On Friday 13 December 2024, at 5.30 p.m., at the Libreria Minerva in via S. Nicolò 20, Trieste, there will be the Presentation of the volume EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste ‘L'affaire Prezioso. April 1915. La missione segreta del direttore politico del ‘Piccolo’’ by Marina Silvestri.

The writer and journalist Marina Silvestri, author of the volume, will discuss it with historians Luca Manenti and Fulvio Senardi.

In the months leading up to Italy's entry into the First World War, Rome, although already looking towards the Entente, negotiated with the Austro-Hungarian Empire offering to maintain neutrality in exchange for territorial cessions. At the same time, under pressure and with the mediation of Berlin, Vienna opened confidential channels with the aim of gaining politicians and newspapers from the Kingdom to the neutralist cause. The mission was entrusted to Leopold von Chlumecký, an Austrian aristocrat and former councillor of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, at home in Trieste, who used the journalist Roberto Prezioso, political director of the ‘Piccolo’, as a trustee. A page that shows how Vienna sought interlocution with the newspaper that was an expression of the liberal-national party that ruled the city. Both protagonists appear to be anything but mere pawns.

The PDF file of the volume can be downloaded free of charge from the University Digital Archive OpenstarTs