After years of meticulous research and historical reconstruction, my new book Le Ossa dei Caprotti is out.
At the centre of the narrative, the vicissitudes of my family from the textile business at the beginning of the 19th century to the birth and development of Esselunga, debunking myths and legends.
A story that I have talked about, but never fully told; in many ways, an adventurous read.
“Le Ossa dei Caprotti, Feltrinelli, Milan, 2023.
From the back cover:
Lombardy, first half of the 19th century. The Caprotti family, landowners, entered the cotton industry and, with the wealth they soon accumulated, made their way into the society of the time. They were among the financiers of the Expedition of the Thousand, they went as far as South America and supported the explorers who ventured into the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. The cradle of their business was small Albiate, in Brianza, where the textile factory was only a few hundred metres from the family home, but the sphere of their interests grew wider and wider. They nurtured political ambitions and joined the Republican Party, a choice that could cost them dearly in the Kingdom of Italy.
Between successes and failures, the turning point for the family came in the late 1950s with Rockefeller and the first chain of supermarkets in Italy, which for the Americans was an economic adventure but also a formidable weapon of anti-communist propaganda. In the first supermarket in Milan, Rockefeller offered shark fins, as a newspaper of the time headlined: the abundance of products and exotic delicacies on sale fascinated the Italians. It is an extraordinary success and consolidates the fortune of the Caprotti family, which in the meantime has acquired a majority share in the company.
Giuseppe Caprotti reconstructs the history of a family that has spanned more than three centuries. He gives the reader portraits of women and men with intense feelings, moving from the Italy of fascism to that of the economic boom. But he also recounts the adolescence spent in a Swiss boarding school, far from a violent Milan and the risks of kidnapping, and the grudges that poisoned the souls between relatives and forever overwhelmed the dream of remaining united “like Dumas’ musketeers”, until the break-up and the ruinous events that followed, narrated here through unpublished testimonies and documents.
P.S.: it is a universal story, that between fathers and sons. In business; especially in Italy, where the structure of the economy is based – more than ninety per cent – on family businesses.
To understand why the title, read this article.
Below : Le Ossa dei Caprotti, fifth in Amazon’s “Modern and contemporary history from the 18th to the 20th century” section in September 2025
