Terms

Richieri Richieri is the provincial city where Vitangelo was born and lives, and where almost the whole novel takes place. The text calls it a noble city and describes it by its streets, squares, and buildings (the bank, the Abbey, the bishop's palace), but it only... Usurer In Italian usurajo (an older spelling of usuraio), usurer is whoever lends money at abusive interest. It is the label the town sticks on Vitangelo for being the son and heir of a banker, the same one Marco di Dio gave his father. The crowd shouts it at the... Vital point In the original, punto vivo, literally living point: the place in Vitangelo that goes on feeling when the images he makes of himself are removed. Dida's laughter wounds it in Book V, and Vitangelo himself names it, in Book VII, as God, who in him does not... Fixation In Italian fissazione, fixation is the idea that takes hold and will not let go, like the one the nose planted in Vitangelo in Book I. He gives the same name to each person's ways of being: no one has a character, they have today's fixations, which tomorrow... Interdiction Interdiction is the measure by which the court declares someone incapable of managing their own property due to mental impairment. In the book, Firbo defends it as an alternative to the madhouse, to save the bank's credit; later Dida, the father-in-law,... Notary The Italian notary is the public professional who drafts and authenticates deeds and donations and keeps the documents in his office. Notary Elpidio Stampa receives from Vitangelo the act he wants to perform and formalizes the donation of the house to Marco... Abbey The Badìa Grande of Richieri is an old feudal castle converted into a monastery, with a low gate, a courtyard with a cistern, and a brick corridor gnawed by time, where only a few old nuns remain. Anna Rosa goes there to visit her aunt, a nun, and it is in... Almshouse In Italian ospizio di mendicità, an almshouse for beggars, with a cheap kitchen attached, open all year round and serving soup to all the poor, not only to those who are housed there. It is what Sclepis plans for Vitangelo, and where he lives at the end, in a... Madhouse In Italian manicomio, the lunatic asylum, which in the book is a threat and not a destination. Vitangelo flings it in Firbo's face, since Firbo keeps his wife locked up in one, and afterward Firbo proposes it for Vitangelo. Vitangelo is never committed: the...