I violini di Paolo VI

Storia di un dono-simbolo per i suonatori “nomadi”

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to bring to light a curious story about the gift of five violins from Pope Paul VI to some Roma and Sinti musicians during the first international pilgrimage of nomads to Rome (1965). This story is still told in the families that remember the event, and its contours have been precisely defined thanks to the intersection of oral narratives and written sources. Apart from the uniqueness of the story itself, linked to an important event in Italian cultural history such as the 1965 meeting, the story of the violins is, on the one hand, further proof that the participation of Roma and Sinti in the great European pilgrimages was above all a musical one. On the other hand, it underlines the specific value that the pilgrimage to Rome has acquired for these communities, since the memory of this event is not only kept alive through the various narratives, but also seems to be “carried” by the violins themselves, which continue to be a symbol of recognition and revenge.