The opening of the airport Salerno-Pontecagnano is imminent (or so they say), but the dispute over the name for the structure is still open. The first test flight is a few days ago and has resulted in our province, on a small plane, some experts in the field of tourism, foreign visitors who were quickly diverted to the north, Salerno and the Amalfi Coast, forgetting, guilty of the equally beautiful and evocative of the Cilento. How
the name have been proposed: "airport Picentini", "Costa d'Amalfi airport and, more recently, at the initiative of an association ebolitana, Voices of women," airport Umberto Nobile ", probably the most appropriate, since Noble Campania, was one of the pioneers of aviation.
Then, from nowhere, a few months ago appeared in local newspapers is the news that the consortium that manages the property had passed a resolution in which he gave at the airport named Flavio Gioia.
I would not hesitate to do a search now to find out who this character and I discovered that ... Flavio Gioia is a fictional character, a man that never existed, a fictional character to whom tradition has assigned the invention of the compass.
Treccani Encyclopedia provides a detailed description on the subject, starting from the error committed by GG Giraldi, in his book De re Marine (1540), attributed the invention of the compass "that Flavio Amalfi. Indicated by later writers such as Amalfi or Flavio Flavio Campano, Flavio Gioia finally became a work of historical Mazzella in the Description of the Kingdom of Naples. Evidently he wanted to indicate correct Mazzella, what in his view was the true birthplace of the alleged Flavio, and not his surname. Following the particle "of" disappeared and was then definitely the name Flavio Gioia. Basically the whole story starts from the deformation of the name of Flavio Biondo and in 1453 (approximately) made news in Italy's Illustrated that the compass was perfected by Amalfi.
Flavio Gioia was only a legend that combines navigational and entrepreneurial skills of the glorious Republic of Amalfi, fallen sharply after the disastrous tsunami of 1343 that completely destroyed the port was never rebuilt.
So who really invented the magnetic compass, the instrument that made it possible to sail the seas in all seasons and in all weather, overcoming the uncertainty of the winds, the starry sky and the flight of birds?
The invention has in fact many dates of birth and many fathers distributed a bit 'all over the world. It seems that the Chinese would use properties of magnetite from the first century after Christ to navigate, but to draw horoscopes and orient the buildings in accordance with the rules of feng shui. The compass itself, however, made his debut in the Mediterranean at the end of the thirteenth century, probably on ships of the Venetian Republic, although it seems to make it known that it has not been to the shipowners Venetian Marco Polo, but the Arab merchants. The elusive Flavio Gioia should therefore only be credited with having made this tool more practical and effective.
In the meantime we are waiting for the inauguration of the airport of Salerno, hoping that these gentlemen repent to avoid one day, adding "scuorno" to biblical times it took to open a "scuorno" for a name of a person who does not exist.
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