La sola cura

Giuseppe Palumbo recounts the surprising life story of Ludovico Nicola di Giura, a doctor from Basilicata who was a protagonist and witness to China’s transformation from a millennial empire to a republic. Fior d’amore, a beloved Chinese concubine, is the narrator of the story and guides us on the long journey that Di Giura undertakes alongside the Duke of Abruzzi, circumnavigating the globe on the Regia Nave Cristoforo Colombo until landing in China in 1900 with the Italian contingent sent to quell the Boxer Rebellion. He will remain there for 30 years, serving in the Italian Navy, becoming a prominent doctor in the Chinese capital (among his patients was the last emperor Pu Yi) and then a respected expert on the language and culture of the Asian country. In the immediate post-war period, he will return to his native Lucania, where he has chosen to live and where he will end his days, deeply loved by his people. The Great History and its epochal changes, the ancient rhythm of Lucania, are the backdrop to a greater story, that of human culture, of which Dr. di Giura was an agent, an important driving force for the transmission of knowledge, through his life and his works.