L'Asino

'''''L'Asino''''' (English: "The Donkey") was an Italian magazine of political satire founded in Rome in 1892, by Guido Podrecca (1865–1923) and Gabriele Galantara (1867–1937), a former mathematics student, designer and cartoonist, both with a socialist background. The two took the pseudonyms "Goliardo" (Podrecca) and "Ratalanga" (Galantara), and with these nicknames signed the outputs of the weekly. The magazine's title was from a saying of Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi that said that "the donkey is like the people: useful, patient and stubborn" (Italian: ''come il popolo è l'asino: utile, paziente e bastonato), which became the subtitle and the motto of the editors.

==Early years== thumb|left|Gabriele Galantara and Guido Podrecca (right) in 1891 thumb|left|Caricatures of Guido Podrecca (Goliardo) and Gabriele Galantara (Rata Langa) In 1892, Podrecca and Galantara accepted a proposal of the Socialist publisher Luigi Mongini and founded a political satire weekly, L'Asino. The first issue appeared on 27 November 1892. Directed by Podrecca, the periodical gave voice to the demands of the socialist movement and also published informative and ideological articles. It was an immediate success and already by the beginning of 1893, when it began to be printed in colour, it was circulating around 22,000 copies, which rose to 60,000 in 1904 and 100,000 in 1907.