Vincenzo Saponaro
Vincenzo Saponaro was born in Monopoli in 1932.
A descendant of a family of shipwrights (boat builders) and an au-todidatta naval draughtsman, along with a love of naval art, from an early age, he cultivated an interest in research into the history of his city.
In 1993 he published a first volume on the history of monopolies entitled "Monopolies between history and images from the origins to the present day" - Schena Editore.
In 2001 he made a wooden model that illu stra the old town center of the City of Monopoli in the second half of 1700 and currently visible on the ground floor of the Library Prospero Rendella Monopoli.
In 2002 he received in Rome in the Sala della Protomo teca del Campidoglio, the FABER Prize for "Arts and Crafts of the Soul".
In 2009 he published a second volume in which he narrates the history of the shipyards, the fishing and merchant and the port, entitled "Mare marinai e maestri d'ascia monopolitani" - Editrice AGA.
In 2012 he published a third volume in which he tells some stories and facts happened during the long years of life of his city entitled "Fragments of Monopolistic History" - C&C Graphic Arts.
Also, in 2017 he wanted to try his hand at the familiar dialect of Monopoli and publishes the "Practical Dictionary monopolitano" - C&C Graphic Arts. His hope is that the young monopolists, in the future, can safeguard our dialect and then send it to those who come after them.
In 2019 he published "I Cantieri navali di Monopo li 1951 - 2019 Settanta anni di costruzioni per le marinerie italiane" - Publishing AGA in collaboration with Peppino Lovecchio. Here he documents the extraordinary and intense activity carried out by all the shipyards of Monopoli in the period under review, with painstaking work of data collection at the relevant bodies and with analytical and synthetic exposure together.
But always, even in the dry figures, shines out the love for his city and his work.
