Mavi Boncuk | SOURCE
Intesa Sanpaolo Group Historical Archives via Morone 3 (reading room) largo Mattioli 5 (postal address) 20121 Milan tel. +39 02 87942970 archivio.storico@intesasanpaolo.com
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Bernardino Nogara
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The Galata Bridge in Constantinople; photo taken between 1908 and 1914
(Nogara Family Archive)
NO. 1 SEPTEMBER 2016 page 5
Europe’s great tragedy seen through a man’s letters to his wife Francesca Pino
She and their children had returned to Italy alone following a nearly decade-long stay in Istanbul, where Nogara worked for Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) as director of the Eastern Trading Company (Società Commerciale d’Oriente – COMOR); they ended up staying there due to the outbreak of WWI. The letters span a period of just over a year, from 2 July 1914 through 11 July 1915, just prior to Italy’s declaration of war on Turkey in August 2015. The book contains a single letter by Ester – the only one that has survived – dated 23 May 1915, the day that news got around of Italy’s entry into the war. It is found in the appendix for this reason. Bernardino Nogara[1] was a prominent figure in twentieth-century history. A liberal Catholic from an ancient Lombard family, he held a degree in mining engineering from the Milan Polytechnic and acted as BCI’s representative in the Mediterranean and Eastern European regions. A financier, he was also tasked with diplomatic responsibilities, and following the 1929 Concordat between the Vatican and Italy he became the first Director of the Special Administration of the Holy See. He was also a member of BCI’s board of directors from 1925 to 1945 when, thanks to his active participation in the National Liberation Committee in Rome, he was appointed the bank’s vice president on 28 June. He held that position until his death in 1958.
The correspondence is intriguing from several perspectives. First of all, it lets readers reconstruct the sequence of declarations of war between the various countries, which were bilateral and staggered over time. It also provides an understanding of the ambiguous behavior towards Russia of the Turks, who sided with Germany early on, allowing two German submarines to enter the Bosphorus. Bernardino Nogara’s reading of events is both diplomatic and highly perceptive, capturing the atmosphere of mistrust that developed within the international community following the entry into war of various countries. He had decided to stay on in Istanbul since a minimum number of board members was required to manage the administration of the Ottoman public debt. The letters show how Nogara grew increasingly convinced as time went by of the need for Italy to enter the war and subsequently to be able to claim the unredeemed lands (Trento and Trieste). He makes observations on the behavior of foreign ambassadors and Turkish ministers to his wife, who was herself quite familiar with that milieu; indeed, she had played a representative role that was very much appreciated by Italy’s ambassador in Constantinople, Camillo Garroni. Nogara’s comments convey the increasingly heavy atmosphere in the city, and the sense of isolation felt by the few Europeans still resident there.
At one point Nogara undertook a several day-long journey by ship and on horseback to visit the Heraclea mines in Anatolia, and then returned to Italy through Sofia and Thessaloniki, having obtained permission to visit his family in Bellano on Lake Como. Once in Italy he was called back repeatedly to carry out a range of diplomatic missions and assignments both for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for BCI and Otto Joel, the bank’s co-founder and director. Nogara’s writing style is eloquent yet terse, circumspect rather than rhetorical; indeed, his letters were often opened for censure. They include fascinating discussions of the growing difficulties of the postal and telegraph links, but also touch on more intimate, family-related matters such as the couple’s home, their garden, the care of plants and Nogara’s love for his wife. The elegant layout of the book and its exceptional selection of photographs (thanks to the analytical cataloguing done by Serena Berno, an Intesa Sanpaolo Group Historical Archives staff member) help readers to fully immerse themselves in the events of the period.
Published with the support of Intesa Sanpaolo, the book includes an introduction by Marta Petricioli on Italy’s foreign policy in the Mediterranean region, and on the role played by the aforementioned Società Commerciale d’Oriente, which also carried out banking business in Istanbul and other Mediterranean cities.
Lettere da Costantinopoli (1914-1915). Carteggio familiare di Bernardino Nogara [Letters from Constantinople (1914-1915). The Family Correspondence of Bernardino Nogara], edited by Bernardino Osio with an introduction by Marta Petricioli, Florence, Centro Di, 2014 (174 pages).
All credit for this elegant and absorbing volume – Lettere da Costantinopoli (1914- 1915). Carteggio familiare di Bernardino Nogara – is due to Bernardino Osio, a former ambassador, who conceived and edited it. It contains a brief part of the substantial correspondence between his grandfather, Bernardino Nogara, and Nogara’s wife, Ester Martelli.
Ambassador Bernardino Osio, grandson of Nogara, has his diary at his family archive in Rome. The diary has not so far been published, but has been used in two previous scholarly works: Renzo De Felice used extracts from the diary in his article, 'La Santa Sede e il conflitto italo-etiopico nel diario di Bernardino Nogara', Storia Contemporanea, 4 (1977), pp 823-34, and
Giovanni Belardelli published an important, attached document, the journal of Nogara's visit to the United States in 1937,'Un viaggio di Bernardino Nogara negli Stati Uniti (novembre 1937)',
in Storia Contemporanea, 23 (1g82), pp. 32 1-8,
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[1] Bernardino Nogara (Bellano, June 17, 1870 — Milano, November 15, 1958)
(Pictured )The Eastern Trading Company in the Galata neighborhood of Constantinople around 1910 (Nogara Family Archive)
He was the first non-roman to be in charge of the Vatican finances. He came from a family so Catholic that it weep because of the breach of Porta Pia. With a degree in industrial and electro-technical engineering from the University of Milan, he left for England as soon as he married and went to work in a mine in Wales. From there he was sent to a mine in Greece. In 1908, he was living in Constantinople and managing mines in Asia Minor. There, he founded the Eastern Commercial Society, a branch of the Banca Commerciale Italiana. Well-versed in the political and economic realities of the Ottoman Empire, he became the Italian government’s trusted advisor for Easter affairs. In this role, he was involved in the Ouchy Treaty, which ended the war in Libya between Italy and Turkey. In 1914, Nogara was the Italian delegate to the Board of Administration for the Ottoman Public Debt. At the end of the First World War, he was part of the economic and financial commission of the Conferences created to draft peace treaties with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
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Bernardino Nogara was the financial advisor to the Vatican between 1929 and 1954, appointed by Pope Pius XI and retained by Pope Pius XII as the first Director of the Special Administration of the Holy See.
Volpi Connection
Giuseppe Volpi, 1st Count of Misurata (born in Venice on 19 November 1877; died in Rome on 16 November 1947), was an Italian businessman and politician.
Intesa Sanpaolo Group Historical Archives via Morone 3 (reading room) largo Mattioli 5 (postal address) 20121 Milan tel. +39 02 87942970 archivio.storico@intesasanpaolo.com
Bernardino Nogara
with his wife and children in Constantinople, 1910 (Nogara Family Archive)
(Nogara Family Archive)
NO. 1 SEPTEMBER 2016 page 5
Europe’s great tragedy seen through a man’s letters to his wife Francesca Pino
She and their children had returned to Italy alone following a nearly decade-long stay in Istanbul, where Nogara worked for Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) as director of the Eastern Trading Company (Società Commerciale d’Oriente – COMOR); they ended up staying there due to the outbreak of WWI. The letters span a period of just over a year, from 2 July 1914 through 11 July 1915, just prior to Italy’s declaration of war on Turkey in August 2015. The book contains a single letter by Ester – the only one that has survived – dated 23 May 1915, the day that news got around of Italy’s entry into the war. It is found in the appendix for this reason. Bernardino Nogara[1] was a prominent figure in twentieth-century history. A liberal Catholic from an ancient Lombard family, he held a degree in mining engineering from the Milan Polytechnic and acted as BCI’s representative in the Mediterranean and Eastern European regions. A financier, he was also tasked with diplomatic responsibilities, and following the 1929 Concordat between the Vatican and Italy he became the first Director of the Special Administration of the Holy See. He was also a member of BCI’s board of directors from 1925 to 1945 when, thanks to his active participation in the National Liberation Committee in Rome, he was appointed the bank’s vice president on 28 June. He held that position until his death in 1958.
The correspondence is intriguing from several perspectives. First of all, it lets readers reconstruct the sequence of declarations of war between the various countries, which were bilateral and staggered over time. It also provides an understanding of the ambiguous behavior towards Russia of the Turks, who sided with Germany early on, allowing two German submarines to enter the Bosphorus. Bernardino Nogara’s reading of events is both diplomatic and highly perceptive, capturing the atmosphere of mistrust that developed within the international community following the entry into war of various countries. He had decided to stay on in Istanbul since a minimum number of board members was required to manage the administration of the Ottoman public debt. The letters show how Nogara grew increasingly convinced as time went by of the need for Italy to enter the war and subsequently to be able to claim the unredeemed lands (Trento and Trieste). He makes observations on the behavior of foreign ambassadors and Turkish ministers to his wife, who was herself quite familiar with that milieu; indeed, she had played a representative role that was very much appreciated by Italy’s ambassador in Constantinople, Camillo Garroni. Nogara’s comments convey the increasingly heavy atmosphere in the city, and the sense of isolation felt by the few Europeans still resident there.
At one point Nogara undertook a several day-long journey by ship and on horseback to visit the Heraclea mines in Anatolia, and then returned to Italy through Sofia and Thessaloniki, having obtained permission to visit his family in Bellano on Lake Como. Once in Italy he was called back repeatedly to carry out a range of diplomatic missions and assignments both for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for BCI and Otto Joel, the bank’s co-founder and director. Nogara’s writing style is eloquent yet terse, circumspect rather than rhetorical; indeed, his letters were often opened for censure. They include fascinating discussions of the growing difficulties of the postal and telegraph links, but also touch on more intimate, family-related matters such as the couple’s home, their garden, the care of plants and Nogara’s love for his wife. The elegant layout of the book and its exceptional selection of photographs (thanks to the analytical cataloguing done by Serena Berno, an Intesa Sanpaolo Group Historical Archives staff member) help readers to fully immerse themselves in the events of the period.
Published with the support of Intesa Sanpaolo, the book includes an introduction by Marta Petricioli on Italy’s foreign policy in the Mediterranean region, and on the role played by the aforementioned Società Commerciale d’Oriente, which also carried out banking business in Istanbul and other Mediterranean cities.
Lettere da Costantinopoli (1914-1915). Carteggio familiare di Bernardino Nogara [Letters from Constantinople (1914-1915). The Family Correspondence of Bernardino Nogara], edited by Bernardino Osio with an introduction by Marta Petricioli, Florence, Centro Di, 2014 (174 pages).
All credit for this elegant and absorbing volume – Lettere da Costantinopoli (1914- 1915). Carteggio familiare di Bernardino Nogara – is due to Bernardino Osio, a former ambassador, who conceived and edited it. It contains a brief part of the substantial correspondence between his grandfather, Bernardino Nogara, and Nogara’s wife, Ester Martelli.
Ambassador Bernardino Osio, grandson of Nogara, has his diary at his family archive in Rome. The diary has not so far been published, but has been used in two previous scholarly works: Renzo De Felice used extracts from the diary in his article, 'La Santa Sede e il conflitto italo-etiopico nel diario di Bernardino Nogara', Storia Contemporanea, 4 (1977), pp 823-34, and
Giovanni Belardelli published an important, attached document, the journal of Nogara's visit to the United States in 1937,'Un viaggio di Bernardino Nogara negli Stati Uniti (novembre 1937)',
in Storia Contemporanea, 23 (1g82), pp. 32 1-8,
[1] Bernardino Nogara (Bellano, June 17, 1870 — Milano, November 15, 1958) (Pictured )The Eastern Trading Company in the Galata neighborhood of Constantinople around 1910 (Nogara Family Archive)
He was the first non-roman to be in charge of the Vatican finances. He came from a family so Catholic that it weep because of the breach of Porta Pia. With a degree in industrial and electro-technical engineering from the University of Milan, he left for England as soon as he married and went to work in a mine in Wales. From there he was sent to a mine in Greece. In 1908, he was living in Constantinople and managing mines in Asia Minor. There, he founded the Eastern Commercial Society, a branch of the Banca Commerciale Italiana. Well-versed in the political and economic realities of the Ottoman Empire, he became the Italian government’s trusted advisor for Easter affairs. In this role, he was involved in the Ouchy Treaty, which ended the war in Libya between Italy and Turkey. In 1914, Nogara was the Italian delegate to the Board of Administration for the Ottoman Public Debt. At the end of the First World War, he was part of the economic and financial commission of the Conferences created to draft peace treaties with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers, Volume 34
By Institution of Mining Engineers (Great Britain) 1908 - Mineral industries
While in Istambul, he was appointed representative to the Italian Banca Commerciale and then the Italian representative to an international committee overseeing the Ottoman empire's debt and the Italian delegation to the economic committee at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919, after which he remained on the permanent reparations committee.[9] He was later appointed to manage the industry section of the Inter-Allied Commission that enacted the Dawes Plan in Berlin.
Within the Banca Commerciale Italiana, Italy's largest private bank, he became a member of the board of directors and later the vice-president. He was also a member of the board of Commissioni Economiche e Finanziarie alle Conferenze (Comofin).
Nogara's dealings with the Vatican began in 1914, when he purchased a variety of bonds on behalf of Pope Benedict XV.
He graduated in industrial engineering and electrical engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan in 1894, Nogales was later director of mines in England, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. In 1913 he was one of the architects of the signing of the Treaty of Ouchy concluded that the Libyan war between Italy and Turkey. It was also the Italian delegate, from the end of 1912, the Board of Directors of the Ottoman Public Debt, an adviser and then chief executive officer (1913-1935) of the Trading Company of the East (Comor), a sort of branch of the BCI in Turkey and the Balkans, director and vice president of BCI from 1925 to 1958.
Nogara could count on the benefits of a renewed diplomatic activity of the Church. Benedict XV had left the Vatican coffers empty, because the First World War prevented bishops from coming to Rome for ad limina visits and contribute to Peter’s Pence. From 1930 on, Nogara invested in a web of projects extended throughout Europe and financial centres in the United States and South America.
Giuseppe Volpi, 1st Count of Misurata (born in Venice on 19 November 1877; died in Rome on 16 November 1947), was an Italian businessman and politician.
Count Volpi developed utilities which brought electricity to Venice, northeast Italy, and the Balkans by 1903. In 1911-1912, he acted as a negotiator in ending the Italo-Turkish War. Treaty of Lausanne (1912) as Mr. Giuseppe Volpi, Commandant of the Orders of St. Maurice and St. Lazare and of the Italian Crown.
He was Mussolini’s governor of the colony of Tripolitania from 1921 to until 1925.
As Italy's Finance Minister from 1925 until 1928, he successfully negotiated Italy's World War I debt repayment with the United States and with England, and pegged the value of the lira to the value of gold. He was replaced in July 1928 by Antonio Moscini. He also founded the Venice Film Festival. The Volpi Cup (Italian: Coppa Volpi) is the principal award given to actors at the Venice Film Festival.
His son is automobile racing manager Giovanni Volpi.
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President 1934–1943 of Confindustria (the Italian employers' federation, founded in 1910 ) after Alberto Pirelli (1934)
Giuseppe Volpi’s manager in Istanbul was Bernardino Nogara (Bellano, June 17, 1870 — Milano, November 15, 1958) a convert to Catholicism, a Sabbatean [*] Jew.
[*] Sabbateans (Sabbatians) is a complex general term that refers to a variety of followers of, disciples and believers in Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), a Jewish rabbi who was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah in 1665 by Nathan of Gaza. Vast numbers of Jews in the Jewish diaspora accepted his claims, even after he became a Jewish apostate with his conversion to Islam in 1666. Sabbatai Zevi's followers, both during his "Messiahship" and after his conversion to Islam, are known as Sabbateans. They can be grouped into three: "Maaminim" (believers), "Haberim" (associates), and "Ba'ale Milhamah" (warriors).