First, a note on Gabriele Baldini's title for this book: Abitare la battaglia. A literal English version would be To Live the Battle, and at least on the surface the Italian phrase has no more powerful association or literary resonance than its translation. On the dust jacket of the Italian edition appears part of a letter the author wrote to a friend only a few weeks before his death. It sheds some light on the problem:

Clearly the phrase carried a weight of personal significance: the Italian publishers even suggest that the ‘battaglia’ should be regarded as Baldini's rather than Verdi's. This ambiguity of meaning and intention set the translator a severe initial problem. In Italy, where Baldini's reputation as a scholar of English Literature (he was professor of the subject at Rome University), as a specialist in Elizabethan drama, and as a literary critic and journalist was widespread, such an ‘imaginative’ title could naturally be balanced against die expectations created by the author's name; there was little possibility of misunderstanding.