Princess Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca (born 23 January 1950) is an Italian author and translator. As a teenager, she produced the first translation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings into Italian. She later wrested control of the family's 100-room summer palace from Opus Dei and the Mafia, and had it renovated.
Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca was born in Geneva, Switzerland, on 23 January 1950. [1] She is the daughter of Prince Francesco Alliata di Villafranca (1919–2015) and a cousin of the writer Dacia Maraini. [2]
As a teenager, Vittoria Alliata translated J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings into Italian as Il Signore degli Anelli, [3] [4] and the first volume of the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring , was published by Astrolabio in 1967. [3] The two other volumes followed, and all were later published by Rusconi, and then Bompiani in 1970 after extensive revisions by Quirino Principe. [3]
Vittoria Alliata did post-graduate studies in Lebanon in the late 1960s, but abandoned them in order to become acquainted with Arab and Muslim women of all social backgrounds. She travelled in the Middle East, including the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, for more than a decade, and her experiences resulted in the 1980 book Harem, which depicts the daily lives of Arab and Muslim women. [5]
When Vittoria Alliata returned to Sicily, she found cows and wild boar wandering about in the Villa Valguarnera , the family's 18th-century summer palace in Bagheria to the east of Palermo. [4] She spent 20 years dealing with the local mafia and restoring its 100 rooms. [4] Her aunt had died in 1988, leaving half of the ownership of the Villa Valguarnera to Opus Dei. [6] The will was contested by the family, but while in probate, the mafia sequestered the building, installed a guardian, and were rumoured to have plans to open a casino. [6] The building is now owned by Alliata. [6]
As of 2017, the entire second floor of the Villa Valguarnera was available to rent including the services of a housekeeper and a cook. [6]
In 2019, The Times reported that Vittoria Alliata was "at war" over a new Tolkien translation into Italian, and that her translation is "beloved of the far right". [4] [7]
Vittoria Alliata spoke at a conference in Moscow of the International Movement of Russophiles in March 2023, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [8]
Leonardo Sciascia was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician. Some of his works have been made into films, including Porte Aperte, Cadaveri Eccellenti, Todo Modo and Il giorno della civetta. He is one of the greatest literary figures in the European literature of the 20th century.
Vittorio Giovanni Rossi was an Italian journalist and writer.
Roberto Pazzi was an Italian novelist and poet. His works have been translated into twenty-six languages. He was widely recognized in Italian literary circles for his poetry and novels. His Debut novel, Cercando l'Imperatore in 1985, received a number of international awards and started a prolific career of historical and contemporary novels.
The Rapallo Carige Prize is an Italian literary award, established in 1985 by the Municipality of Rapallo and the Carige Bank.
Max Crivello is an Italian illustrator, painter, screenwriter and art cartoonist.
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings has been translated, with varying degrees of success, into dozens of languages from the original English. He was critical of some early versions, and made efforts to improve translation by providing a detailed "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings", alongside an appendix "On Translation" in the book itself.
Clorinda Corradi was an Italian opera singer and one of the most famous contraltos in history.
Carlo Duse was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1916 and 1956. He was born in Udine, Italy and died in Rome, Italy.
Fausto Brizzi is an Italian screenwriter, producer and film director.
Vito D'Anna was an Italian painter, considered the most prominent painter of Palermitan rococo and one of the most important artists of Sicily.
Antonella Colonna Vilasi is the President of the Research Center on Intelligence in Rome -Italy- UNI.
Hobbit Tales from the Green Dragon Inn is a card game set in Middle-earth. It was designed by Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello, designers of War of the Ring and Battle of Five Armies, and published by Cubicle 7 in January 2014.
Anne Milano Appel is an American translator of Italian literature and language teacher. She obtained a doctorate in Romance languages from Rutgers University in 1970. She has translated, among others, works by Claudio Magris, Paolo Giordano, Giovanni Arpino and Goliarda Sapienza. She was awarded the John Florio Prize in 2012 for her translation of Arpino's Scent of a Woman. She is also working on English translations of Giordano's Like Family, Syrian Dust by Francesca Borri and Don't Tell Me You're Afraid by Giuseppe Catozzella.
Topazia Alliata was an Italian painter, curator, art dealer and writer.
Caterina Bonvicini is an Italian writer. She was the recipient of the Rapallo Carige Prize for L'equilibrio degli squali in 2008. Her work has been translated into French.
Alessandra Appiano was an Italian novelist and journalist.
Alessandro Bausani was a scholar of Islam, Arab and Persian studies, interlinguistics and the History of Religion, translating many works into Italian. He was one of the greatest Italian scholars of Islam, as well as a translator and commentator of one of the most important translations of the Qur'an into the Italian language.
The Palazzo Alliata di Villafranca is former aristocratic mansion, now converted into a museum, located just off Via Vittorio Emanuele facing the Piazza Bologni which opens two blocks west of the Quattro Canti intersection, in the ancient quarter of the Albergaria of the city of Palermo, region of Sicily, Italy.
Hélène Arpels was a French model, the wife of jeweler Louis Arpels, and later a shoe designer and retailer in New York. She was known for her catch phrase "Diamonds go with everything" and was on the annual "10 Best Dressed List" for more than a decade. Shoes designed by Arpels are in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute.
Carmelo Samonà was an Italian academic and writer, as well one of the most important Italian Hispanists.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
