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The
Case of Rodolfo Amedeo
Pelvoux
Rodolfo A. Pelvoux (1889 - 1938?) first appears in Turin in the last months of 1918, after spending the war years in "rambling travels", as he will write in one of his own diaries in the following years.
After a short time as a guest in some friend's home on the Turin Hill, he buys and furnishes a small independent house in a street by Corso Massimo D'Azeglio, a few hundred yards from the Valentino Park; here he makes his home, with a pair of servants (Filiberto Barba, gardener and handyman and his wife Giuseppina, cook and maid) and soon the place is famous with the neigbours for the loud music - american jazz during social evenings, or more frequently, opera - that a gramophone by a window on the first floor plays on summer evenings.
Rodolfo Amedeo Pelvoux, Self-centered Essayst, circa 1920STR 12 CON 14 SIZ 12 DEX 13
Idea 75 Luck 80 Know 90 HP 13 MP 16 Skills: R/W/S Latin 30%; R/W/S English 45%; R/W/S German 50%; R/W/S French 65%; History 55%; Philosophy 35%; Occult 25%; Drive Auto 35%; Artistic Sense 30%; Credit Rating 40%; Debate 25%; Contacts (University) 40%; Cthulhu Mythos 12% |
In the first months of 1919 (march-april) he discusses his degree paper at the Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia (Letters and Philosophy Department), where he is registered as an extracurricular student; the paper "Un Caso di Uniformità Religiosa nell'Europa Pre-Cristiana" (On a Case of Religious Uniformity in Pre-Christian Europe) is controversial and, according to some sources, was refused by the University of Pisa for its delicate (at the time) subject matter and for some of the conclusions, open to be interpreted as an openly anti-clerical statement.
In Turin, the paper is praised for "the brilliancy and the courage of the hypotheses", but severely criticized both on matters of style - a trait that will stay unaltered in all following works by Pelvoux and that will hopelessly undermine any attempt at the paying market - and on matters of contents, because of the few proving instances presented in support of the most unheard of conclusions.
The Esotheric Library of Rodolfo Pelvoux - Mythos Connected Tomes, circa 1920- Le Stanze di Dzyan - Liber
Ivonis |
"Uniformità Religiosa nell'Europa Pre-Cristiana", privately published in 1920 in a limited number of copies, anticipates many of the theories that will became later popular through Margaret Murray's work, "Witch Cult in Western Europe" published in 1921.
For the public at large, Rodolfo A. Pelvoux is (relatively) renowned as a rather unsuccesful poet and essayst on various papers and magazines, as a translator from French and German, and also as an eccentric collector of rare books on the subject of philosophy and history - according to many, this could be just an affectation, and Pelvoux would not even read the books he pays dearly for.
He is also a popular guest in 'tabarins' and dancehalls and a familiar face on the Italian Riviera.
Those closer to him regard him generally as a vain
young man, maybe a
bit to arrogant for his own good but charming enough when he wants, and maybe
gifted with unrequired imagination and enthusiasm.
His parties (often practicing an open-house attitude) are greatly appreciated by the ever- starving student population of Turin University, and "benefit" from the imprimatur of the Pontefice Massimo della Goliardia (the students' mock General Commander), often the last person to leave the House after a particularly successful evening. Pelvoux is always eager to show his new guests around the building, and his books collection is open to his friends - that nonetheless seem to be normally more interested in his refreshments (generally provided by the famous caterers to the gentry, the Steffanone Bros.) and in his collection of imported Jelly Roll Morton recordings, that he has sent for directly from the United States by courier.
To his numerous critics, he is also known as "Il D'Annunzio dei poveri" (the poor man's D'Annunzio) His translations, together with a small private income are at this time his main sources of money.
Often he travels, both in Italy and abroad.
In 1921 he is in Great Britain and Ireland (april-may), and
later in Sicily
(september). In april 1922, travelling by Orient Express, he visits Turkey,
later pronouncing himself disappointed about the experience in a short piece
published in the weekly "La Domenica del Corriere"; from Turkey he
brings
the first archaeological pieces that will become the core of his collection
of antique and curious.
In 1923 he is in Romania (april-may)
With a much publicized "Gran Tour delle Alpi" in may 1924,
Pelvoux starts
his long and uneasy collaboration with the Turin section of CAI-UGET (the
Italian Alpine Club), probably the only non esotheric club that he will join
during his stay in Turin. The Alpine Club magazine will later publish some
of his preudoscience pieces.
More domestic are his outings in 1925, in
Vienna (april) and Lyon (september).
Rodolfo Amedeo Pelvoux, Occult Student, circa1925STR 12 CON 14 SIZ 12 DEX 13 Idea 75 Luck 80 Know 90 HP 13 MP 16 Skill Climb 55%; R/W/S Latin 30%; R/W/S English 50%; R/W/S German 60%; R/W/S French 70%; History 65%; Philosophy 40%; Occult 35%; Drive Auto 38%; Artistic Sense 35%; Credit Rating 35%; Debate 25%; Contacts (University) 30%; Contacts (Occult) 15% ; Mountaneering 30% Cthulhu Mythos 25% |
Pelvoux's poetical carreer is not overly popular, and accusations of obscurity and small familiarity with the structure of verses lead the author to a public and overacted renunciation to poetry after the sinking of his collection "Le Luci del Nord" (Northern Lights, 1922). Despite this act, in 1923 he will briefly try his and at poetry once again, and once again publishing at his own expenses, with "Altri Ricordi", a collection of poems and sketches, published under an alias.
Meanwhile, his researches in the occult field lead Pelvoux to contact various characters and esotheric groups in Italy (the Società Teosofica Torinese, and probably Alister Crowley), in Europe (some letter exchanges with members of the German Thulegesellshaft), and in the United States (a discontinuos exchange with the novelist and painter Robert Blake and some other members of his circle).
With the publication of his brief essay on the "Book of Dzyan" ("Dall'Atlantide - Un'introduzione alle Stanze di Dzyan" - From Atlantis - an introduction to the Dzyan Stanzas, 1922), his relations with the Theosophical Society turn for the bad and finally (in 1924) they break totally.
Again in 1924, following suit the discovery of the Glozel findings, Pelvoux publishes a second printing of his degree paper, expanded to include the new material and to incorporate part of the Murray theories in his own conclusions.
"Il Mito di Thule" (The Thule Mythos 1925), sort of an appendix to the main thesis that incorporates the Atlantis myth and the northern pantheon in a general picture of a pre-Christian, sciamanic cult of continental proportions, is generally better received in Germany - where it is promptly published in the author's own translation - than in Italy.
An ill-fated Spanish edition is prepared but never published.
The Esotheric Library of Rodolfo Pelvoux - Mythos Connected Tomes, circa 1925- Le Stanze di Dzian - Azathoth And Others
- Messa da Requiem per
Shuggay - Magyar Folklore |
The second half of the 20s brings a subtle change in Pelvoux's lifestyle and daily routine. The wild parties spiced with jazz (a music now frowned upon by the Regime), that had been getting fewer and farther apart since 1924, stop alltogether in 1926.
Pelvoux is still perceived as an oddball, attracting the curiosity of his neighbours with his loud music, (a radio and a piano have been added to his musical arsenal), his yellow sports car (a costly Alfa Romeo RL Sport) and the parcels that he often receives from his various foreign friends and suppliers; but all in all his manner is more dscreet and private when dealing with the neighbourhood.
And despite all this, his outings seem to increase in number and frequency.
It is in fact the many deliveries fron foreign addresses (letters, small packets, even in some cases large crates) that first awaken the interest and curiosity of the Fascist authorities that in two instances, in the winter of 1926 and again in 1928, burst into his house and proceed to search the premises, but uncovering nothing that can cause any difficulty to the master of the house - moreover, a member of the Fascist Party since 1924.
The introduction of the "Leggi fascistissime" (with their crakdown on various organizations, including the Freemasons) between 1925 and 1926 does not affect Pelvoux's researches in any significant way, as he was never compromised despite his many contacts with various groups.
Also in 1926 his activity as a translator suffers from an unprecedented stop when, following some troubles over one of his translations that the publisher refuses to print, Pelvoux quits his position .
The work in question, "Azathot and others" by the Edward Pickman Derby, an american with whom Pelvoux briefly excanged letters, is published privately in 1927, in a limited edition of 200 copies ilustrated by Pelvoux himself, and goes almost completely unnoticed.
The interest for esotheric matters, strenghtened
by a trip in Egypt (1926)
- resulting in a collection of impression in form of travelogue published
as "Egitto - una grandezza dimenticata" (Egypt - a Forgotten
Grandeur) -
leads him to study ancient gerogliphics and Egyptian archaeology. Pelvoux
becomes an assiduous and opinionated visitor of the Egyptian Museum collections.
An Egyptian influence can be seen in some of the paintings that he will show, together with some previous works, in 1928 - once again to the general lack of interest. His collection of sculptures and archaelogical findings now includes many Egyptian pieces.
In 1927 the request presented by Pelvoux to be included in the Italian mission on the peaks of the Karakorum as "consultant" is dismissed and ridiculed (expecially by geologist and mountaneer Ardito Desio), despite his offer to personally finance his partecipation. Maybe to answer back to the effront, and to underline his prowness as a mountaneer already shown-off in his Alpine tour of '24, Pelvoux arms in record time an ascension on the Cervino (Matterhorn), that ends tragically with the death of a guide. Pelvoux sees to the needs of the man's whife and sons, setting up an income.
His membership in the Italian Alpine Club has meanwhile become an embarassment for many of the other members, that do not greatly appreciate his scarce enthusiasm for grup enterprises, and soon the frictions find a way of expression. A Pelvoux lecture held in 1929 in front of the club members, about some so-called "pre-cambrian" fossils of unknown provenance, and that are later revealed to be badly executed fakes marks the unofficial end of his collaboration with this institution.
From
1927 hails Pelvoux's only true
literary success, "La Verità
Nuda" (the Naked Truth) a short satirical pamphlet published by a
small
Turin-based printer as an attack against the proposal of moving - for reasons
of "public morality" - the monument celebrating scientist Galieo Ferraris
from Piazza Castello to Corso Galileo Ferraris. The booklet, published under
an alias, and often quoted in various articles by the newspaper "La
Stampa",
risks once again to cause him troubles with the Fascist authorities.
The Esotheric Library of Rodolfo Pelvoux - Mythos Connected Tomes, circa 1928- Le Stanze di Dzyan - Azathot and
Others - Messa da Requiem per Shuggay - The People of the
Monolith - Secret Mysteries of
Asia |
In the summer of 1928 Pelvoux is once again on the Riviera, and spends a few days as a guest of the Marquis Scotto, in his mansion in Millesimo In february 1929 he is in France, where he visits various places of archaeological interest, including Glozel.
On the night between april the 30th and may the 1st, a woman's screams coming from Pelvoux's house force the neighbours to call the Police, that arrives a few minutes later together with a squad of Fascist Milizia (only too eager to be able to crash in the building once again). Pelvoux greets personally his unespected "guests", opens his house to their inspection and appeals to their "gentlemen's discretion". In the following days many wild rumours are traded in the area about the facts, but nothing reaches the newspapers.
The most widely accepted version would have an unappreciative young lady guest refusing Pelvoux's avances and, thanks to a few too many liberal drinks, losing her control and attracting unwanted attention.
Fact is, a young woman belonging to the Turin society and often a guest at Pelvoux's house will no longer be seen on the premises, and will also severely reduce her public presence from this days on.
On the 17th of may the Barbas are fired and leave Turin for an unknown destination. Pelvoux's social life is further reduced.
In the winter of 1930, Pelvoux starts working on a monumental translation of some of the less known papyruses in the Drovetti Collection at the Egyptian Museum.
Rodolfo Amedeo Pelvoux, Occultist, circa 1930STR 12 CON 13 SIZ 12 DEX 12 Idea 75 Luck 80 Know 95 HP 12 MP 16 Skills: Climbing 50%; R/W/S Latin 35%; R/W/S English 55%; R/W/S German 60%; R/W/S French 70%; History 65%; Philosophy 45%; Occult 50%; Drive Auto 38%; Artistic Sense 35%; Credit Rating 25%; Debate 30%; Contacts (University) 15%; Contacts (Occult) 35% ; Mountaneering 30% Cthulhu Mythos 40% |
Rodolfo Pelvoux' s public appearances are further reduced in number and frequency.
In circles in which, less than ten years earlier, Pelvoux was an appreciated guest for the more informal evenings, rumours about growing money problems - seen as the true reason for the dismissal of his servants - begin to spread. Almost as a proof of such rumours, the yellow Alfa Romeo is sold in february 1931.
Rumours about a misterious hillness are dispelled by Pelvoux himself, that reappears in public, a bit sickly-looking but otherwise perfectly healthy. He can be seen twice a day, as he walks the distance (about 3 kms) between his houseand the Egyptian Museum at 8.00 a.m. and back again at 6.30 p.m.
In july 1931, at the climax of an unexplained angry fit, Rodolfo Pelvoux hurls from a window his gramophone on which he has been playing uninterruptedly for the last 36 hours Scriabin's Ninth Sonata for pianoforte. The neighbours do not know wether to greet the fact with relief or with apprehension.
In the fall of the same year his long time planned second visit to Egypt is suddenly cancelled, and Pelvoux goes to Marseilles instead; he is back in Turin greatly fatigued, after two weeks.
The CAI-UGET refuses to leave his rooms for a lecture by Wilhelm Teudt, an Evangelic minister that Pelvoux first met in Vienna in 1925 and whose astro-archaeological theories -partly derived by the work of the British Watkins - were presented in "Germainische Heiligtumer" (German Holy Places).
The lecture is then held in the house of Pelvoux, to a smaller than expected audience featuring also some Regime "observers". This is the last time that Pelvoux will open his house to strangers.
The Esotheric Library of Rodolfo Pelvoux - Mythos Connected Tomes, circa 1931- Le Stanze di Dzyan - Liber Ivonis - Azathot and Others - The Revelations of
Glaaky - Necrolatry |
Good possibilities, not only in a financial sense, seem to appear between 1931 and 1932, with the Fascist Regime opening towards Germany, and the subsequent offer from a Milan-based publisher for a Pelvoux-translated and annotated "Mein Kampf" ,the book by Adolf Hitler that is causing much curiosity in the public at large.
Pelvoux saw the book upon its original publication, and according to his diaries he was able to "read much deeply this book [coming to] appreciate and share many of its author's points of view".
The project finally sinks due to Pelvoux's apparent inability to meet the editor's deadlines, and the whole operation is cancelled after a few months.
On june the 16th 1932 in the Egyptian Museum Library, in front of a small audience hand-picked by Pelvoux himself, a first summary of his translation work on the minor texts of the Drovetti Collection - originally ignored by Champollion himself - is presented.
Many of the egyptologist in the room - severely outnumbered by the enthusiasts, the oddballs and the romantically-inclined - soon leave the premises, followed by the members of the scientific press.
A distinguished British bullettin will briefly cover the evening ("A new Aegyptian Glozel hidden in Turin") with uncompromising irony and ridicule.
Despite all this, Pelvoux means to continue in his work and, by the end of the evening, he announces further unprecedented revelations in a short time. Pelvoux appears unusually focused, and rumours about a misterious foreign financer spread among his increasingly estrangered entourage. And yet, his visits to the Egyptian museum decrease in number.
For the whole of 1933 Pelvoux is seldom at home, alterning periods of total seclusion with long absences. As no visas or papers are requested in his name in this time fuels the assumption that he is travelling around Italy.
September 1934. An unknown male vaguely fitting Pelvoux's ddescription is arrested by a Carabiniere as he is attacking, armed with a heavy hammer, the pre-dynastic findings exposed in Turin's Anthropologycal Museum. The man, obviously in a state of confusion, wears fine clothes, talks wildly in an unknown language and resists the arrest. Carried outside the building and disarmed, struggles, frees himself and runs away, disappearing in the alleys around Via Cavour.
Similar attacks are repeated in the following days, at the expenses of a showing at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna and in some private galleries around Via Garibaldi. The misterious man is never arrested.
Rodolfo Amedeo Pelvoux, Obsessive Occultist, circa 1935STR 12 CON 10 SIZ 10 DEX 10 Idea 75 Fort 80 Know 95 HP 10 MP 14 Skills Climbing 50%; R/W/S Latin 35%; R/W/S English 55%; R/W/S German 60%; R/W/S French 70%; History 65%; Philosophy 45%; Occult 65%; Drive Auto 38%; Artistic Sense 35%; Credit Rating 25%; Debate 30%; Contacts (University) 5%; Contacts (Occult) 25%: Mountaneering 30% Cthulhu Mythos 65% |
In january 1935, Rodolfo Pelvoux surprises everyone by attempting to enroll as a volunteer in the Italian Army invading Etiopia, but he is refused a commission during the medical exham, and described as "clearly unhealty under psichologycal and characterial profiles".
In the following months, Pelvoux sends various letters to the newspapers, the Government - expecially to the former governor of Somalia, De Vecchi - and the commanders of the Italian forces in Africa, inviting those responsible of the mission to collect informations about some rituals as performed by some of the indigenous groups in the freshly conquered lands.
The letters are ignored almost completely: a Fascist Milizia delegation visits his house and "convinces" Pelvoux that it is best for him to stop making such a fuss.
It is suddenly wise, for the people in Turin, to have the least possible connections with Pelvoux.
The Esotheric Library of Rodolfo Pelvoux - Mythos Connected Tomes, circa 1935- Le Stanze di Dzyan - The Revelations of
Glaaky - Necrolatry - Rasul al
Abarin - Observations on Several Parts of
Africa - The King in Yellow
|
The evening at the Chiarella Theater, in the winter of '35, to listen to Louis Armstrong, marks the last public outing of Rodolfo Pelvoux, once a fixture in the Turin nights, now a self imposed recluse.
His last years are spent in shadow.
In the night between april the 30th and may the 1st 1938, after having destroyed all the pieces in his collection with a hammer, cut up his canvases and burned his collection of books, Rodolfo Amedeo Pelvoux sits in his house and lets the fire kill him.
The following investigations about the fire, devastating but oddly limited only to the building of Pelvoux's house, areneither deep nor detailed. The fire is explained as the last act of a disturbed mind.
No close relatives are found, and the body will never be positively identified.
Rodolfo Amedeo Pelvoux is officially pronounced dead on january the 3rd 1939. The remains are interred in a small nondescript grave in the Cimitero Generale in Torino, with a brief service attended by a few friends of old.
All the books are privatey published unless noted otherwise. The reading data are meant for the complete book only (and not for extracts or condensated versions).
(*) the book gives 1 point in the Occult skill;
(**) the book gives a check on the Occult skill
"Un Caso di
Uniformità Religiosa nell'Europa Pre-Cristiana"
(A
Case of Religious Uniformyty in Pre-Christian Europe)
The original
paper. Only three copies existing, bound in red leather:
one by the Turin University archives, one with the original tutor of Pelvoux
(unknown, probably in Pisa University), one in Pelvoux's library.
0/-1 san; +1 Mythos; one week *
"Uniformità
Religiosa nell'Europa Pre-Cristiana"
Slightly changed version of the
original work. Small volume, hardbound,
illustrated. 1200 copies printed.
0/- 1d2 san; +1 Mythos; one week; **
"Gran Tour
delle Alpi"
Magazine article in four installments, published by the
CAI magazine,
with maps and pencil sketches. *
"Le Luci del
Nord" (Northern Lights)
Collection of 16 poems and 3 sketches. Small
(10x20 cm) paperbound
volume. 1000 copies.
0/-1d2 san; +1 Mythos; three days;
"Altri Ricordi"
(Other Memories)
Collection of 16 poems and as many sketches, published
under the
pen-name of "Amadis Asinarius". Hardbound volume, high quality reproductions
of the pictures. 850 copie.
-1/-1d3 san; +2 Mythos; three days; **
"Dall'Atlantide
- Un'introduzione alle Stanze di Dzyan"
(From Atlantis
- An introduction to the Stanzas of Dzyan)
A commentary on the Blavatsky
work. Paperbound volume. 800 copies. An extremely shortened version of the
first two chapters published on
two numbers of the "Rivista Teosofica".
-1/- 1d4 san; +4 Mythos; two weeks;**
"Padre Dagon
dall'Africa Nera al Mediterraneo"
(Father Dagon from
Black Africa to the Mediterranean)
Originally meant to be published
by the italian branch of the
Theosophical Society. About 50 copies were bound.
-1/- 1d4 san; +4 Mythos; three weeks.
"Uniformità
Religiosa nell'Europa Pre-Cristiana"
Second expanded edition,
incorporating the Glozel findings and notes
on the African cults of Dagon. Paperbound 12x18 cm volume. 1200 copies in
Italian. 250 copies in French.
Excerpts appear in various occasions on
the CAI magazine.
-1/- 1d2 san; +2 Mythos; one week; **
"Il Mito di
Thule" (The Thule Mythos)
Contains a condensed version of the original
university paper and
part of the Glozel additions, with new material making up the remaining 50%
of the book. Hardbound volume with four colour dust-jacket. 1000 copies in
Italian. 2500 copie in German.
-1/-1d3 san; +2 Mythos; 10 days; **
"Azathot e
altri" (Azathot and others)
Translation of the Darby original, with
new pictures. Small paperbound
volume with fold-out pictures on parchment.200 copies
-1/- 1d4 san; +4 Mythos; one week; *
"Egitto -
una grandezza dimenticata" (Egypt - A Forgotten Grandeur)
A collection
of travelogues, sketches, short stories and poems. Hardbound
volume with 50 b/w illos. and 4 colour prints. 1300 copies
-1/- 1d6 san; +5 Mythos; three weeks; **
"Vita prima
della Vita" (Life before Life)
Booklet with the full text of the lecture
on the supposedly pre-Cambrian
fossils. Number of copies printed unknown. A condensed version with photographs
of the specimens and sketches appeared on the CAI magazine.
-1/1d2 san; +1 Mythos; 2 days
"La Verità
Nuda" (The Naked Truth)
Satirical booklet, published reviving the
"Amadis Asinarius" alias.
"Il Satiro" editions. 1000 copies of the first edition, paperbound; 1500
copies of the second edition, paperbound. 3500 copies of the third edition,
chapbook.
"Quando le
Stelle sono al giusto posto" (When the stars are in the
right place)
Text of the Teudt lecture. Number of copies unknown.
-1/- 1d4 san; +3 Mythos; three days; *
"Su alcuni
frammenti predinastici raccolti dal Drovetti"
(On some
pre-dynastic fragments collected by Drovetti)
The Egyptian Museum
lecture, and the most hard-to-find Pelvoux work.
A surviving box with 100 copies of the booklet lays under a few boxes of
Faber-Castell pencils in the basement of the Museum.
-1/- 1d6 san; +5 Mythos; one week; **
Disclaimer: "The Case of Rodolfo
Amedeo Pelvoux" is a work of fiction; any similarity with real persons and
events is purely coincidential.
(C) 1997 Davide
Mana
