TRADUZIONE DI PAOLO TORELLO VIERA

Encyclopedic Woolen World Atlas

On the portal Centro Rete search “Tutte le lane del mondo”

Giovanni Torello-Viera’s woolen universe between infographic and fleece samples

The memory of the “civilization of wool” with capital in Biella, Piedmont, Italy

At times we wonder what certain men and women would have been able to achieve if they had had information technology, digital technology, Internet and social media at their disposal. The question is more than pertinent to Giovanni Torello-Viera (1890-1976). One of the most reliable biography, written by his son Ugo (1921-2018), was published on the “Rivista Biellese” (“Biellese Magazine”) issue of October 2014 and is well worth reading, helping to put into prospective this article as well. It is instrumental to outline the life and work of a protagonist of the Biella wool field (and not only) for three quarters of the last century. At the same time, it provides further elements of interest about not only the technical, but also the intellectual and communicative activities of a true creative individual. In his pages Ugo Torello-Viera, profiles his father as a person of profound competence and lively intelligence as well of discretion and modesty which, in some ways, have limited a notoriety that would still be deserved. Of course, in the woolen environment and, in particular, in the raw materials sector, the “Valmossese” (the man from Vallemosso) expert was a point of reference, indeed an undisputed authority, while the “non insider” is still waiting to discover an important figure and, even more, the results of his research. At the end of 2020, the family made available to the DocBi Centro Studi Biellesi the jealously guarded material collected and organized by the grandfather over years of diligent consultation, comparison, geolocation and graphic renderings. Alongside this significant production, there is also an extensive thematic photographic collection and a small bibliography. Within a few months, at the Centro di Documentazione dell’Industria Tessile (Textile Industry Documentation Center) of the Fabbrica della Ruota, thanks to the voluntary and qualified contribution of Ennio Vigliani, the Giovanni Torello-Viera’s encyclopedia was digitally scanned, catalogued according to the original guidelines and made available online, on the portal of the Centro Rete Biellese Archivi Tessili e Moda (Biellese Network Center of Textile and Fashion Archives), as well as on the Fabbrica della Ruota one. The collection consists of 250 iconographic units, divided into geographical maps and typographic prints from photographs. This extraordinary thematic research took shape in the second half of the Thirties, when Giovanni Torello-Viera, hired by the Botto Poala brothers in the Romagnano Sesia combing plant, “discovered” his passion for wool and also his ability to describe them in a geographical key (rumor has it, he was contacted by the publisher Paravia to print his work product, but his aforementioned modesty led him to refuse). In three decades, “al Giuanet”, as he was known in the industry, elaborated his conceptual and graphic prodigy. At first glance it doesn’t look a big job, but the perception changes immediately when the reader becomes aware of the vastitude of the information and data gathered. Giovanni Torello-Viera wanted and knew how to create a thematic atlas of encyclopedic breadth on the sheep and goat breeds and, in general, on the animals that produce spinnable fibers, such as the Andean camelids. Perhaps he would not be happy with so much visibility in the press, but it is enough to leaf through his maps and pages of images to grasp the genius and effort of such an experiment. Having established the theme, that is, the wool fleeces when they still walked on the paws of those who produced them, the author reasoned by geographical areas: in many cases by continent, in others by smaller areas, if not by individual states. For each portion of the surface of the globe, Giovanni Torello-Viera positioned the species of sheep or other woolly animals. The level of detail is remarkable, despite the objective graphic difficulty of making so many names appear in a small area and the effect is, in almost all the tables, narrative and fascinating. In certain parts of the world, such as Australia and South Africa, the writings are very dense, but all tidy and, above all, not positioned at random, up to the point of highlighting the smallest regional realities. More than drawings, it is correct to speak of refined infographics, because, in addition to specific denominations, other data on the breeds and their typical characteristics can also be read on the maps, for example if they, in addition to shearing, were edible. Whether their fleece was fine or if it contained substantial plant residues to be removed; or if only “pure” or already crossed breeds were present in a given area and at what stage of crossing; or how large was the population of sheep in a given territory and how much wool they were able to produce on average. This geo-localized cataloging and illustration system is stunning in terms of accuracy and richness of information. As an example, check the map dedicated to the part of Africa relating to Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika: beyond the fact that the political geography has changed since then (there was the Belgian Congo and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), the level of definition of the infographic is crystal clear at first glance. To the north-west of Lake Victoria there is a “brownish or brownish white indigenous breed“, while to the east of Lake Tanganyika lived a “standard Tanganyika sheep with b.t. [which stands for big tail] with fur fleece and woolly undercoat of color: white, brown, black, piebald“. Black-headed Somali sheep were widespread on the Indian Ocean coast, while Merinos, Corriedale on the shores of Lake Rudolf and Romney had been introduced to the mountains north of Kilimanjaro. The latter blended with Masai sheep (native, “light gray wool, goat, with little undercoat“). In some areas east of Lake Kyoga there was already the third generation of Masai-Romney crossbreed and the wool was “satisfactory“. In the Molo area, however, it was the merinos that crossbred with the Romney. This breed had two variants: the one from New Zealand was excellent for shearing, while the one originating from Kent was more suitable for slaughtering. Last note, the “crossbreed in progress“: the Masai females gave birth to lambs of males Southdown, Dorset horn and Suffolk. Obviously, in South America and England the aforementioned information density is exponentially higher. It is therefore clear that, in the absence of the Internet, a serious problem of data retrieval arose right from the start. And even the available bibliography was not so… available. The existing documentation was in English and had to be translated into Italian (in his article, Ugo Torello-Viera pointed out that it was his mother, Angela, who translated from English for her husband, which explains the degree of complication of a job that was then made so linear and clean, but also the not secondary role of those who, with patience and ability, gave valid help to Giovanni Torello-Viera), requiring a significant effort to obtain reliable and updated sources. So, chapeau! The author, among other things, must not lack a certain imagination because for sure he had no opportunity to visit the whole world to translate it so effectively in his “carte lane” (wool maps). This is why Giovanni Torello-Viera’s representation of the wool universe was also and above all based on the possibility of connecting to such structured information an iconographic set that was able to maximize its potential. In other words, it could have been of little profit or simpler to work a lot on the location of the Rambouillets in southern Peru without having or giving an idea of how a sheep of that breed was made. Hence the reason for the images (mostly clippings from industry publications, but also real photos): to offer an immediate visual connection to the many facets of that universe which, for the most part, consists only of animals covered in wads. Instead, wool and the animals that generate it are an endless microcosm of differences. All of which have a significant impact on how that raw material can or cannot be spun, woven, dyed, etc. Therefore, the need to categorize so much complexity with encyclopedic spirit and ready gaze. Even the iconography is divided according to geographical criteria. Album sheets with a series of timely photographs, with equally timely captions full of additional information, including those on the suppliers of the photographs themselves. One of the reflections to be made concerns the fact that many of those races, perhaps, no longer exist or, in any case, they have disappeared from certain places. History has had a significant impact on the expansion and contraction of sheep farming around the world. Countries that had never seen a sheep have become the most important producers of wool, while in the lands of origin they have almost disappeared. Whole economic systems have disappeared, and others have sprung from nothing in two centuries, and who knows what will happen tomorrow. Also for this reason the illustrative mechanism of Giovanni Torello-Viera is remarkable. Because it hands down a well-defined situation in a chronological key and with a portentous synergy of global and local views. These views are, as far as possible, reproduced on the portal of the Biellese Network Center for Textile and Fashion Archives by interacting the descriptive cards of the individual “pieces” of the collection with the representative faculties of the filtered maps. Giovanni Torello-Viera’s geography has, in addition, become a sequence of overlapping layers which, in the coming months, will be destined to be increased. This is due to a further analysis that is underway on each of the sheep and related breeds mentioned on the cards or portrayed in the images. This is not a simple task, because the intent is to compare, verify and, if necessary, update those mappings, providing the curious of all levels with an increased interpretative instrumentation compared to the already very extensive one created by Giovanni Torello-Viera. There was, but there is more. Returning to the opportunities that many men and women would have had in the past, certainly many upgrades whose results can now be glimpsed would have already been developed then. However, there was someone who went further trying and, at times, managing to close the circle by creating perfect cultural models, that is, self-supporting, relational “transmission trees” of knowledge and always open to new interactions. When the family business ceased in 1931, Giovanni Torello-Viera followed “Giovanni, Venanzio, Silvio and Ferdinando Botto Poala, sons of Giuseppe, who at that time had bought the former Bollati cotton mill in Romagnano Sesia to convert it to the wool sector, with the creation of a hairdo of greasy wools”, writes Ugo Torello Viera. In 1935 the Pettinatura di Romagnano was operating as an auxiliary plant of Giuseppe Botto & Figli S. A., the historic wool mill in Valle Mosso. There, in 1949, “al Giuanet” completed a truly special project. In a room on the second floor of the nineteenth-century building built between the road to Valsesia and the canal, the Valmossese technician set up a permanent exhibition of raw fiber samples which he gave the name of “Museum of wool”. Hundreds of glass jars, one by one labeled and precisely arranged, give another interpretation of the same topic. Always divided space, that is according to the geographical origin, and always in order to the race of belonging, but the cultural device of Romagnano is no longer only descriptive, but is also directly visual and even tactile. Finally, the peculiar smell of the hairstyle in operation perfects everything by allowing a real sensory “journey” or, as they say today, experiential in the above mentioned wool universe. Giovanni Torello-Viera’s desire to make that experience even more unique then manifests itself in a figurative expedient that is not only pleasant to look at, but also useful for learning. On the wall shelves are applied light wooden shapes that reproduce the shapes of the places examined. On one wall you can see the line that identifies South Africa, on the other you can see Australia and New Zealand, and after the windows you can see Argentina. Each area or macro-area oversees a section of the shelving and, within a specific territorial division, the jars of raw materials are arranged following a geographical principle. As if to say that on the shelves of Italy (high and narrow), Biella wool is located at the top left. In fact, if you think of those shelves as a map, the Biella area is there. The same method is valid for the samples of Argentine Chubut Camarone, for the New Zealand merinos from Morven Hills in Cristchurch and for those from New South Wales near Warialda – Barraba. Or for the white-beige fleeces of Calvinia (Sterkfontein) and Fraserburg (Klipheuwels) in South Africa. Giovanni Torello-Viera’s world of wool is made up of exotic places, but also of ghosts. Many localities, from the wool point of view, as mentioned, no longer exist. And this is also a very valid reason to keep that world alive (which they do very well in Romagnano, also promoting guided tours). The fleece encyclopedia is also a memory vault of a socio-economic and anthropological, as well as cultural context, as extensive as the Earth. There are preserved the traces not only of the sheared by an unsuspecting Scottish or Texan sheep, but also of the humanity that lived on, with and for that sheep. The “civilization of wool”. Behind each of those jars is the story (updated until the end of the 1960’s) of a place and its people, its infrastructure, its connections with other more or less similar places. And with a worldwide network of commodity trafficking that moved from China, the Andes, Anatolia, Mexico, Morocco, the Balkans, Tierra del Fuego, Tasmania, the Falkland Islands, Brisbane etc. to reach kilos or millions of tons on the banks of the Sesia. And from there to the rings and looms of the Cervo, Strona, Ponzone and Sessera. Giovanni Torello-Viera also noted on the labels of the vases the names of the suppliers or friends who supported him in his undertaking. Houses, such as Dewavrin, Lempriere, Kreglinger, or individuals to be grateful to, such as Guido Giamo, Serafino Fileppo, Giorgio Cavallo, Silvio Reda, Paolo Margara, Carlo Rieder and many others. Two lions stand guard at the entrance to the Romagnano Pettinatura office building, but the tutelary deity of the “Wool Museum” is an example of embalmed merinos, a personal gift of Giovanni Schneider to whom had imagined and built a thematic wunderkammer that, instead of yellowing under the dust, it becomes more and more precious. There is only one passage left: try to connect the digital of the Fabbrica della Ruota with the analogic of the Romagnano fleeces. Giovanni Torello-Viera would certainly be happy.

Materie prime

L’atlante enciclopedico delle lane del mondo di Giovanni Torello Viera

Cerca tra le storie della moda il tessile e l'industria