Riga 48. “Alì Babà” e altri discorsi

Between 1968 and 1972, Italo Calvino, Gianni Celati and Guido Neri decided to launch a magazine, involving Enzo Melandri and Carlo Ginzburg in the project. Their aim was to break out of the narrow confines of literature, to overcome the barriers between disciplines and specialist knowledge in order to create something new and appropriate to an era of great political, social and cultural change. This led to intense discussion, through letters, meetings, reports, protocols, notes and corrections, which continued in fits and starts until 1974. 'Alì Babà' was just one of the titles proposed during the gestation of the magazine, which was never realised. However, this unfinished project gave impetus to works and studies that constitute important milestones in the careers of all those involved. In 1998, Riga published a substantial series of materials and letters from Calvino's personal archive, which provided an initial account of the Alì Babà adventure. This volume enriches and completes the picture, thanks to numerous documents found in the meantime; in particular, it supplements the correspondence between Calvino and Celati with dozens of unpublished letters fortunately found in private archives.