Nicola Lupo Nicola Lupo, was born in
Bronte on 2 February 1919 by Antonino Gaetanio, a
primary school teacher, and by Rosina Sanfilippo, a
housewife, second of six brothers. After attending
elementary school he moved to the lower secondary school
of the Salesians of Pedara to continue his classical
studies at Bronte in the Ginnasio-liceo juxtaposed
school annexed to the Real Collegio Capizzi. He
graduated in 1942 in Catania in modern literature
discussing a thesis in history on "Culture in Acireale
in the nineteenth century" with prof. Antonino De
Stefano, one of the greatest scholars of Frederick II of
Swabia. "That thesis - Prof. Lupo tells us - was
assigned to me because that year (41/42) I was already
teaching at the Pennisi High School in that city". He
taught in middle school in half of Italy wandering from
Sicily (Acireale and Bronte), Calabria (in Locri for two
years), Puglia (in Bari for sixteen) and Rome ("for
twenty-five years, still in the Middle School of which I
experienced firsthand all the reforms from that of
Bottai onwards "). He retired and returned to Puglia
where he lives between Bari and Selva di Fasano in the
Brindisino area (where, in order to "not lose his memory
of his roots", almost with nostalgia for his native
village, he called the house where he lives "Villa
Bronte") . Wrote books on "Federico II of Svevia", 1996, published by Vito Mastrosimini, Castellana Grotte; "Federico II of Svevia seen by A. De Stefano and G. Pepe" and about his teacher ("Antonino De Stefano man, heretic, historian", La Forbice). In 1995 with the publisher Vito Mastrosimini of Castellana Grotte he published "Fantasmi - Storie paesane" (Ghosts-Country histories), a pretty diary where Nicola Lupo remembers episodes of the years spent in Bronte in his youth, describing and evoking "past personalities or still living and facts and histories with the typical emotion of who finds and rediscovers its roots". A testimony (nearly historical), concise and well written with a pleasant style, where many places and typical figures, protagonists of the brontese life of the last century ('a batìa, Nino Laròsa, Filippo Spitaleri nicknamed Scagghìtta, U zù Luiggi, u Tàramu, u casìno de' civili, etc), are pleasantly brought back to memory.
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