Vamba

Vamba
Born	Luigi Bertelli (1860-03-19)19 March 1860 Florence, Italy
Died	27 November 1920(1920-11-27) (aged 62) Florence, Italy
Occupation	Author

Luigi Bertelli (19 March 1860 - 27 November 1920), best known as Vamba, was an Italian writer, illustrator and journalist.

Born in Florence, having completed his studies Bertelli became a railway employer, working first in Rimini and later in Foggia.^[1] He later started collaborating with the Roman newspaper Capitan Fracassa and in 1884 he was officially employed as a journalist and caricaturist.^[1] He soon adopted the pseudonym "Vamba", named after the clown of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.^[1] After collaborating with several newspapers, in 1890 he founded and directed L'O di Giotto, a newspaper close to the radical political positions of Felice Cavallotti, and in 1901 he co-founded the regional newspaper Il Bruscolo.^[1] Best known as a children's author, in 1893 Vamba wrote his first pedagogical novel, Ciondolino, and in 1906 he founded and directed until 1911 the nonconformist children magazine Il giornalino della Domenica.^[1] Here, he released in sequential installments his best known novel, Il Giornalino di Gian Burrasca, the pedagogical and humorous story of a lively 9 year old.^[1] In the summer of 1920 he fell ill, dying on 27 November 1920.^[1]

A funerary monument made by the sculptor Libero Andreotti was inaugurated in Florence on 14 January 1923.^[1]

• Lea Nissim Rossi. Vamba: Luigi Bertelli. Le Monnier, 1954.
• Armando Michieli. Vamba. La Scuola, 1965.
• Lea Nissim Rossi. Luigi Bertelli (Vamba). Mondadori Education, 1967. ISBN 8800863507.
• Anna Ascenzi, Maila Di Felice, Raffaele Tumino. Santa giovinezza!: lettere di Luigi Bertelli e dei suoi corrispondenti, 1883-1920. Alfabetica Edizioni, 2008. ISBN 8890250933.
• Roberta Anau. Gian Burrasca. Ragazzi di marzapane e cervello di crema. La cucina di Vamba. Il leone verde edizioni, 2010. ISBN 8865800046.