ante deum, teste Iohanne, volat.
Vt rosa de spinis oriens supereminet illas,
660 Sic superat reliquos virginis ille status;
Vt margarita placet alba magis preciosa,
Sic placet in claustro virgo professa deo.443
Talis enim claustris monialis dignior extat
Sanccior et meritis, dum sua vota tenet.
Set quecumque tamen sub velo claustra requirit,
Regula quam seruat sanctificabit eam:
Si fuerit mulier bona, reddit eam meliorem,
Moribus et mores addit vbique magis;
Si polluta prius sit quam velata, que caste
670 Ammodo viuat, erit preuia culpa nichil.
Non licet ergo viris monachas violare sacratas,
Velum namque sacrum signa pudica gerit.
Alterius sponsam presumens deuiolare,
Quam graue iudiciis perpetrat ipse scelus!
Crede tamen grauius peccat, qui claustra
resoluens
Presumit sponsam deuiolare dei.

Postquam tractauit de illis qui in religione

possessoria sui ordinis professionem
offendunt, dicendum est iam de hiis qui errant
in ordine fratrum mendicancium; et primo dicet
 de illis qui sub ficte paupertatis vmbra terrena
lucra conspirantes, quasi tocius mundi
dominium subiugarunt.

Capm. xvi. Dum fuit in terris, non omnes quos sibi legit
Cristus, erant fidi, lege nouante dei:
Non tamen est equm, quod crimen preuaricantis
680 Ledat eos rectam qui coluere fidem.
Sic sterilis locus est nullus, quod non sit in illo
Mixta reprobatis vtilis herba malis;
Nec fecundus ita locus est, quo non reprobata
Mixta sit vtilibus herba nociua bonis:
Tam neque iustorum stat concio lata virorum,
Est quibus iniusti mixtio nulla viri.
Sic excusandos, quos sanctos approbat ordo,
Fratres consimili iure fatetur opus:
Non volo pro paucis diffundere crimen in omnes,
690 Spectetur meritis quilibet immo suis;
Quos tamen error agit, veniens ego nuncius illis,
Que michi vox tribuit verba loquenda fero.
Sicut pastor oues, sic segregat istud ab edis
Quos opus a reprobis senserit ordo probos:
Que magis huius habet vocis sentencia scribam
Hiis quos transgressos plus notat ordo reos.
Crimina que Iudas commisit ponere Petro
Nolo, ferat proprium pondus vterque suum.
Ordinis officia fateor primi fore sancta,
700 Eius et auctores primitus esse pios;
Hos qui consequitur frater manet ille beatus,
Qui mundum renuens querit habere deum,
Qui sibi pauperiem claustralis adoptat, et vltro
Hanc gerit, et paciens ordinis acta subit:
Talis enim meritis extat laudabilis altis,
Eius nam precibus viuificatur humus.
Set sine materia qui laruat in ordine formam,
Predicat exterius, spirat et intus opes,
Talibus iste liber profert sua verba modernis,
710 Vt sibi vox populi contulit illa loqui.
Ordine mendico supervndat concio fratrum,
De quibus exvndans regula prima fugit:
Molles deveniunt tales, qui dura solebant
Ordinis ex voto ferre placenda deo.
Acephalum nomen sib i d a n t primo statuendum,
Seque vocant inopes fert quibus omnis opem:
Cristi discipulos affirmant se fore fratres,
Eius et exempli singula iura sequi:
Hoc mentita fides dicit, tamen hoc satis illis
720 Conuenit, vt dicunt qui sacra scripta sciunt.
Sunt quasi nunc gentes nil proprietatis habentes,
Et tamen in forma pauperis omne tenent.
Gracia si fuerit aut fatum fratribus istis
Nescio, set mundus totus habundat eis.
In manibus retinent papam, qui dura relaxat
Ordinis et statuit plura licere modo;
Et si quas causas pape negat ipsa potestas,
Clam faciet licitas ordo sinister eas.
Nec rex nec princeps nec magnas talis in orbe est,
730 Qui sua secreta non fateatur eis.
Et sic mendici dominos superant, et ab orbe
Vsurpant tacite quod negat ordo palam.
Non hos discipulos, magis immo deos fore dicam,
Mors quibus et vita dedita lucra ferunt:
Mortua namque sibi, quibus hic confessor adhesit,
Corpora, si fuerint digna, sepulta petit;
Set si corpus inops fuerit, nil vendicat ipse,
Nam sua nil pietas, sint nisi lucra, sapit.
Baptizare fidem nolunt, quia res sine lucro
740 Non erit in manibus culta vel acta suis.
Vt sibi mercator emit omne genus specierum,
Lucra quod ex multis multa tenere queat;
Sic omnes mundi causas amplectit auarus
Frater, vt in variis gaudeat ipse lucris.
Hii sunt quos retinens mundus non horruit, immo
Diligit, hiisque statum tradidit ipse suum:
 Istos conuersos set peruersos magis esse
Constat, vt ex factis nomina vera trahant.
Transtulit a vite se palmes sic pharisea,
750 Eius et in gustu fructus acerbus olet.

Hic loquitur de fratribus illis, qui per

ypocrisim predicando populi peccata publice
redarguentes, blandiciis tamen et voluptatibus
clanculo deseruiunt.

Capm. xvii. Seminat ypocrisis sermones dedita fratris,

Messis vt inde sui crescat in orbe lucri.
Horrida verba tonat, dum publica per loca dampnat
Vsum peccandi seruus vt ipse dei;
Seruus et vt Sathane, priuatis cum residere
Venerit in thalamis, glosa remittit eis;
Et quos alta prius stimulabat vox reboantis,
Postera blandicies vnget in aure leuis:
Et sic peccator aliis peccata ministrat,
760 Namque fouens vicium percipit inde lucrum.
Hoc bene scit frater, peccatum cum moriatur,
Tunc moritur lucrum tempus in omne suum.
Dic vbi ter veniet frater, nisi lucra reportet,
Est vbi sors vacua, non redit ipse via.
De fundamentis fratrum si crimina tollas,
Sic domus alta diu corruet absque manu.
O quam prophete iam verificantur Osee
Sermones, qui sic vera locutus ait:
‘In terris quedam gens surget, que populorum
770 Peccatum comedet et mala multa sciet.’
Hancque propheciam nostris venisse diebus
Cernimus, atque notam fratribus inde damus,
Ad quorum victum, fuerit quodc u m q u e
n e c e s s e,
Sors de peccatis omne ministrat eis.
Delicie tales non sunt, que fratribus escam,
 Si confessores sint, aliquando negant.
Aspicis vt veniunt ad candida tecta columbe,
Nec capiet tales sordida turris aues:
Sic nisi magnatum dat curia nulla modernis
780 Fratribus hospicium quo remanere volunt.
Horrea formice tendunt ad inania numquam,
Nec vagus amissas frater adibit opes:
Immemores florum gestaminis anterioris,
Contempnunt spinam cum cecidere rose;
Sic et amicicie fratres benefacta prioris
Diuitis aspernunt, cum dare plura nequit.
Nomine sunt plures, pauci tamen ordine fratres;
Vt dicunt aliqui, Pseudo prophetat ibi.
Est facies tunice pauper, stat cistaque diues,
790 Sub verbis sanctis turpia facta latent:
Sic sine pauperie pauper, sanctus sine Cristo,
Eminet ille bonus, qui bonitate caret.
Ore deum clamant isti, venerantur et aurum
Corde, viam cuius vndique scire volunt.
Omnia sub pedibus demon subiecit eorum,
Ficta set ypocrisis nil retinere docet:
Sic mundana tenet qui spernit in ordine mundum,
Dum tegit hostilem vestis ouina lupum;
Et sic ficticiis plebs incantata putabit444
800 Sanctos exterius, quos dolus intus habet.
Vix est alterius fraudem qui corripit vnus,
Set magis vt fallant auget vterque dolos:
Sic magis infecti morbo iactantur eodem,
Inficiuntque suis fraudibus omne solum.
Comprimat hos dominus saltem, quos nouit in isto
Tempore primeuam preuaricare fidem.
Non peto quod periant, set fracti consolidentur,445
Et subeant primum quem dedit ordo statum.

Hic loquitur de fratribus illis, qui propter

huius mundi famam, et vt ipsi eciam, quasi ab
 ordinis sui iugo exempti, ad confessiones
audiendum digniores efficiantur, summas in
studio scole cathedras affectant.

Capm. xviii. Est qui precessor fiat velut ipse minister,

810 Cuius in exemplum Cristus agebat idem:
Set qui discipulum Cristi se dicit, ad altum446
Cum venit ipse statum, non tenet inde modum.
Quamuis signa tenet mendici pauperis, ecce
Frater honore suum spirat habere locum:
Appetit ipse scolis nomen sibi ferre magistri,
Quem post exemptum regula nulla ligat:
Solus habet cameram, propriat commune, que
nullum
Tunc sibi claustralem computat esse parem.
Vt latriam statuis claustrales ferre magistris
820 Debent et pedibus flectere colla suis:
Sic tumor et pompa latitant sub theologia,
Ducere nec duci dum fauet ordo sibi.
Tunc thalamos penetrat sublimes, curia nulla
Est cuius porta clauditur ante virum.
Aspiciens varias species variatur et ipse
Camelion, et tot signa coloris habet:
Frater ei similis, perpendens velle virorum,
Vult in consimili par sit vt ipse pari;
Et quia sic similem sibi sentit curia fratrem,
830 Eius in aduentu presulis acta vacant.
Circuit exterius, explorat et interiora,
Non opus occultum nec locus extat ei:
Nunc medicus, nunc confessor, nunc est mediator,
Et super et subtus mittit ad omne manum.
Spiritus vt domini, sic frater spirat vbique,
Et venit ad lectum quando maritus abest:
Sic absente viro temerarius intrat adulter
Frater, et alterius propriat acta sibi:
Sic venit ad strati capitata cubicula lecti,
840 Sepius et prima sorte futurus erit.
 Sic genitus Salomon est hac que nupsit Vrie,
Dum pius intrusor occupat inde locum:
Sponsi defectus suplet deuocio fratris,
Et genus amplificans atria plena facit.
Verberat iste vepres, volucrem capit alter; et iste
Seminat in fundum, set metet alter agrum:
In stadio currunt ambo, brauium tamen vnus
Accipit iniuste longius ipse retro:
Sic intrat sponsus aliorum sepe labores,
850 Ac vbi non soluit in lucra, vana tamen.
Credit et exultat prolem genuisse maritus,
Vngula nec prolis pertinet vna sibi.
Predicat ypocrita cum sponso carmina sancta,
Vt deus ex verbo staret in ore suo:
Cum sponsa Veneris laudes decantat, et eius
Officium summe suplet honore dee:
Sic opus in basso tenementum construit altum,
Cuius egens nocte fabrica poscit opem.
O pietas fratris, que circuit et iuuat omnes,
860 Et gerit alterius sic pacienter onus:
O qui non animas tantum, set corpora nostra,
In sudore suo sanctificare venit.
Hic est confessor domini non, set dominarum,447
Qui magis est blandus quam Titiuillus eis:
Hic est confessor quasi fur quem furca fatetur,
Sic quia ius nostrum de muliere rapit.
Hic est confessor in peius qui male vertit,
Sordida namque lauans sordidiora facit:
Pellem pro pelle, quod habet sibi frater et omne
870 Pro nostri sponsa, se dabit atque sua.
O condigna viro tali quis premia reddet,
Aut deus aut demon? vltima verba ligant.
Peccati finis fert namque stipendia mortis,
Est dum culpa vetus plena pudore nouo:
Horum, viuentes qui tot miracula prestant,
In libro mortis nomina scripta manent.
Inter apes statuit natura quod esse notandum
 Sencio, quo poterit frater habere notam.
Nam si pungat apis, pungenti culpa repugnat,
880 Amplius vt stimulum non habet ipse suum;
Postque domi latebras tenet et non euolat vltra,
Floribus vt campi mellificare queat.
O deus, in simili forma si frater adulter
Perderet inflatum, dum stimularet, acum,
Amplius vt flores non colligat in muliere,
Nec vagus a domibus pergat in orbe suis!
Causa cessante quia tunc cessaret ab ipsis
Effectus, quo nunc plura pericla latent.

Hic loquitur qualiter isti fratres inordinate

viuentes ad ecclesie Cristi regimen non sunt
aliqualiter necessarii.

Capm. xix. Vna michi mira res est, quam mente reuoluens
890 Nescio finali qua racione foret.
Quam prius ordo fuit fratrum, quoscumque
necesse
Congruit ecclesie fertur inesse gradus.
Papa fuit princeps, alios qui substituebat,
Vt plebem regerent singula iura dedit:
Ius sibi presul habet, sub eo curatus, et ille
Admittens curas pondera plebis agit:
Proprietarius est presul qui proprietatem
Curato tribuit, qua sua iura regat:
Presulis inde loco curatus iurat, vt ipse
900 Tempore iudicii que tulit acta dabit.
Est igitur racio que vel tibi causa videtur,
Alterius proprium quod sibi frater habet?
Inter aues albas vetitur consistere coruum,
Quem notat ingratum quodlibet esse pecus;
Inter et ecclesie ciues consistere fratrem,
Qui negat eius onus, omnia iura vetant.
Caucius in rebus dubiis est semper agendum,
 Causa nec est mundi talis vt ipsa dei:
Si tamen vsurpet mundi quis iura, refrenant
910 Legis eum vires nec variare sinunt.
Que mea sunt propria mundo si tolleret alter,
Taliter iniustum lex reputabit eum:
In preiudicium partis lex non sinit equa,
Possit vt alterius alter habere locum:
Que bona corporea sunt alterius, nequit alter
Tollere, ni legum condita iura neget:
Set que sunt anime frater rapiens aliena,
Nescio qua lege iustificabit opus.
Si dic a t, ‘Papa dispensat,’ tunc videamus,
920 Est sibi suggestum, sponte vel illud agit.
Papa mero motu scimus quod talia numquam
Concessit, set ea supplicat ordo frequens:
Papa potest falli, set qui videt interiora,
Est hoc pro lucri scit vel amore dei.
Lingua petit curas anime, mens postulat aurum,
Bina sicque manu propria nostra rapit:
Defraudans animas, talis rapit inde salutem,
Et super hoc nostras tollere temptat opes.
Non ita Franciscus peciit, set singula linquens
930 Mundi pauperiem simplicitate tulit.
Gignit humus tribulos, vbi torpet cultor in agris,
Quo minus ad messes fert sua lucra Ceres:
Pungitur ecclesia, fratrum quos sentit abortos
Inuidie stimulis lesa per omne latus.
Quilibet ergo bonus tribulos extirpet arator,
Ne pharisea sacrum polluat herba locum.

Hic loquitur qualiter isti fratres inordinate

viuentes ad commune bonum vtiles aliqualiter
non existunt.

Capm. xx.Fratribus vt redimant celum non est labor Ade,

Quo sibi vel reliquis vina vel arua colunt;
 Corporis immo quies, quam querunt forcius, illos
940 Iam fouet, et mundi tedia nulla grauant:
Hiis neque perspicuus armorum pertinet actus,
Publica quo seruant iura vigore suo:
Sic neque milicies neque terre cultus adornat
Hos, set in orbe vagos linquit vterque status.
Nec sunt de clero f r a t r e s, quamuis sibi temptent
Vsurpare statum, quem sinit vmbra scole:
Non onus admittunt fratres cleri set honorem,
In cathedra primi quo residere petunt.
Non curant animas populi neque corpora pascunt:
950 Ad commune bonum quid magis ergo valent?
Vt neque ramosa numerabis in ilice glandes,
Tu fratrum numerum dinumerare nequis:
Immo, velut torrens vndis pluuialibus auctus,
Aut niue, que zephiro victa tepente fluit,
Ordo supercreuit habitu, set ab ordine virtus
Cessit, et in primis desinit ire viis.
Si racio fieret, famulorum poscit egestas
Tales quod sulcus posset habere suos.
Hos Dauid affirmat hominum nec inesse labore,
960 Nec posite legis vlla flagella pati.
Regia i u r a n i c h i l aut presulis acta valebunt,
Excessus fratrum quo moderare queant.
Que sua sunt mundus ea diligit, fratribus ergo
Attulit vt caris prospera queque suis:
Non sulcant neque nent, falcant nec in horrea
ponunt;
Pascit eos mundus non tamen inde minus.
Pectora sic gaudent, nec sunt attrita dolore,
Anterior celo dum reputatur humus:
Cordis in affectum sic transit frater, et illum
970 Quem querit cursum complet in orbe suum.
Dic quid honoris habet, si filius Hectoris arma
Deserit et vecors predicat acta patris?
Aut quid et ipse valet, si frater Apostata sanctum
Clamat Franciscum, quem negat ipse sequi?
 Fictis set verbis mundi sine lumine sensum
Obfuscant, que sua sic maledicta tegunt:
Sic vbi non ordo, manet error in ordinis vmbra,
Et quasi laruatus stat sacer ordo nouus.
Hiis qui Francisci seruant tamen ordine iusto
980 Debita mandata, debitus extat honor.

Hic loquitur de fratribus illis, qui incautos

pueros etatis discrecionem non habentes in sui
ordinis professionem attractando colloquiis
blandis multipliciter illaqueant.

Est michi suspectum de fratribus hoc, quod

Capm. xxi.
eorum
Reddere se primo nullus adultus adest:
Non sic Franciscum puerilis traxerat etas
Ordinis ad votum, quando recepit eum:
Sic nec eum pueri primo coluere sequaces,
Nec blande lingue fabula traxit eos.
Estimo maturos Franciscus sumpserat annos,
Dum per discreta viscera cepit opus;
Et puto quod similes sua dogmata sponte
sequentes
990 Nec prece nec precio reddidit ordo deo.
Set vetus vsus abest, nam circumvencio facta
Nunc trahit infantes, qui nichil inde sciunt;
Et sic de teneri tener ordo mollia querit,
Vmbraque sola manet atque nouerca quasi.
Vt vocat ad laqueos volucrem dum fistulat
auceps,
Sic trahit infantes fratris ab ore sonus:
Vt laqueatur auis laqueorum nescia fraudis,
Sic puer in fratrem fraude latente cadit:
Et cum sic poterit puerum vetus illaqueare,
1000 Debet ob hoc frater nomen habere patris.
Sic generata dolis patrem sequitur sua proles,
 Addit et ad patrios facta dolosa dolos;
Solaque sic radix centenos inficit ex se
Ramos, qui fructus fraudis in orbe ferunt.
Nam puer a veteri deceptus fratre per illud
Decipit exemplum, quando senecta venit:
Sic post decipiunt qui primo decipiuntur,
Et fraus de fraude multiplicata viget:
Sic crescit numerus fratrum, fit et ordo minutus,
1010 Dum miser in miseris gaudet habere pares.
‘Ve, qui proselitum vobis faciatis vt vnum,
Mundum circuitis,’ dixerat ipse deus:448
Illud erat dictum phariseis, et modo possum
Fratribus hec verba dicere lege noua.

Hic loquitur de apostazia fratrum ordinis

mendicancium, precipue de hiis qui sub ficta
ypocrisis simplicitate quasi vniuersorum curias
magnatum subuertunt, et inestimabiles suis
ficticiis sepissime causant errores.

Vt bona multa bonum fratrem quocumque

Capm. xxii.
sequntur,
Sic mala multa malum constat vbique sequi.
Sunt etenim domini tres, quorum quilibet vni
Seruit homo, per quem se petit ipse regi:
Est deus, est mundus, est demon apostata, cuius
1020 Ordine transgressus fert sibi frater onus.
Regula namque dei non nouit eum, neque mundi
Dat sibi milicies libera nulla statum:
Non habet ipse deum, nec habere valet sibi
mundum,
Demonis vt proprium sic subit ipse iugum:
Omnis enim vicii viciosus apostata motor
Aut fautor nutrit quod videt esse malum.
Testis erit Salomon, vir talis invtilis extat,
Et peiora sue crimina mentis agit:
 Arte vel ingenio, quo talis in orbe frequentat,
1030 Ducit in effectum plura timenda satis.
Non obstat paries illi, non clausa resistunt,
Invia consistunt peruia queque sibi:
Per mare, per terras, per totum circuit orbem;
Vt sibi plus placeat, cernere cuncta potest.
Nititur in fraudes, componit verba dolosa,
Auget et accumulat multiplicatque dolos;
Proponit lites, rixas accendit in iram,
Liuores nutrit invidiamque fouet;
Vincula disrumpit pacis, socialis amoris
1040 Federa perturbat, dissociatque fidem;
Suggerit incestum, suadet violare pudorem,
Soluere coniugium, commaculare thorum;
Vsurpando fidem vultum mentitur honestum,
Caucius vt fraudem palleat ipse suam.
In dampnis dandis promissor vbique fidelis,
Comoda si dederit, disce subesse dolum:
Sub grossa lana linum subtile tenetur,
Simplicitas vultus corda dolosa tegit;
Lingua venenato dum verba subornat in ore,
1050 Mellificat virus melque venena facit.
Vt sub virtutum specie lateat viciorum
Actus, et vt turpis Simea fiat homo;
Ipse tumens humilem mentitur sepe professum,
Quem fugit occulto spiritus ille dei.
Ordinis ipse sacri quicquid Franciscus honeste
Virtutis statuit, hic viciare studet:
Cuncta colore tamen operit, facieque decora
Fallit, dumque latent viscera plena dolo.
Invenies scriptum quod pennas strucio gestat
1060 Herodii pennis ancipitrisque pares;
Set non tam celeri viget eius penna volatu,
Ypocritamque notat, qui similando volat.
Aurea facta foras similans ypocrita fingit,
Set mala mens intus plumbea vota gerit:
Sunt etenim multi tales qui verba colorant,
 Qui pascunt aures, aurea verba sonant,
Verbis frondescunt, set non est fructus in actu,
Simplicium mentes dulce loquendo mouent:
Set templum domini tales excludit, abhorret
1070 Verborum phaleras, verba polita fugit.
Scripta poetarum, que sermo pictus inaurat,
Aurea dicuntur lingua, set illa caue:449
Est simplex verbum fidei bonus vnde meretur,
Set duplex animo predicat absque deo.
Despicit eloquia deus omnia, quando polita
Tecta sub eloquii melle venena fouent:
Qui bona verba serit, agit et male, turpiter errat,
Nam post verba solet accio sancta sequi.
Quos magis alta scola colit, hii sermone polito
1080 Scandala subtili picta colore serunt.
Sepius aut lucrum vel honoris adepcio vani450
Fratrum sermones dat magis esse reos:
Sub tritici specie zizannia sepe refundunt,
Dum doctrina tumens laudis amore studet:
Sepe suis meritis ascribere facta, mouere
Scisma, peritorum mens studiosa solet.
Phiton siue Magus est scismaticus, quia turbat
Verum quod credis et dubitanda mouet;
Set contra voces incantantis sapienter
1090 Aures obtura, ne cor adheret eis.
Non sunt hii fratres recti nec amore fideles
Ecclesie Cristi, sicut habetur ibi;
Inperfecta magis Sinagoga notabit eorum
Doctrinam, plene que neque vera docet:
Multociens igitur aliis nocet illa superba
Copia librorum quos Sinagoga tenet.
Non sunt ecclesie recti ciues, Agar immo
Parturit ancilla, perfida mater, eos:
Ergo recedat Agar, pariat quoque Sarra fidelem
1100 Ecclesie clerum, det Sinagoga locum.
Plantauit pietas et amor primordia fratrum,
Quos furor ad presens ambiciosus agit:
 Frater adest Odium, qui federa pacis abhorret,
Cuius ab inferno cepit origo viam;
Ille professus enim claustralia iura resoluit,
Nec fore concordes quos sinit ipse pares.
Qui tamen in culpa frater se sentit, et illam
Non delet, tali talia verba loquor:
‘Culpa mali laudem non debet tollere iusto,
1110 Nam lux in tenebris fulget honore magis:
Quisque suum portabit onus, culpetur iniqus,
Laudeturque suis actibus ipse bonus.’

Hic loquitur qualiter isti fratres mendicantes

mundum circuiendo amplioresque querendo
delicias de loco in locum cum ocio se
transferunt: loquitur eciam de superfluis eorum
edificiis, que quasi ab huius seculi
potencioribus vltra modum delicate
construuntur.

Iudeos spersos fratrum dispersio signat,

Capm. xxiii.
Quos modo per mundum deuius error agit;
Iste nec ille loco stabilis manet, immo vicissim
Se mouet, et varia mutat vbique loca.
Sic in circuitu nunc ambulat impius orbis,
Nec domus est in qua non petit ipse locum;
Pauperis in specie sibi sic elemosina predas
1120 Prebet, et ora lupi vellere laruat ouis:
Absque labore suo bona nemo meretur, et ergo
Omne solum lustrant, idque piamen habent.
Nescio si supera sibi clauserit ostia celum;
Dat mare, dant ampnes, totaque terra viam.
Hoc lego, quod raro crescit que sepe mouetur
Planta, set ex sterili sorte frequenter eget:
Non tamen est aliqua quin regula fallit in orbe,
Mocio nam fratris crescere causat eum;
 Nam quocumque suos mouet ille per arida
gressus,
1130 Mundus eum sequitur et famulatur ei.
Vt pila facta pilis solito dum voluitur ipsis
Crescit, et ex modico magnificatur opus,
Sic, vbi se voluit frater, sibi mundus habundat,
Quicquid et ipse manu tangit adheret ei:
Federa cum mundo sua frater apostata stringit,
Sic vt in occulto sint quasi semper idem.
Multis set quedam virtutes esse videntur,
Qui nil virtutis nec bonitatis habent;
Ista dabunt vocem, set erunt deformia mente,
1140 Multaque dum fiunt absque salute placent.
Ad decus ecclesie deuocio seruit eorum,
Et veluti quedam signa salutis habent:
Eminet ecclesia constructa sibi super omnes,
Edificant petras sculptaque ligna fouent;
Porticibus valuas operosis, atria, quales
Quotque putas thalamos hic laberintus habet:
Ostia multa quidem, varie sunt mille fenestre,
Mille columpnarum marmore fulta domus.
Fabrica lata domus erit, alta decoraque muris,
1150 Picturis variis splendet et omne decus;
Omnis enim cella, manet in qua frater inanis,
Sculpture vario compta decore nitet:
Postibus insculpunt longum mansura per euum
Signa, quibus populi corda ligare putant.
Fingentes Cristum mundum querunt, et in eius
Conspirant laudem clamque sequntur eum:
Talis sub facie deuocio sancta figure
Fingitur, et testis fit magis inde domus:
Qui tamen omne videt, rimatur et intima cordis,
1160 Scit quia pro mundo tale paratur opus.
Set docet exemplis historia Parisiensis,
Quod contentus homo sit breuiore domo.
Non sibi de propriis habet vlla potencia regis
Illorum thalamis tecta polita magis:
 Non ita fit vestis fratrum nota simplicitatis,
Quin magis in domibus pompa notabit eos.
In fabrice studio vigilat conuentus eorum
Ecclesie, prompti corpore, mente pigri:
Sic patet exterius fratrum deuocio sancta,
1170 Vana set interius cordis ymago latet:
Sunt similes vlno tales, qui sunt sine fructu,
In quibus impietas plurima, pauca fides.
Dic, tibi quid, frater, confert, tantas quod honestas
Cum feda mente construis ipse domos?
Esto domus domini, quam sacris moribus orna,
Virtutem cultor religionis ama.
Omnia fine patent, tibi fingere nil valet extra,
Per quod ab interius premia nulla feres:
Si tibi laus mundi maneat furtiua diebus,
1180 Cum celum perdis, laus erit illa pudor.
Ordinis es, norma tibi sit, nec ab ordine cedas,
Est aliter cassum quicquid ab inde geris.

Hic loquitur qualiter, non solum in ordine

fratrum mendicancium set eciam in singulis
cleri gradibus, ea que virtutis esse solebant a
viciis quasi generaliter subuertuntur: dicit
tamen quod secundum quasdam Burnelli
constituciones istis precipue diebus modus et
regula specialius451 obseruantur.

Diuersat fratres tantummodo vestis eorum,

Capm. xxiiii.
Hii tamen existunt condicione pares:
Regula nulla manet, fuerat que facta per ante,
Set nouus ordo nouum iam facit omne forum.
Sicut enim fratrum nunc ordo resoluitur, ecce
Ecclesie norma fit quasi tota noua;
Set sacer ordo tamen remanet, quem sanxerat
olim
1190 Frater Burnellus, crescit et ille magis.
 Hec decreta modo, Burnellus que statuebat,
Omnia non resero nec reserare volo;
Set duo iam tantum que iussit in ordine dicam,
Et sunt presenti tempore iura quasi.
Mandatum primum tibi contulit, omne iocosum,
Quicquid in orbe placet, illud habere licet:
Si vis mercari, sis mercenarius, autem452
Si vis mechari, dat tibi, mechus eris:453
Que magis vlla caro desiderat, illa beato
1200 Sunt fratri nostro debita iura modo.
Precipiens vltra statuit de lege secunda,
Quod nocuum carni sit procul omne tibi:
Omne quod est anime reputatur in ordine vile,
Et caro delicias debet habere suas:
Cor dissolue tuum, te nullus namque ligabit,
Quo vis vade tuas liber vbique vias.
Mollibus ornatus sic dignior ordo nouellus
Restat Burnelli, vult quia velle viri.
Nil michi Bernardus, nichil ammodo seu
Benedictus454
1210 Sint, set Burnellus sit Prior ipse meus;
Quo viget en carnis requies, quo lingua precantis
A prece torpescens fit quasi tota silens:455
Ordoque sic precibus dum vult succurrere nobis,
Linquo choax ranis et nichil inde magis:456
Si veniantque michi mala tempora, credo quod
isti457
De clero causam dant nimis inde grauem;
Quis poterit namque nobis bona tempora ferre,
Ordine claustrali dum perit ordo dei,
Et fugit a reliquo deuocio celica clero?
1220 Sic fugit a nobis vndique nostra salus.
Nam quia sic medii fallunt discorditer ipsi,
Ignaui populi stamus in orbe vagi.
Quid sibi corpus habet in eo, nisi spiritus extet,
Quid nisi nos clerus suplet in orbe pius?
 A planta capiti set qui discernere cleri
Vult genus aut speciem, vix sciet inde bonum.
Sic vbi lux, tenebre, sic mors, vbi normula vite
Instrueret sanam gentibus ire viam.
Vt dicunt alii de clero, sic ego dixi,
1230 Quo creuit reliquis error in orbe magis:
Nam sine pastore grex est dispersus, et ecce
Pascua peccati querit vbique noui.

1221-1232. Text STH₂ As follows in CEHGDL,

Nunc quia sic Cleri sors errat ab ordine Cristi,

Vsurpat mundus que negat ipse deus.
Dum tua, Burnelle, scola sit communis in orbe,
A planta capiti fallitur omnis ibi:
Sed cum Gregorii scola fulsit in orbe beati,458
Vera fides viguit, cunctaque pace tulit.
Nunc tamen est Arius nouus, est quasi Iouinianus,
Doctor in ecclesiis scisma mouendo scolis.
Sic vbi lux, tenebre, sic mors, vbi regula vite
1230* Instrueret rectam gentibus ire viam.
Quilibet ergo bonus, sit miles siue Colonus,
Orans pro Clero det sua vota deo.

FOOTNOTES:
424 14 subtrahet CE
425 52 erat ... vrbe DL
426 72 esse SG ipse CEHDL
427 79 dum CE
428 103 No paragr. S
429 177 oculis T oculus SCEHGDLH₂
430 216 rara CE
431 273 vt (ut) CEHGDLT et S
432 295 sibi om. S (p. m.) vir inserted later bona qui sibi D
433 Cap. vi. Heading 2 f. religionis sibi CE
434 315 No paragr. S
435 336 iam CEHGDLTH₂ non S
436 404 ghemendo SH gemendo CEDL
437 489 fomes est res C fomes res est L
438 Heading 1 quasi om. D
439 587 Marginal note ins. SCG om. EHDLH₂ Nota quod Genius
secundum Ouidium dicitur sacerdos Veneris G
440 593 ibi SE
441 635 qui CE
442 645 perextra SHGTL per extra CED
443 662 placet CEH patet SGDL
444 799 putabit CEHD putabat SGL
445 807 pereant CEL
446 811 ad CEHGDL et S
447 863 sed non D
448 1012 margin Nota C
449 1072 lingua SH₂ verba CEHGDLT
450 1081 adepcio CEHGDL adopcio S
451 Heading 5 specialiter S
452 1197 autem STH₂ et si CEHGDL
453 1198 Text STH₂ Mechari cupias dat tibi GDL Mechari cupias
ordine CEH
454 1209 seu] uel C
455 1212 Text STH₂ Auribus alma sonat menteque vana petit
CEHGDL
456 1214 Text STH₂ Folia non fructus percipit inde deus
CEHGDL
457 1215 Text STH₂ Si veniant mundi CEHGDL
458 1225* fulscit HG