Hello Graeme,
You enquired about Aldo Cherini’s website. Here is a translation of the reasons he gave for it.
“Yes, why create this site? Was it really necessary?
In all these years in which we have been using the Internet, there have been countless times in which, by chance, we have obtained valuable information on sites created with little means by willing strangers. The information we can offer is restricted to particularly specific topics, so it won't be sought by a large number of surfers. But the Internet is big and let it never be said that, somewhere, someone is not looking for this specific synthesis, or the sketch of that particular pirogue, the drawing of that ship, etc…
The effort of transferring the information accumulated over the years into this medium, the web, is no small task. Also because we did not want to resort to external help or specific publication programs. The Word was everything that was within our reach. Please accept the spartan appearance of the site (and any errors) willingly.
If then, instead of homeland history, naval art, sailing archaeology, you came here attracted by the name and expected to see astronomical topics, then you were looking for the other Cherini site, that of the Barcolano branch of the family, Happy browsing!”
Aldo Cherini is regarded with some affection. He was born in Capodistria, Province of Istria in Italy on 7th February 1919. It’s now known as Koper & is the 5th largest city in Slovenia. At the end of WW1, Italy annexed Trieste, Istria & part of modern-day western Slovenia from the defeated Austro-Hungary Empire. A convoluted history, I think you will agree!
https://en.wikiped1a.org/wiki/Koper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Territory_of_Trieste
He attended the historic "Carlo Combi" Classical High School in his hometown &graduated in law from the University of Trieste. Called up for military service during WW2, he achieved the rank of second lieutenant & then lieutenant in the motorized infantry specialty. Married with two children, he worked in the labour & administrative law consultancy sector. Up until the moment of the exodus of the family, which took place in 1952, he lived in Koper & took an active part in the various sporting & cultural societies & other associations of the city (rowing, even at a competitive level, hiking and speleology, city orchestra as second violin, painting and drawing with participation in some collective and personal exhibitions).
He has been interested in national & maritime history since his youth. He published a book on his own & three books with a co-author. He collaborated with his own chapters on three other AAVV volumes & published about twenty pamphlets, as well as having written numerous articles for periodicals, magazines and newspapers. In 2008. he was awarded the HISTRIA TERRA Award by the Union of Istrians with the following motivation:
“For his decennial activity and for his life dedicated to historical research, to the collection of documents, to the production of studies and writings and to the masterly writing of drawings as evidence of Istrian culture”.
Final words to conclude:
This site is amateur, non-profit, responds to research & drawings carried out by the author, taken from original sources of various kinds (museum & archival collections, photographic collections, specialized publications, documentaries, newspapers & periodicals, what still remains to afloat preserved, abandoned or reduced to a wreck). Drawings started in approximately 1939 & finished in 2010. Aldo Cherini died in Trieste at the age of 91 on 11th December 2010.
Cordially,
Perry