Princess Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca (born 23 January 1950) is an Italian author and translator. As a teenager, she produced the first translation of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' into Italian. She later wrested control of the family's 100-room summer palace from

Opus Dei Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei ( la, Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work an ...

and

the Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

, and had it renovated.

Life and work

Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca was born in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, Switzerland, on 23 January 1950. She is the daughter of (1919–2015) and a cousin of the writer

Dacia Maraini Dacia Maraini (; born November 13, 1936) is an Italian writer. Maraini's work focuses on women's issues, and she has written numerous plays and novels. She has won awards for her work, including the Formentor Prize for ''L'età del malessere'' ...

. As a teenager, Vittoria Alliata translated

's ''

'' into Italian as ''Il Signore degli Anelli'', and the first volume of the trilogy, ''

The Fellowship of the Ring ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' is the first of three volumes of the epic novel ''The Lord of the Rings'' by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is followed by ''The Two Towers'' and ''The Return of the King''. It takes place in the fiction ...

'', was published by Astrolabio in 1967. The two other volumes followed, and all were later published by Rusconi, and then

Bompiani Bompiani is an Italian publishing house based in Milan. It was founded in 1929 by Valentino Bompiani. In 1990, Bompiani became part of the RCS MediaGroup. It was sold in 2015 to the Giunti Group. It is widely regarded as one of the leading literar ...

in 1970 after extensive revisions by

Quirino Principe Quirino Principe (born 19 November 1935 in Gorizia) is an Italian philosopher of music, Germanist, translator and dramatist. actor. Teaching activity Principe holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Padua. He taught on the musicology c ...

. Vittoria Alliata did post-graduate studies in Lebanon in the late 1960s, but abandoned them in order to become acquainted with Arab and Muslim women of all social backgrounds. She travelled in the Middle East, including the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, for more than a decade, and her experiences resulted in the 1980 book ''Harem'', which depicts the daily lives of Arab and Muslim women. Villa Valguarnera 02

When Vittoria Alliata returned to

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, she found cows and wild boar wandering about in the , the family's 18th-century summer palace in Bagheria to the east of

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

. She spent 20 years dealing with the local

mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

and restoring its 100 rooms. Her aunt had died in 1988, leaving half of the ownership of the Villa Valguarnera to

. The will was contested by the family, but while in probate, the mafia sequestered the building, installed a guardian, and were rumoured to have plans to open a casino. The building is now owned by Alliata. As of 2017, the entire second floor of the Villa Valguarnera was available to rent including the services of a housekeeper and a cook. In 2019, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' reported that Vittoria Alliata was "at war" over a new Tolkien translation into Italian, and that her translation is "beloved of the far right". Vittoria Alliata spoke at a conference in Moscow of the ''International Movement of Russophiles'' in March 2023, during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

Selected publications

* ''InDigest, il meglio dell'America per un mondo migliore'', Edizioni La Pietra, 1975 * ''Harem, memorie d'Arabia di una nobildonna siciliana'', Garzanti, 1980 * ''Baraka, dal Tamigi alle Piramidi'', Mondadori, 1984 * ''Rajah, in Malesia alla ricerca dell'incenso perduto tra sultani, maghe e poeti'', Garzanti, 1987

Life and work

Selected publications

References

Further reading