A Milano con Gadda: tra i chiostri dell’Umanitaria

The essay shows how in the novel La meccanica, Gadda focuses on the Società Umanitaria, a praiseworthy Milanese institution, founded in 1893 to promote the material, moral and cultural growth of the working classes. To its credit are numerous achievements, among which job assistance, model housing, various types of professional schools and even innovative Montessori kindergartens. The story of Luigi Pessina, who trained in its arts and crafts schools, gives Gadda the opportunity to “study” the Umanitaria in its multifaceted initiatives, thus adding and important piece to his “portrait” of Milan in the early twentieth century.