"LA CITTADELLA"

A first issue - issue n. 0, although it actually bears no number at all - of 'La Cittadella' was published on the 1st of March 1984. The periodical is published every three months at Messina and bears the subtitle of 'historical and traditional studies review'. In 1943 and 1944 its founder and editor in chief, Prof. Salvatore C. Ruta (born in Messina in 1923), was incarcerated for a period of time for opposing the Anglo-American occupation in Sicily. He belongs to 'the generation which had lost the war' and had found a spiritual approach which was radically alternative to dominant post-war values in traditional studies, and the work Julius Evola in particular.

In the years 1959 to 1973, Prof. Ruta was the editor in chief of 'Il Ghibellino', a review in which Evola and Mordini, among others, published their articles. In May 1962, Prof. Ruta spoke at the first Traditionalist Conference of Italy, a memorable event which hosted all Traditionalist currents, from that of Guenon, with the 'Rivisita di Studi Tradizionali', to that of the Catholic 'L'alfiere'. In the late 1960s, Prof. Ruta became the Magister of the well-known Gruppo dei Dioscuri of Messina, which later provided a decisive impulse for the establishment of a Romano-pagan current within Italian Traditionalism. From the ashes of this group, the Centro Studi Tradizionali "Arx" will arise. Prof. Ruta started publishing 'La Cittadella' as an 'Arx' review. Other publications followed, such as the various monographic Dispense, written by Prof. Ruta himself (e.g. Giano. Teoria e Pratica), by Renato del Ponte (Che cosi la Tradizione Italica) and by Roberto Incardona (e.g. Deniterni Castores e Il Dio dall'adamantina Saetta). One of these publications, Pax Deorum. La religione Prisca di Roma, was written by Prof. Ruta under the pseudonym of Claudio Rutilio, and republished in 1989 by SeaR editions.

Right from the start, 'La Cittadella' distinguished itself as a review focusing almost exclusively on the Italic-Roman Tradition. It often provided 'operational' instructions to revive the pagan way of experiencing the sacred. 'La Cittadella' established links with oversees publications, such as 'Antaios' from Beligium and 'Diipetes' from Greece; the latter also translated Prof. Ruta's volumes La Teologia dei Romani and Cause dell'egemonia cristiana e sopravvivenze pagane in Occidente into Greek. Several important personages and groups focusing on Traditional studies wrote for 'La Cittadella': Renato del Ponte, curator of various collections of works by Evola, and author of Dei e miti italici e La religione dei Romani, Mario E. Migliori, Alfonso De Filippi, Daniele Verzotti and Stefano Bianchi from 'Arthos'; Roberto Incardona, organiser of various cultural events at Palermo, and his collaborator Fabio Primiero from the Istituto Siciliano di Studi Tradizionali; two members of Salvatore Ruta's own group, from 1987: Sandro Consolato, author of the essay Julius Evola e il Buddhismo, and writer for 'Arthos' and 'Politica Romana', and Alessandra Minniti, author of the philosophical essay Nell'occhio di Giano.

Occasionally, other scholars published their work on 'La Cittadella'. Among them: Gennaro D'Uva, one of the promoters of the Associazione Pitagorica and of 'Yghieia', and later a writer for 'Politica Romana'; Francesco Lamensa and Giandomenico Casalino, known for their articles in 'Vie della Tradizione' and, in the case of Casalino, for Aeternitas Romae and Nome segreto di Roma, two volumes of esoteric studies; Luigi Moretti, author of Astrologia tradizionale; Achille Ragazzoni and Alfonso Piscitelli, who will later become well-known journalists of the Right; Guglielmo Lattanzi, a Classical scholar; Alberto Lombardo, director of the Centro Studi 'Le Rune'; Giuseppe Acerbi, translator of G. B. Tilak's Orion; Beniamino M. Di Dario, a young researcher and author of the essay La Via Romana al Divino. Julius Evola e la Tradizione Romana, and of other works published under pseudonyms.

With issue 59-60, which covers the whole of 1999, after sixteen years, the first series of 'La Cittadella' came to an end. A second series was inaugurated on the first trimester of 2001, now published at the hands of the Movimento Tradizionale Romano (M.T.R.) for Edizioni del Graal. Its editor in chief is Sandro Consolato, who is supported by an editorial staff composed by Renato del Ponte, Roberto Incardona and Daniele Liotta. We find almost all the old collaborators writing for the new series, along with new prestigious writers such as Pio Filippani-Ronconi and Alberto Cesare Ambesi. One of the features of this second series is that of merging an 'official line' with a more open collaboration from people outside the M.T.R. Among the new columns, we find Auctores' (Classical Greek and Latin passages followed by a commentary), 'Pagine ritrovate' (literary, historical or esoterical texts published in a new way or from a new perspective) and 'Caleidoscopio' (marginal observations about facts and works of religious, cultural or political value). Besides these, one can also find reviews and the M.T.R. news bulletin.

Presentation of the Roman Traditional Movement
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