Rapsodia napoletana [Neapolitan Rhapsody]. New York: Cocce Press, 1944.

Rapsodia napoletana [Neapolitan Rhapsody]. New York: Cocce Press, 1944.

Rapsodia napoletana is an epic story of the history of Naples from its founding as a Greek colony, composed of 105 sonnets written in the Neapolitan dialect. It includes a preface by Agostino de Biasi, publisher of Il Carroccio during most of its run.

Besides this accomplished work, Mennella (b. Naples, 1894; d. New York, 1954), a businessman and trade official living in New York, wrote the dialect page in Cordiferro’s La Follia for years, and published at least two other poetic works in New York, Le canzoni de l’ora (1945) and Napule d’aiere (1944), both in the collection.

The author's grandson and namesake is a longtime fellow member of the Grolier Club who I met at the time of the exhibition of my collection at the Grolier Club, in 2012.

Martino Marazzi's Voices of Italian America: a History of Early italian American Literature with a Critical Anthology (Madison, 2004) contains an excerpt from this work in translation.

Federico Mannella

Cocce Press

1944

22.5 x 15cm; 142 p.

Italian