LA MACCHINA DEL POSSIBILE
ANNO 1472
The light of day was giving way to an evening heavy with rain and silence.
The air, thick with moisture, veiled everything beneath a dense and somber haze.
It was a suspended moment, as if the city were about to turn a page without yet knowing it.
With the sky covered by a thick layer of clouds, darkness had fallen early, and night had already arrived.
As he passed beneath the portico of the new market square, Messer Pietro Barabani wondered about the reason for that sudden summons.
“What could the Count want from me? He knows my trade as a builder, but perhaps he senses that I can offer something more.”
The messenger walked ahead of him carrying a metal lantern blackened by soot. The candle stub inside cast only a faint glow, barely enough to illuminate a few steps ahead.
No one else was around.
“Better this way,” thought Pietro. “If someone were to see me, by tomorrow morning the market would be buzzing with rumors: Messer Pietro has a secret… he goes to Count Andrea… and everyone would add inventions of their own.”
Only a black cat wandered through the square, sniffing among the scraps left behind by the poultry merchants.
“A bad omen,” he thought, “but at least he will not speak.”
He knew that road like the palm of his hand:
every stone,
every rut carved by wagon wheels,
every reflection of water upon the paving stones.
And yet that evening the city, which had always seemed to welcome him, now felt as though it were pushing him away. Like a horse refusing the obstacle before it.
The bridge, crossed a thousand times before, now seemed narrower;
the darkness, thicker.
Each step carried him toward something different —
something he could not yet name.
Raising his gaze, Pietro caught sight for an instant of a faint light and two figures at the far end of the street, near the walls and the convent.
“Who is there at the end of the road?” he asked.
“I saw nothing, sir. At this hour, and in weather like this, I doubt anyone would venture outside.”
“And what about us, then?” Pietro replied.
“For us it is different. The Count ordered me to bring you here at any cost.
The first page of the book
The story
Carpi, 1472. The city is still a small but lively center, rooted in traditional crafts and unaware that it is about to encounter the world of mechanical innovation for the first time.
Change emerges from an unexpected source: the mechanism of the Bolognese spinning wheel, known only to Count Andrea Bentivoglio. It becomes the spark of a profound transformation. For the community — which had never conceived of a machine capable of multiplying labor — it is a revelation, fragile and almost unimaginable.
Around this encounter with the unknown move Andrea, Rizola, artisans, and friars, who begin to observe, test, and experiment. Their search does not arise from treatises or established knowledge, but from the ground up: from direct experience, from careful observation of nature, and from the ability to reflect on the tangible effects of their actions. It is a path made of attempts, errors, and small achievements that gradually give shape to a new machine — one capable of producing straw braids year-round and sustaining a new, flourishing market.
This is not only the story of a technical invention: it is the account of a cultural and social transformation. Connections with other dynamic centers — Bologna, Ferrara, Siena — bring ideas, knowledge, and exchanges that nurture growth. The endeavor becomes collective: different hands, minds, and forms of courage intertwine in a process that restores dignity to work and opens new possibilities for the entire community.
The novel tells the moment in which a city discovers its ability to change itself. The machine is not merely a tool: it becomes the symbol of a passage — from the unknown to the possible, from “I” to “we.”
The Machine of the Possible is a universal reflection on how societies evolve through curiosity, trust, and cooperation — enduring values that remain deeply relevant today.
corso Alberto Pio
The Main Characters
Men and women capable of seeing possibilities where others saw only limits.
Artisans, merchants, scholars, builders, and travelers who, through shared work, mutual trust, and curiosity toward the new, transform Carpi into a dynamic city open to the future.
Their relationships become networks of knowledge, collaboration, and solidarity: it is from these active communities that innovation is born.
Ideas that at first seem fragile — a measurement, a silk mill, a water channel, a new technique — gain strength through the courage of those who accept risk and choose to build together.
corso Alberto Pio
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