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The original edition of Giacomo Zanella’s “Nuove poesie” di Giacomo Zanella published in 1878, with the poet’s handwritten dedication to Queen Margherita, was found and rescued years ago when it was about to be destroyed in a paper mill. The volume, which bears no inventory markings, was perhaps lent and never returned, as the queen herself lamented this sometimes happened at the court. The essay briefly outlines the figure of the poet from Vicenza, author, among other things, of the poem “Sopra una conchiglia fossile nel mio studio,” appreciated by Alessandro Manzoni and Giosuè Carducci, and in the 20th century by the poet Andrea Zanzotto. When Zanella died, Queen Margherita mourned him, professing to be a sincere admirer of his talent. As the Royal Library of Turin has a collection of books that belonged to the queen, including some editions of Carducci’s works with his hand-written dedications, the volume was donated to the Library, also to add to the history of the relationship between the queen and the intellectuals of her time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Both the American books reviewed in this paper - Nicholas Carr's The shallows. What the Internet is doing to our brains, and David Weinberger's Too big to know. Rethinking knowledge now that the facts aren't the facts, experts are everywhere, and the smartest person in the room is the room - deal with the issue of how the internet is changing the way we learn and communicate. Still, they come at diametrically opposite conclusions. Carr claims that the excessive use of the Internet may limit our concentration and understanding abilities, making it more and more difficult for many of us reading and writing those long and complex texts that are the basis of human culture. On the other side Weinberger thinks that the Internet - thanks to the multiplication and celerity of its communication channels - is unfolding new and exciting perspectives for human knowledge, no longer adequately supported by traditional documents and "experts". In the author's opinion both these theories are erroneous, being too radical and sharing a number of fallacies, e.g. a technological determinism, and the tendency to consider certain characteristics as peculiar of a very few media, while they actually belong to a lot of different media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]