Peter Kolosimo
Peter Kolosimo, pseudonym of Pier Domenico Colosimo (15 December 1922 – 23 March 1984), was an Italian journalist and writer. He is ranked amongst the founders of pseudoarchaeology (in Italian: fantarcheologia), a controversial topic which aims to study the origins of ancient civilizations using theories and methods not accepted by the scientific community. He also popularised ancient astronaut theories of contact between extraterrestrial beings and ancient human civilizations.[1]
Contents
Life
Of Italian-American origins, he was born in Modena, and lived in Bolzano, Turin and Milan. In 1969 he won the Premio Bancarella, one of Italy's most prestigious literary prizes, for Non è terrestre ("Not of this World"). His books were translated in 60 countries, including Russia, Japan and China.
Kolosimo also founded and coordinated the Italian Association for Prehistoric Studies (ASP).[2]
He died in Milan in 1984.
Reception
Kolosimo's claims about ancient astronauts influencing human civilizations are considered to be pseudohistory.[3]
In a critical three part review for Kolosimo's Not of This World, Jason Colavito has noted that the book fabricated evidence, mistranslated sources and conflated science fiction and fact. In the book Kolosimo had claimed that some of H. P. Lovecraft's fictional ideas were factual. According to Colavito "the book, overall, is a discursive pile of Fortean nonsense in the very worst of the European tradition."[4]
Selected bibliography
Books
- Il pianeta sconosciuto (1957) ISBN 9788842539803
- Terra senza tempo (1964; translated into English as Timeless Earth) ISBN 9788842533177
- Ombre sulle stelle (1966) ISBN 9788842534235
- Psicologia dell'eros (1967)
- Non è terrestre (1968; translated as Not of this World) ISBN 9788842534129
- Guida al mondo dei sogni (1968)
- Il comportamento erotico degli europei (1970)
- Cittadini delle tenebre (1971)
- Astronavi sulla preistoria (1972; translated as Spaceships in Prehistory) ISBN 9788842532149
- Odissea stellare (1974) ISBN 9788842542414
- Fratelli dell'infinito (1975)
- Polvere d'inferno (1975)
- Italia mistero cosmico (1977) ISBN 9788842547013
- Civiltà del silenzio (1978)
- Fiori di luna (1979)
- Io e l'indiano (1979)
- Viaggiatori del tempo (1981)
- I misteri dell'universo (1982, with Caterina Kolosimo)
Novels
- Fronte del sole or I cavalieri delle stelle (From Outer Space), De Vecchi, Milano 1979 (with Caterina Kolosimo)
- Missione uomo, Dizionari dell'Avventura n.9, Bruno Boggero e Giunti-Marzocco, 1982 (with Oscar Warner)
Editor
- Pi Kappa, rivista di mistero, archeologia ed esobiologia (director), I-II, Sugar, Milano 1972-1973
- Dimensione X, enciclopedia del mistero (coordinator), 1-10, Milano 1982
- Italia misteriosa (editor), Edipem, Milano 1984
- Scrutando nel futuro (editor), Edipem, Novara 1984
References
- ↑ Peter Kolosimo, Non è terrestre (1969); Astronavi sulla preistoria (1972).
- ↑ "Dei del Cielo, Dei della Terra". Retrieved 2015-05-12.
- ↑ Bullard, Thomas E. (1996). Ancient Astronauts. In The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal. Edited by Gordon Stein. Prometheus Books. pp. 25-32. ISBN 1-57392-021-5
- ↑ Colavito, Jason. (2014). Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Retrieved 2015-05-12.
External links
- UFOs and Revolution, an article on Kolosimo by Wu Ming, published on GQ magazine (Italian edition), July 2009.
- Review of Kolosimo's works (Italian)
