Another Legend Passes
One of the problems when you get to a certain age is that you begin to lose your friends and with the death of Gianni Rogliatti on March 3, I certainly lost a good friend. I cannot remember how we first met, but it was over fifty years ago. He was a highly respected Italian motoring journalist who was born in Turin in 1929. He had studied engineering in Argentina but he had joined the Italian newspaper La Stampa as their motoring correspondent when first I met him.
I think the opening conversation was about Leica cameras because I was an avid Leica user and we started to compare notes on our Leica IIIGs. In fact, in 1979 with Dennis Laney he wrote the definitive book Leica the First 60 Years which proved to be a best seller and was revised in 1991.
The great thing about Gianni was that impish smile of his when he came out with the latest bit of Italian motor racing gossip.
However, his main claim to fame was his close friendship with Enzo Ferrari. Unlike the late Franco Lini, another well known Italian journalist who later became Ferrari Team Manager, Gianni would listen to what Ferrari would say at press conferences and then ask sensible, in-depth questions whereas Franco usually tried to turn the whole affair into a pantomime.
I was last with him about two years ago at a party in at Mario Righini’s castle just outside Modena. Despite the fact that he had been ill for some time he was still in great form. Two years before he had asked me for copies of photos I had taken at Scaglietti’s factory to help illustrate a book Franco Gozzi was writing about Scaglietti. So Gianni asked me if I had received a copy of the book. When I said no, he immediately took out his notebook and said “ I’ll phone Franco and get him to send you a copy right away”. A few minutes later Gianni came bounding back to say that Gozzi was actually at the party and as I approached him it was obvious Gianni had told him about the book. Looking a bit flustered Gozzi said he would send me a book immediately. However, the man with him was Mr Giacobazzi the owner of the famous Giacobazzi vineyard which makes some of the finest Lambrusco.
It turned out that Giacobazzi had paid for the book and he remarked that he had one in the car and brought it in to me. It was typical of Gianni Rogliatti that he was concerned I got a copy after he had asked for the photos. He cared for his friends and was a great help in sorting out Ferrari mysteries. Right up to his death of a heart attack, he was still writing and editing La Manovella, the magazine if the Italian Historical Car and Motorcycle Club. Now he is gone and Italian motoring history has lost one of its greatest exponents.
-Graham Gauld–
A nice story, a nice sendoff for a friend and aren’t those little Leicas great cameras. No batteries, carry them in your pocket and pictures sharp as anything.
A non-car question: an acquaintance has a complete set, aluminum case and all, of Luftwaffe alloy-bodied Leicas, lenses, filters, etc., that a relative confiscated from an officer in Germany at the end of the war. None of my business; but what is that setup worth? A few dozen years ago Leica kindly offered them a swap of any new Leica cameras for this item. Said acquaintance smiled and replied no thank you, we consider it a family heirloom…
Lovely article! The Franco Gozzi book mentioned here is titled “L’e Andeda Acse: Sergio Scaglietti Una Leggenda Modenese”. It was published back in 2008 in, unfortunately, very limited numbers. I found it to be an absolutely fantastic book and would certainly recommend it to anyone!
People who have the older Leicas don’t keep up with the prices because they’re not planning to sell. I have a IIIF with an f2 Summitar lens and I use it on a regular basis in spite of the inconvenient bottom loading and rangefinder view. A northeast Ohio car enthusiast put himself through medical school selling Leica bodies, lenses and accessories. Ray Boniface was a combat rifleman in WWII and managed to acquire a lot of Leica equipment at favorable terms, which he sold later. Many people liked the German workmanship and P-47 pilot Bruce Stevenson, later to found the Bridgehampton race, carried a Luger in preference to the bulkier .45 automatic. He obtained the Luger from a German officer who, he said, no longer needed it.
I was trying to contact Gianni to ask a question about an Italian supercharger maker when a friend in Turin told me of his death. He was a great friend of long standing — incidentally a competent engineer who built some of Italy’s first electric cars of the modern era. Some years ago I interviewed him about races in Argentina in 1951 which he attended. He was indeed a warm and thoughtful person, for years the editor and publisher of the much appreciated Motor Italia. With his departure we have lost an immense reservoir of knowledge of Italian motoring affairs and events. And a really nice man.
Hello. I found this website based on my curiosity about Mr. Rogliatti. I am a Leica enthusiast so know him through that area, and he will be missed. I do not think he got enough credit in the Leica world. By the way, he wrote four Leica books, one each for bodies and lenses at the first 50 years and the first 60 years. They remain my first point of reference when I find a Leica body or lens, or get asked a question about same. I wish I’d met him.