In 1955, Mattei decided that the time had come for Eni to launch its own magazine. Not just a company mouthpiece, but a real publication whose credibility would be built on those writing for it – not least its editor. The project was entrusted to the great intellectual, writer and poet Attilio Bertolucci. Mattei’s vision for the publication was clear: it was to be a modern, illustrated news magazine that would pique the interest of all readers – from the Italian president to the engineers drilling Eni’s wells. Eni’s founder willingly accepted Bertolucci’s suggestion to name the magazine Gatto Selvatico – a translation of the English “wildcat”, which was an expression used to describe the first oil prospectors. The idea was to create something that went beyond reporting company success stories to explore the reality of life outside the business.
Bertolucci’s aim was to publish a magazine that would be both “useful and enjoyable”. On the one hand, it was to be educated and thoughtful in informing its readers of their cultural context; on the other, it had to be informative and able to tackle lighter issues. That it achieved both is thanks to its high-calibre writers. Bertolucci ran the magazine until 1963, when he was replaced by Eni manager Franco Briatico, whose opinions on social issues Mattei particularly trusted. During the magazine’s 10-year run, which ended in 1965, it published work by some of Italy’s leading literary and cultural figures: Giorgio Caproni (who wrote the short story La tromba del silenzio or The Trumpet of Silence for the first issue), Alfonso Gatto, Filiberto Menna, Carlo Cassola, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Leonardo Sciascia, Raffaele La Capria, Enzo Siciliano and many more, who discussed Italian and foreign literary themes in both classic and modern works.
