After decades from the first release, here comes the new edition of the book “The Knights of the Great Lagoon” by Fulco Pratesi founding WWF Italia.
The pocket format of the historical book of Fulco Pratesi “The Knights of the Great Lagoon” by Pandion Edizioni has come out.
The author, who passed away on March 1, 2025, was an environmentalist, journalist, politician and founder of the WWF Italia. His contribution was fundamental for the birth of a narrative, culture and environmental sensitivity in Italy and in the rest of the world.
The text reaches a new light and cheap version, the proceeds of which will be donated 40% of the proceeds from the WWF Oasis of Orbetello. A reprint that pays homage to a point of reference in the history of environmental associations and which is also enriched with new precious contents. Among these, the update on the birds of Italiae the presentation of the naturist and artist Fabrizio Carbone.
The Knights of Italy
The Knight of Italy, the aquatic bird of Paludi and Lagune whose legs can reach even 30 cm in length, is the elegant and elegant protagonist of the book. The text focuses on the waders of the Orbetello lagoon.
“Today the Knights of Italy are present in almost all the Italian swamps and lagoons where they reproduce thanks also to the protection that, after centuries of reclamation and clashes, our country has finally granted to these environments. Thus the heroic epic of these and other migratory birds continues to occur every year despite the hunting, pollution and paroxysms of the climate due to human irresponsibility”, Pratesi writes in his book.
The news came like a bomb
“The news that the knights of Italy nidified in the Orbetello lagoon came like a bomb in the homes of Roman fans. I was just over twenty years old and Fulco Pignatti, a cousin of Fulco Pratesi, warned me of the discovery “said Carbone in his presentation of the text.
Research began in the late 1960s and Prato and Carbone made an exceptional discovery: the wading came from Africa in the spring to return to reproducing in Italy, denying the ornithological texts of the time that did not give it for nesting in our territory.
It was surprising how these birds defended the territory, the nest, the eggs on the ground.
Drawings and watercolors
The text is enriched with images designed by Prato itself.
«I spent the afternoons drawing the animals, with the help of an uncle painter. Passion that I also grow now, making, always with watercolors, great drawings and illustrating pages of my naturalistic notebooks, faithful companions of travel and adventures all over the world “, He will declare Prato in an interview just before his death at 90 years old.
The WWF was not yet born
When the book was written, the WWF Italia had not yet been founded, but it took flight shortly thereafter. In Italy i birdwatcher At the time there were about a dozen.
Birdwatching activity spread over the years over the years also thanks to the birth of this book. Also called ornithological observation, it is the practice of studying birds in nature. Birdwatcher can be scholars with scientific purposes, but also simple fans. Generally at least one binoculars or a threshing of tripod is used.
“Fulco Prato took the story of the knights of Italy at heart. He unleashed himself, as only he has always been able to do, so that that stretch of Orbetello lagoon could be protected. The problem was, then as today, a hunting so unruly as to allow hunters to be able to get around in the swamp and shoot the waders, then identified generically as “legs” or “gambettoni” even at the end of the summer “, He said Carbone.
A declaration that is configured as a pioneering symbol of all the battles that came later.
«The knights of the great lagoon, it was a book that moved all lovers of the nature of the time». conclude Carbone.
