Bice Piacentini, full name Beatrice Piacentini Rinaldi, was an Italian poet born in San Benedetto del Tronto August 21, 1856. From a bourgeois family, daughter of Augusto, a noble lawyer and owner of a law firm in Rome, and Marianna Fiorani, daughter of the prior of San Benedetto, she spent her childhood between San Benedetto, Rome and Collevecchio (RI), the Piacentini's hometown. Bice had the merit of attributing to the Sambenedettese dialect, mainly spoken by fishermen, the importance of a sought-after language. And it has transformed it into a vernacular of literary interestAn example of poetry in vernacular can be read in monument of “La Retara”, a bronze sculpture located in the city's pedestrian area. The base bears an excerpt from verses dedicated to the ancient profession.
His inspiration
The poetess he transformed family and street scenes into poetry, gathering testimonies directly from the common people of the seaside village. Although rich, cultured, and beautiful, she loved to mix with uncouth and illiterate commoners. She mingled with the market women and listened to their complaints, drawing inspiration from them for her sonnets in the vernacular or for her stories in Italian. For this reason, her work has acquired over time almost a anthropological character, as it offers documentation and testimony, as well as a very faithful portrait, of the customs and popular traditions of ancient San Benedetto seafaring culture.
The poetic style of Bice Piacentini
The choice to use the dialect was to give a vision as realistic as possible of everyday life which, otherwise narrated in a learned language, would not have had the vividness that Piacentini aimed for. Her poetry is dramatic, simple and sentimental. The works are essentially poems and stories in the San Benedetto dialect, with some exceptions of compositions in Italian. With the anthology Sonnets from the Marches (1926), dedicated to the memory of her beloved mother, achieved fame by dealing with topics dear to her, such as condition and role of women in the society of the time.
His works were published in local newspapers and magazines. Many of his dramas and comedies became stage plays. Extremely popular and studied in our schools, he is a passionate love poem dedicated to his citySan Benedetto, precisely, which she defined as the most beautiful town in the world.
The love scandal
The sad note of his life was the scandal che was born when she, just twenty years old, she fell in love with her uncle Carlo, younger brother of his father, whom he later married in 1877. From the marriage was born his only son, Giuseppe, born in Rome and disappeared under mysterious circumstances at the age of 54. Later, he decided to adopt Pia Ceccarelli, daughter of a sailor. Her company distracted her from the many family bereavements she endured throughout her life. She lost her father, her brother Gualtiero (an architect who designed the monumental cemetery of San Benedetto del Tronto), her husband, and her other brother, Ernesto.
The last years
Despite the difficult vicissitudes of her existence, Bice devoted herself fervently to her great passion: the writing. So much so that in 1905 the first 12 sonnets in vernacular were awarded at theRegional Exhibition of MacerataShe spent her last years in her beloved homeland, where she had been living for some time, cared for by Pia, who had raised her like a daughter. She died in San Benedetto on May 18, 1942, at the venerable age of 85. Today the home of the poetess lover of the dialect, inside the “Paese Alto”, the ancient village of San Benedetto del Tronto, is a place dedicated to cultureIn fact, it houses Bice's studio, the Municipal Historical Archives, the Pinacoteca del Mare and the Poetry Room.
Peculiarity of the place is a architectural arch next to the poet's house where she used to take refuge. This structure inspired the title of a well-known historical novel by the writer. Cinzia Carboni: Bice's Arch (2009), in which Bice Piacentini is the absolute protagonist.
Thanks for the cover image: corriereadriatico.it
