Franco F. Ferrario

Last updated

Franco F. Ferrario
Franco F Ferrario 2019.jpg
Franco F. Ferrario, in 2019
Born
Franco F. Ferrario

1934 (age 91–92) [1]
Novara [1]
Other namesTripeleff
CitizenshipItalian
Education
Occupations
  • teacher
  • researcher
  • short story writer
Known for
  • tourism geography
  • literary works under the pen name Tripeleff
Notable work
  • The tourist landscape: a method of evaluating tourist potential and its application to South Africa
  • Odo e Riprando
Awards
  • 1978: William B. Keeling Dissertation Competition
  • 1991: L'autore
Website tripeleff.org

Franco F. Ferrario (Novara, 1934) is an Italian teacher, researcher and, in later life, short story writer. As writer, he is better known by the pseudonym Tripeleff.

Contents

In academia, as a geographer, he was a student of the Berkeley School of Geography, which in the 20th century emphasized the historical and cultural dimensions in environmental research. [2] His studies focused on methods for assessing the tourism potential of a territory.

After leaving academic life, he devoted himself to writing about the history of the Novara area, and later to short stories and novels, mildly erotic in tone, some of which became genuine cult works, especially within Italian gay circles.

Biography

He was born in 1934 in Novara into an old local bourgeois family [3] [N 1] and completed his secondary education at the classical lyceum "Carlo Alberto" in the same town. [5]

In 1958, he graduated cum laude in ancient history from the University of Milan, after which he spent a period as a fellow at the prestigious Italian Institute for Historical Studies – B. Croce Foundation in Naples (1958–1959). [N 2] [7]

After completing his military service, [5] in 1961 he was hired by Pirelli in Milan, in the Advertising and Publicity Department then headed by Arrigo Castellani, where he remained for six years. There he had the opportunity to work with some of the leading photographers, writers, and advertising graphic designers of the period, as well as to collaborate in the production of the first Carosello commercials for television. [8]

McCone Hall, home of the Department of Geography at the University of California - Berkeley, where Ferrario was a student McCone Hall - University of California, Berkeley - DSC04884.JPG
McCone Hall, home of the Department of Geography at the University of California - Berkeley, where Ferrario was a student

In 1966, he moved to the United States, enrolling at the University of California - Berkeley as a graduate student in the Department of Geography. [7] He studied primarily under James J. Parsons. [9] He was subsequently assigned to assist the elderly Carl O. Sauer, by then Professor Emeritus, in his historical research. [N 3] In 1969, having completed his coursework with the Orals and with only the final dissertation remaining, he returned to Europe but received an invitation from the University of Cape Town for a lectureship in the local Department of Geography. [7]

The Upper Campus of the University of Cape Town, where Ferrario was a teacher UCT Upper Campus landscape view.jpg
The Upper Campus of the University of Cape Town, where Ferrario was a teacher

In 1970, he moved to South Africa, where he remained for fifteen years. He taught mainly courses in Human geography and Environmental Studies during his first years there, collaborating with Prof. W. J. Talbot, head of the department, who also came from Berkeley. Meanwhile, he prepared his doctoral dissertation, which dealt with a possible evaluation of South Africa's tourism potential. [10] In 1977, having completed the dissertation, he was formally awarded the Ph.D. and was appointed Senior Lecturer. [7] [11]

Franco F. Ferrario in full regalia academica (Doctor of Philosophy) together with Jeannette Kruger on Graduation Day, 1978 Franco F Ferrario Jeanette Kruger Graduation Day 1978.tif
Franco F. Ferrario in full regalia academica (Doctor of Philosophy) together with Jeannette Kruger on Graduation Day, 1978

In 1978, his dissertation was awarded in the United States by the Tourism and Travel Research Association (T.T.R.A.) as the "best doctoral dissertation in the field of tourism and travel research" (William B. Keeling Dissertation Competition) [12] and Ferrario became an active member of the association. [13] [14] In the same year his name was included in the roster of experts of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the United Nations agency for the tourism sector, based in Madrid. [15]

He then began a consultancy activity in the field of tourism development, while continuing to teach in Cape Town. In 1980, he prepared an evaluation of tourism development potential for the region of KwaZulu-Natal, the most important of the Homelands (or Bantustans ) of South Africa at the time. This was followed by further commissions for Venda, Gazankulu and several other smaller territories. [7]

He also began to take an interest in the rapidly expanding phenomenon of recreational tourism and of local tourism for the population of the African townships, especially in the then Transvaal. [16]

Zulu ceramics from Rorke's Drift, 19th century, Franco F. Ferrario collection Manufatti Zulu - Collezione Franco F Ferrario.jpg
Zulu ceramics from Rorke's Drift, 19th century, Franco F. Ferrario collection

During this research work he was able to collect, especially in tribal areas, a series of authentic craft artefacts of notable artistic interest, in addition to their direct documentary value for his professional research. [N 4]

In 1985, he resigned from the University of Cape Town to begin full-time consultancy work, still in South Africa. [7] He finally moved back to Italy in 1988, ending all professional activity and settling in the old family house in Novara. [17]

Late-Life Fiction

After retiring from active professional life, around the age of sixty, he began writing primarily on local history.

A lively narrative talent soon emerged. In 1990, after organizing a treasure hunt for the notaries of Novara, he documented the event in writing in a report titled "Come fu organizzata la famosa caccia al tesoro per luoghi un po' macabri del Novarese" (How the Famous Treasure Hunt through Somewhat Macabre Sites in the Novara Area Was Organized). From this account, an anonymous handcrafted booklet of about one hundred pages, printed on patterned paper, was produced and quickly sold out.

A second anonymous booklet, titled "Chi mai ha detto che il Novarese è una terra piatta e noiosa?" (Who Ever Said the Novara Area Is a Flat and Boring Land?), enjoyed the same immediate success. [18]

Water well in Canonica alley (Novara), that inspired the opening scene of novel "Odo e Riprando" Pozzo vicolo canonica - Novara.jpg
Water well in Canonica alley (Novara), that inspired the opening scene of novel "Odo e Riprando"

He then continued writing short, mildly erotic stories, which he shared with friends. [8] [17] One of these grew into a more extensive narrative. In 1991, intrigued by the national competition "L'autore" (The author) organized by Maremmi Editori in Florence for an unpublished work, he submitted the manuscript. Unexpectedly, the work won the prize and was published as a book titled "Odo e Riprando", which the author chose to sign under the pseudonym Tripeleff, inspired by the three F's in his name. The book achieved success on a national level [19] [N 5] and soon became a cult favorite within the Italian gay community. In 1994, the novel was republished by Edizioni Babilonia alongside its sequel "Il Castello di Pombia" (The Castle of Pombia). A German edition was also produced, [21] and some references reached the United States, again within the gay literary context. [22]

In 1992, another of his stories, "Un'avventura galante del Conte di Cavour" (A Gallant Adventure of Count Cavour), won the competition organized by the publisher Stampa Alternativa at the Turin International Book Fair and was immediately printed in the Millelire series. [23] The immediate success was also reported in the national press, [24] [25] [26] which speculated that behind the pseudonym Tripeleff lay the ironic voice of a well-known contemporary writer. [27]

Stampa Alternativa subsequently published two further Millelire booklets by Tripeleff: "La vendetta di Papa Giuseppe" (The Revenge of Pope Joseph) in 1993 and "Giovane, vergine, intatto" (Young, Virgin, Untouched) in 1996.

In the meantime, Tripeleff was contacted by Liber Internazionale, a newly established publishing house based in Pavia, to write the first novel in a series devoted to great love stories. In 1994, "Un amore di Maria Callas" (A Love of Maria Callas) was published, featuring a photograph of Pier Paolo Pasolini on the cover. The work was not reprinted. [28] [29]

Also in 1994, he organized in Milan a "Gay Creative Writing Course" with about fifteen participants (plus one woman), mostly young people. The initiative resulted in a small handcrafted booklet containing a series of short pieces on the theme "My or His First Time", distributed by the historic Libreria Babele in Milan. [30]

In 1998, he published, with publisher Il Dito e la Luna, a long and entertaining unfinished novella entitled "Le avventure di prigionia del tenente Magnani" (The Imprisonment Adventures of Lieutenant Magnani), his last published book.

In the meantime, he launched his own website under the title "Tripeleff - un sito di storie varie, scritte per il solo piacere di raccontare..."(Tripeleff – a site of various stories, written solely for the pleasure of storytelling...). There he made available his entire body of work, both the pieces already printed and for which he had regained the rights, and the large majority of writings he has continued to produce since then. [31] [32]

Works

Academia

Fiction

Awards

Notes

  1. ↑ The family artisan business—"Ditta Quirino Ferrario" (painting, varnishing, gilding), which was highly regarded—had already been established in the city by the mid-nineteenth century. In the same century, one of his great-grandfathers, Carlo Grassini, a confectioner, had revived and made known abroad the famous "biscottino di Novara" (Novara's cookie). [4]
  2. ↑ Title of the degree thesis: "Research on the early stages of Ptolemaic foreign policy", supervisor Prof. Mario Attilio Levi. [6]
  3. ↑ For his personal experience with Prof. Sauer, see the quotation in Carl O. Sauer (1971). "Introduction". Sixteenth century North America: the land and the people as seen by the Europeans. University of California - Berkeley Press. Retrieved 11 February 2026– via Internet Archive.
  4. ↑ His private collection of 50 nineteenth-century Zulu ceramics from Rorke's Drift (especially by recognized artists such as Dinah Molefe and Joel Sibizi) is considered one of the most complete outside South Africa, according to the expert Ronnie Watt: Ronald Watt (2020), A Contextual History of South African Ceramics of the Twentieth and Twenty First Centuries (PDF), Pretoria: University of South Africa, p. 67, retrieved 11 February 2026{{citation}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) (Ph.D. (Art) thesis).
  5. ↑ In Novara, a group of young people staged an interactive nighttime performance based on the book, featuring torchlight processions, readings, and ancient music along the Canonica alley, attracting considerable public participation. [20]
  6. ↑ Doctoral dissertation, available as microfilm No. TX12-965 from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.

References

  1. 1 2 Erica Bertinotti (17 November 2017). "La Madonnina per esorcizzare il fantasma di Celestina? È tutta una bufala che scredita il vicolo della Canonica" [The Madonna to exorcise Celestina's ghost? It's all a hoax that discredits the Canonica alley]. Novara Oggi (in Italian). p. 18. Retrieved 30 November 2025.
  2. ↑ "Berkeley Geography - History". UC Berkeley. Retrieved 27 January 2026.
  3. ↑ Luca Mattioli (11 December 2008). "Un Convito nella... soffitta di Edmondo Poletti" [A Banquet in... Edmondo Poletti's Attic]. Corriere di Novara (in Italian). Novara. p. 54. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
  4. ↑ Franco F. Ferrario (2019). Piccola biografia illustrata di mio nonno Quirino Ferrario (Novara 1870-1920) [Short Illustrated Biography of My Grandfather Quirino Ferrario (Novara 1870-1920)](PDF) (in Italian). Retrieved 26 November 2025.
  5. 1 2 Franco F. Ferrario, Il primo degli ultimi. Brevi riflessioni su di una autobiografia in spiccioli ed altre considerazioni [The First of the Last. Brief Reflections on an Autobiography in Bits and Pieces and Other Considerations](PDF) (in Italian), retrieved 11 January 2026
  6. ↑ "Archivio Borsisti" [Fellows Archive]. Istituto Italiano di Studi Storici (in Italian). Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Franco Ferrario - Libero professionista" [Franco Ferrario – Freelance Professional]. LinkedIn (in Italian). Retrieved 6 December 2025.
  8. 1 2 Franco F. Ferrario (2025), "Odo e Riprando" e il castello di Barbablù ["Odo and Riprando" and Bluebeard's Castle](PDF) (in Italian), retrieved 3 December 2025
  9. ↑ William M. Denevan, ed. (2018) [1989]. Hispanic Lands and Peoples. Selected Writings of James J. Parsons (PDF). London and New York: Routledge. p. XXIV. Retrieved 28 January 2026. Non-Latin American Ph.D. dissertations supervised by Parsons [...] Franco Ferrario (1977)
  10. ↑ The Tourist Landscape: A Method for Evaluating Tourist Potential and its Application to South Africa, Berkeley: University of California, 1977, OCLC   506167842
  11. 1 2 Paolo Benacchio (22 October 1992). "La strana avventura di Cavour" [The Strange Adventure of Cavour]. La Stampa (in Italian). p. 39. Retrieved 30 November 2025.
  12. 1 2 Society for Geography, NL, ed. (1978). "(unavailable title)". South African Geographer (6–7). Vereniging vir Geografie: 106. Retrieved 4 December 2025.
  13. ↑ "The William B. K. Dissertation Competition Winner". Journal of Travel Research (17(2)): 20. 1978.
  14. ↑ Travel and Tourism Research Association (1989). Membership Directory. p. 25. Retrieved 2 February 2026– via Google Libri.
  15. ↑ Roster of Experts / Technical Cooperation Resources, Madrid: World Tourism Organization, 1980–1989{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  16. ↑ "The Emerging Leisure Market Among the South African Black Population". Tourism Management. Oxford: Butterworth Scientific: 23–38. March 1988.
  17. 1 2 Tripeleff (2012), Una completa confessione dell'autore [A Complete Confession of the Author] (in Italian), retrieved 30 November 2025
  18. ↑ Franco F. Ferrario; Renzo Sacchetti (June 2017). "Poche parole di introduzione" [Short foreword]. Novara è... (in Italian) (6). Novara: Emme Distribuzione: 6–9.
  19. ↑ Bruno Ventavoli (20 June 1991). "Odo e Riprando, amori dell'anno mille" [Odo and Riprando, Loves of the Year 1000]. La Stampa (in Italian). Turin.
  20. 1 2 Marcello Giordani (17 July 1992). "Odo e Riprando in scena nel vicolo" [Odo and Riprando on stage in the alley]. La Stampa (in Italian). p. 42. Retrieved 30 November 2025.
  21. ↑ Franco Tripeleff (1993). Der Liebhaber des Bischofs[The Bishop's Lover] (in German). Translated by Thomas Rodermund. Berlin: Bruno Gmünder.
  22. ↑ Gary C. Cestaro (2004). "Introduction". Queer Italia: Same-Sex Desire in Italian Literature and Film[Queer Italy: Same-Sex Desire in Italian Literature and Film]. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1–13. Derek Duncan reads the threat of male homosexuality in the enormously popular Il nome della rosa (1980) by Umberto Eco as emblematic of homosexuality generally in Italian literature. For a more romantic recreation of medieval gay love, see the series of novels that begins with Odo e Riprando (1990), written under the pseudonym Tripeleff.
  23. ↑ Redazione Cultura, ed. (20 May 1992). "Millelire per un libro: la sfida di Baraghini al Salone" [Millelire for a Book: Baraghini's Challenge at the Book Fair]. La Stampa (in Italian). Turin.
  24. ↑ Paolo Di Stefano (11 September 1992). "Il vizietto del conte Camillo Cavour, un'avventura gay. Ma i suoi biografi non ci credono" [Count Camillo Cavour's Little Vice, a Gay Adventure. But His Biographers Do Not Believe It]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). p. 43.
  25. ↑ Francesco Gnerre (March 2011). "Risorgimento gay" [Gay Risorgimento]. Pride (in Italian). Retrieved 31 January 2026. ... racconto assai bello e divertente, oggi introvabile, che meriterebbe di essere ripubblicato...[...a very fine and entertaining story, now unavailable, which deserves to be republished...]
  26. ↑ Curzio Maltese (19 May 1994). "Il miracolo dei Millelire" [The Miracle of the Millelire]. La Stampa. Turin.
  27. ↑ Antonio Socci (11 October 1992). "Il Camillo Svelato" [Camillo Revealed]. Panorama. Il critico Federico Zeri quando lo ha letto è rimasto estasiato: "Quel libretto è opera di un letterato finissimo, di una gran penna capace di trasmettere vibrazioni erotiche e umoristiche. L'autore di questo gioiello alessandrino? Secondo me lo pseudonimo Tripeleff nasconde Alberto Arbasino". "Ma che Arbasino" ribatte il giornalista e scrittore Giorgio dell'Arti. "Conosco bene Alberto. Non è il suo genere. Secondo me, l'autore è Goffredo Fofi: lo pseudonimo Tripeleff contiene un'allusione alla lettere effe". Ludovica Ripa di Meana invece non ha certezze: "La parte erotica del racconto è ben scritta e non priva di raffinatezza psicologica. A me l'ha passato Zeri, da allora mi chiedo chi l'ha scritto". Nei salotti romani e milanesi tentare di scoprire chi è l'autore di "Un'avventura galante del conte di Cavour" è il tormentone del momento.[The critic Federico Zeri, upon reading it, was reportedly ecstatic: "That little book is the work of a most refined man of letters, a great stylist capable of conveying both erotic and humorous vibrations. The author of this Alexandrian gem? In my view, the pseudonym Tripeleff conceals Alberto Arbasino.". "But Arbasino, come on," replied the journalist and writer Giorgio Dell'Arti. "I know Alberto well. It is not his style. In my opinion, the author is Goffredo Fofi: the pseudonym Tripeleff contains an allusion to the letter F.". Ludovica Ripa di Meana, for her part, expressed uncertainty: "The erotic part of the story is well written and not without psychological refinement. Zeri passed it on to me, and ever since I have wondered who wrote it.". In Roman and Milanese literary circles, attempting to discover the author of "Un'avventura galante del conte di Cavour" became the running topic of the moment.]
  28. ↑ Franco F. Ferrario (January 2007), Un amore di Maria Callas. Perchè ho scritto questa storia e soprattutto perchè l'ho scritta così [A Love of Maria Callas. Why I Wrote This Story and Above All Why I Wrote It This Way](PDF) (in Italian), p. 10, retrieved 31 January 2026
  29. ↑ Fabio Dal Corobbo (2018–2019), «Ebben? Ne andrò lontana» La voce, la scena, il repertorio: l'eredità di Maria Callas tra passato e futuro ['"Ebben? Ne andrò lontana": The Voice, the Stage, the Repertoire: Maria Callas's Legacy Between Past and Future] (in Italian), Venice: Università Ca' Foscari, pp. 208, 226, 482, 587, retrieved 28 January 2026{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  30. ↑ Sergio Trombetta (31 March 1995). "Scrivere romanzi? Mestiere gay che si impara a scuola" [Writing Novels? A Gay Craft Learned at School]. La Stampa (in Italian). p. 19. Retrieved 30 November 2025.
  31. ↑ Tripeleff. "Tripeleff - un sito di storie varie, scritte per il solo piacere di raccontare" [Tripeleff – A Site of Various Stories, Written Solely for the Pleasure of Storytelling] (in Italian). Retrieved 12 February 2026.
  32. ↑ Tripeleff, Da leggere prima di cominciare a leggere [To Be Read Before Beginning to Read](PDF) (in Italian), pp. 8–9, retrieved 3 February 2026
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