On Thursday, February 1st at 6 pm, at the Gran Caffè Gambrinus, the Fondazione Banco di Napoli presents the historical novel by Nicolò Carnimeo «The ship of fire. Francesco Caracciolo the admiral who brought coffee to Naples » (Mursia publisher).
Participants include: Pino Aprile, who wrote the preface, actor Patrizio Rispo, who will read some pages of the book, orchestra conductor and cellist Roberto Soldatini, the first in Naples to live on a boat, who will perform musical pieces, Michele Sergio from Gran Caffè Gambrinus, and the president of the Foundation, Orazio Abbamonte.
The charm of this novel is all enclosed in the figure of Francesco Caracciolo, described as a modern hero, considered among the greatest Italian seamen in history, the only one to put Horatio Nelson's English fleet in checkmate.
«With this book I underline the relevance of Caracciolo - explains Carnimeo - a character who embraced and interpreted his times in an innovative way. And then there's coffee, a new and more drinkable blend brought to the city by him, which represents the awakening of reason, a new future that is now at the door».
In the preface by Pino Aprile in fact it reads: "The life of some men is so intense, rich, fascinating, that to tell it and talk about their exploits, the pages of history are not enough, but we must resort to literature, to the novel".
Carnimeo, with an engaging writing, tells of the youthful adventure that changes the destiny of Caracciolo and that of Naples, his native city, described in all its magic and beauty. Between the capital of the Bourbon Kingdom and Algiers unfolds a story that has coffee, or rather the best blend of coffee ever existed, as its protagonist. Why has Naples become its undisputed capital? In a story that combines a faithful historical reconstruction with a narration full of intrigues and twists, it will be precisely Caracciolo to bring the precious Arabica bean to the city of Naples, which represents the awakening, the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment and the possible meeting between East and West.
«Caracciolo - reiterates Carnimeo - is not only one of the greatest seamen in national history, but represents the watershed between two eras, perhaps the antithesis between monarchy and republic. Some accused him of betraying the Bourbons and some hailed him as a republican for adhering to the Parthenopean Republic of 1799, but he is an innovator, a visionary, a man against the current, able to smell the future and embrace it, interpreter like no one of his time. He paid with his life (hanging) for his loyalty to his roots and to his city that he loved above all else. And death has sublimated him into a myth. That's why we remember him. In my novel he is a symbol, along with coffee, of the awakening of a city and its sea».
Nicolò Carnimeo teaches Navigation Law at the University of Bari, he has always told the sea through articles, essays and on TV in the Rai 1 program "Linea Blu" of which he is a consultant. He founded the "Vedetta sul Mediterraneo", an organization for the promotion of sea culture based in a tower on the port of Giovinazzo.
His books, "In the seas of pirates" and "How deep is the sea", have won literary awards and recognition. He travels the Mediterranean with his sailboat Camomilla in search of stories, he loves the sea of Puglia where he was born, but he has always considered Naples his elective city.