• Sia pace ai frati, by Vittorio Alfieri

  • Jun 8 2024
  • Length: 2 mins
  • Podcast

Sia pace ai frati, by Vittorio Alfieri By cover art

Sia pace ai frati, by Vittorio Alfieri

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  • Today we read Sia pace ai frati, by Vittorio Alfieri.

    This short and punchy epigram by Vittorio Alfieri embodies the Enlightenment attitude towards religion and state: peaceful coexistence in separate domains.

    Priests should be few and not overly loquacious in the public arena; cardinals should not take away the lights (here Alfieri uses the term “lume”, and “età dei lumi” is an expression for “Enlightenment”).

    The pope should concentrate on the problems of faith and salvation, leaving politics to politicians.

    Laws should rule, not a king.

    And the concluding line exclaims patriotically: there is an Italy!

    The original:

    Sia pace ai frati,
    Purchè sfratati:
    E pace ai preti,
    Ma pochi e queti:
    Cardinalume
    Non tolga lume:
    Il maggior prete
    Torni alla rete:
    Leggi, e non re;
    L’Italia c’è. \ The music in this episode is Gaetano Donizetti’s overture to the opera Don Pasquale, played by the United States Marine Band for the album Overtures, Volume Two (in the public domain).
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