Giovanni Raboni presented a version of Gesta Romanorum in a 1950s poetry contest. It won not just first prize, but also praise from Carlo Betocci and Giuseppe Ungaretti. The manuscript was later lost, and the book could only be published in fragments, which this volume compiles. Gesta Romanorum reconstructs, in a style that echoes Eliot, the final days of Christ’s life from the perspective of the characters who witnessed them.
Giovanni Raboni was an Italian poet, essayist, playwright, translator, poetry critic. He is the author of La fossa di Cherubino, Poesia degli anni sessanta, Poesia italiana contemporanea, among numerous other books.