''L'Asino'' (The Donkey) was an Italian magazine of political satire founded in Rome on November 27, 1892, by Guido Podrecca (1865–1923) and Gabriele Galantara (1867–1937), a former mathematics student, designer and cartoonist, both with a socialist background. The two took the pseudonyms "Goliardo" (Podrecca) and "Ratalanga" (Galantara), and with these nicknames signed the outputs of the weekly. The magazine's title was from a saying of

Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (12 August 1804 – 25 September 1873) was an Italian writer and politician involved in the Italian Risorgimento. Biography Guerrazzi was born in the seaport of Livorno, then part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He st ...

that said that "the donkey is like the people: useful, patient and stubborn" (in Italian: ''"come il popolo è l'asino: utile, paziente e bastonato''), which became the subtitle and the motto of the editors.Galantara, Gabriele
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 51 (1998)L’Asino e Mussolini. Il ventennio del circo
by Emanuela Morganti, Circo, November 2011

Early years

The magazine immediately focused its attention on the collapse of the Banca Romana in 1893 and Prime Minister

Giovanni Giolitti Giovanni Giolitti (; 27 October 1842 – 17 July 1928) was an Italian statesman. He was the Prime Minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. After Benito Mussolini, he is the second-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history. A pr ...

,Goldstein
''The War for the Public Mind''
pp. 113-14. and in a short time reached a circulation of 22,000 copies. The success of the magazine led its two founders to embark on a daily publication at the beginning of 1895. However, this proved to be unsustainable and, in August 1895, the magazine resumed on a weekly basis. In 1897, Podrecca and Galantara were arrested for subversive propaganda and ''L'Asino'' had to suspend publication for a short period.

Anticlericalism

After 1901, the magazine began to criticize the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and became the leading

anticlerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

journal. As a result, the magazine was banned from

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

. In 1904, ''L'Asino'' reached a circulation of 60,000, which rose to 100,000 before 1912. The magazine circulated widely among Italian immigrants in the United States. Due to its anticlerical and alleged pornographic content, the papal

nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international or ...

in Washington D.C. succeeded to get it banned from entry in 1908. However, the ban was circumvented by printing an American edition in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Rift between the founders

In 1911, the war in Libya caused a serious rift between Podrecca, who had been elected deputy for the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892, ...

in 1909, and supported

Leonida Bissolati Leonida Bissolati (20 February 1857 in Cremona – 6 May 1920 in Rome) was a leading exponent of the Italian socialist movement at the turn of the nineteenth century. Biography He was born from the liaison of Paolina Bergamaschi, a nurse, wi ...

, who was in favour of the war, while Galantara resolutely opposed in the name of anti-militarist and internationalist principles. ''L'Asino'' floundered, giving space to both positions, but the cartoons of Galantara against the war were more effective than the articles of Podrecca in favour of it. Both founders sided with the interventionists during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, but the magazine lost its bite his cartoons with its nationalist stance.

Closed down

Publication was interrupted from 1918 to 1921, due to technical and economic difficulties, such as lack of paper. While Podrecca traveled to the United States in 1922 and shortly thereafter died of pneumonia in 1923 (Auburn, NY), Galantara, who had returned to his initial socialist principles, resumed the magazine in December 1921. The publication opposed the Fascist dictatorship of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

and was forced to suspend publication in the spring of 1925 due to a new law restricting press freedom and after a long series of threats, harassment and interventions of fascist gangs in the newsroom. For the cover of the final issue of ''L'Asino'', Galantara made a caricature of Mussolini, entitled ''Lui'' (Him) that would become a role model of foreign designers worldwide. Mussolini appeared with a huge bald head and surmounted by a crown on which is written "trouble to anyone who touches me", a huge mouth and two big eyes wide and crossed by a light of madness.Gabriele Galantara e la satira politica
by Alberto Pellegrino, Centro Studi Gabriele Galantara After the closure of ''L'Asino'', Galantara continued to create cartoons for the antifascist satirical newspaper ''

Il Becco Giallo ''Il Becco Giallo'' (Italian: 'Yellow Beak') was an antifascist satirical magazine in the 1920s in Italy. Print Culture in a Diverse America
', Champaign (IL): University of Illinois Press, * Goldstein, Robert Justin (ed.) (2000).
The War for the Public Mind: Political Censorship in Nineteenth-century Europe
', Westport (CT): Praeger Publishers, * Lernout, Geert (2010).
Help My Unbelief: James Joyce and Religion
', London/New York: Continuum, *Mascha, Efharis. “Political Satire and Hegemony: A Case of ‘passive Revolution’ During Mussolini’s Ascendance to Power 1919–1925.” Humor (Berlin, Germany) 21, no. 1 (2008): 69–98. * Tholas-Disset, Clémentine & Ritzenhoff, Karen A. (eds.) (2015).
Humor, Entertainment, and Popular Culture During World War I
', New York: Palgrave Macmillan,

External links

*
L'Asino e il popolo: utile, paziente e bastonato
Premio Satira Politica (1982) *

Centro Studi Gabriele Galantara {{DEFAULTSORT:Asino, L' 1892 establishments in Italy 1925 disestablishments in Italy Defunct political magazines published in Italy Italian-language magazines Magazines established in 1892 Magazines disestablished in 1925 Magazines published in Rome Satirical magazines published in Italy Weekly magazines published in Italy