due botte

Salve, I'd be grateful for any help regarding the following passage from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's unfinished follow-up to Il gattopardo, I gattini ciechi, but especially with regard to the mysterious "due botte":


Here's my first attempt:


As may be clear, I'm not so sure of the meaning of "calcio ferrato" in this context either (or "fuori tempo," for that matter). I recognize that this request for help should focus on a single term or phrase, but until I know what a "due botte" is I will have trouble understanding what is being esibita. My best guess so far is that it is a double-barreled shotgun, but if that were so how could it appear to both sides of the saddle?

Hi Quadruploni - I don't remember this passage, but your question interests me because I too like to understand every word I read! il "due botte" is probably a double-barreled shotgun as you say. But the image I get is not that it is on both sides of the saddle, but that it lies across the "arcione" (which WR dictionary translates as "saddlebow" or the high front part of the saddle) so that one end (il calcio ferrato) is on one side, and the other end (le canne brunite) is on the other. I'm eager to hear what native Italian speakers will say....

Ah, Joanvillafane, yours is an elegantly simple explanation: the two features on display are, respectively, to the right and left. Which makes "calcio" here the stock or butt of the rifle.

I'm also eager to have the Italians weigh in once they wake up tomorrow.

(Getting off topic, meanwhile, any idea in what way the action of these zoccoli could be considered fuori tempo?)

Hi Q - I'm afraid you need an Italian who knows something about horses. That's not me. But I'll jump in with my guess about "fuori tempo" - it has something to do with the rhythm of the clip-clop of the hooves - not sure how, but they
are out of rhythm somehow, an irregular beat ???

Edit: idea! 👁 Idea :idea:
there are two horses, so they are not keeping time with each other.....

Still awake, but here in England we're one hour late 👁 Wink ;)
I think Joan got it... "due canne" is what we would rather call "doppietta" nowadays, and to me it seems to rest across the saddle. As to "fuori tempo", joan's explanation sounds perfectly appropriate to me...

"Dobbotte" here or "dubotti" here is the name of a double-barreled shotgun in the dialect of Calabria and Southern Italy.