The bells of Tiglio could once more be heard over the valley as today marked a distinct celebration in the small village of Tiglio as bells ringers from around the area joined in an inaugurazione of the newly restored bells and bell tower.
The bell ringers, of all ages came from as far afield as Lucca and Capanari plus local ringers from Cardoso, Barga and from Tiglio itself, all joining in to celebrate the return of the bells after their long restoration.
The large bell – la grande was cast in 1842, the middle size – la mezzana in 1875 and the smaller bell – la piccola much later in 1936.
Domenica 2 ottobre sarà una giornata di festa per la comunità di Tiglio: torneranno infatti a suonare le antiche campane della chiesa di S. Giusto, al termine di una laboriosa operazione di restauro.
Le tre campane, come narra Antonio Nardini nel libro “Tiglio e il suo territorio”, furono fuse in epoche diverse: la grande nel 1842 (creata fondendo le precedenti, di cui una risalente al XIII secolo), la mezzana nel 1875 e la piccola nel 1936.
La parrochia di S. Giusto, in collaborazione con le locali Compagnia delle Opere e Confraternita di Misericordia ha dunque organizzato un pomeriggio denso per celebrare degnamente questo evento.
Alle ore 17 vi sarà l’inaugurazione ufficiale col saluto delle autorità; alle 17.30 la S. Messa celebrata da don Cola, accompagnata dal Coro di Tiglio con Ciro Fiume all’organo. Alle 18.15 comincerà l’esibizione dei campanari, assoldati su tutto il territorio provinciale: parteciperanno i campanari di Barga, di Tiglio, di Cardoso, di S. Pancrazio (Capannori), di S. Anna (Lucca). Al termine uno spuntino sarà offerto a tutti i partecipanti.
I make no apology for including a couple of times the face of the young bellringer in Tiglio this afternoon … if you ever wondered where the masters like Caravaggio or Michelangelo got their models from …. it would appear that they were from this area 🙂
Anybody looked at Creation of Adam recently ? – Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
dead ringers
lets hear them!!!!
We use phrases all the time without really giving their meaning a great deal of thought. You may well know that dead ringer means exact duplicate, but why is that? To a non-English speaker the two terms appear to have nothing in common. So, why dead; why ringer?
Let’s first dispense with the nonsensical idea that’s sometimes put forward as the origin of this phrase, i.e. that it refers to people who were prematurely buried and who pulled on bell ropes that were attached to their coffins in order to attract attention.
How does the premature burial derivation of ‘dead ringer’ explain why it means ‘exact duplicate’? There’s no evidence for this idea. Better not to dwell on it any longer and get on with the real origin, and back to why dead; why ringer?
A ringer is a horse substituted for another of similar appearance in order to defraud the bookies. This word originated in the US horse-racing fraternity at the end of the 19th century. The word is defined for us in a copy of the Manitoba Free Press from October 1882:
“A horse that is taken through the country and trotted under a false name and pedigree is called a ‘ringer.'”
It has since been adopted into the language to mean any very close duplicate. As a verb, ‘ring’ has long been used to mean ‘exchange/substitute’ in a variety of situations, most of them illegal. From the same period is the term ‘ring castors’, meaning to surreptitiously exchange hats. Castors, or casters, were hats made from beaver fur.
From the 20th century we have the Australian phrase, ‘ring in the gray (or knob)’, meaning to substitute a double-sided penny for a genuine one. Coming more up to date we have ‘car ringing’, which is the replacing of the identification numbers on a stolen car with those from a genuine (usually scrapped) vehicle.
So, that’s ringer; what about dead? Dead, in the sense of lifeless, is so commonly used that we tend to ignore its other meanings. The meaning that’s relevant here is exact or precise. This is demonstrated in many phrases; ‘dead shot’, ‘dead centre’, ‘dead heat’, etc.
So, ‘dead ringer’ is literally the same as ‘exact duplicate’. It first came into use soon after the word ringer itself, in the US at the end of the 19th century. The earliest reference I can find that confirms the ‘exact duplicate’ meaning is from the Oshkosh Weekly Times, June 1888, in a court report of a man charged with being ‘very drunk’:
“Dat ar is a markable semlance be shoo”, said Hart looking critically at the picture. “Dat’s a dead ringer fo me. I nebber done see such a semblence.”
grazie per la precisazione Keane, in effetti, per chi sa l’inglese ma non è inglese quel “dead ringers” suonava davvero sinistro… tradotto a occhio con quello che ci hanno insegnato a scuola sembra suonatori morti!
Faccio un riassunto veloce veloce del tuo commento per i non anglofoni: dead ringer = copia esatta, sosia… nessuna minaccia per il giovane campanaro, quindi – anzi, tutti d’accordo che ha un volto classico, degno di qualche grande pittore del passato
dead ringers was a reference to Keane’s statement “if you ever wondered where the masters like Caravaggio or Michelangelo got their models from …. it would appear that they were from this area” and to that list I would add particularly Bronzino. It is a potent expression with good reason. Thanks for the explication Keane, and/or Frank? Sorry for the confusion to everyone else. Kerry