Ernesto Colli (priest)

Ernesto Colli was an Italian priest and historian, known for his works on Lower Novarese.

Biography

Son of Battista and Maria Anna Cusaro, he had three older siblings: Giuseppe, Luisa and Carolina. He was also the cousin of Lino Cassani, with whom he collaborated in the writing of several works.
He was conscripted in 1917, during World War I, and discharged in 1920. This made of him a ragazzo del 99 – he was later a member of the related national association I Ragazzi del 99.
In 1920 he lost his father, aged 56, to the after-effects of Spanish flu.
He was ordained a priest on July 6, 1924, and celebrated his first mass in Gravellona Lomellina the following Sunday. He later became assistant parish priest in Vespolate and parish priest in Mergozzo and in Nibbiola.
In 1952 he lost his mother, aged 80.
He was a member of the Società Storica Novarese, in whose magazine he published an article on Vespolate castle in 1982.
He died on September 29, 1989, in Galliate and was buried in Nibbiola.

Works

Ernesto Colli has published numerous volumes on the history of the towns of the Lower Novarese and Lomellina, with an extremely simple and linear style.
His works range from local history to customs and folklore. To compose them, he visited every village, consulted the municipal and parish archives, and interviewed the inhabitants themselves, over a period of over for decades. In this way, important figures, the origins of places, the events of noble families, and the forgotten works of art in churches and country chapels were brought back to common knowledge.
As proof of the relevance of these works, several elementary schools have adopted them as textbooks.

Monographs on villages

Mergozzo nella sua storia, Tip. Cattaneo, Novara, 1933Mergozzo nella sua storia - Opuscolo secondo, Arti Grafiche Airoldi, Intra, 1935Memorie storiche di Garbagna Novarese, with Lino Cassani, Tip. Pietro Riva e C., Novara, 1948Nibbiola nella sua storia, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1952Vespolate nella sua storia, with Lino Cassani, Tip. Provera, Novara, 1956Gravellona Lomellina nella sua storia, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1960Barbavara di Gravellona Lomellina, Tip. La Moderna, Novara, 1964Tornaco e Vignarello nella loro storia, Tip. F.lli Paltrinieri, Novara, 1967Villanova di Cassolo nel quarto centenario della nascita di S. Luigi Gonzaga - 1568-1968, Tip. F.lli Paltrinieri, Novara, 1968Dott. Comm. Mons. Carlo Fusi e Terdobbiate, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1970Olengo di Novara nella sua storia, with Gino Giarda, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1973Vespolate nella sua storia - Secondo volume, with Guido Longhi, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1988

Other works

Primo decennio dell'Asilo - Tradizioni di S. Caterina V. e M., Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1972Garbagna, Nibbiola, Vespolate, Borgolavezzaro - Spunti di storia per le scuole medie - Le mie memorie, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1978Nobis in ARCA navigare oportuit, with Eugenio Manni, Novara, 1981Il Castello-Rocca di Vespolate, Tip. La Cupola, Novara, 1982 Vespolate Mergozzo Nibbiola, Tip. San Gaudenzio, Novara, 1985Cronistoria della parrocchia B. V. Assunta in S. Caterina V. M., manuscript 1942–1989

Legacy

The municipality of Nibbiola named the nursery school after him on 22 August 2011. Still in Nibbiola, a street bears his name.
Various articles were dedicated to him, including one in the magazine of the National Association I Ragazzi del 99 in 1973 and one in the magazine of the Società Storica Novarese in 2002.