(Gandolfi) On the 16th of June, 1985, the first formal meeting of SACC enthusiasts and official cynephilia, as represented by the ENCI judges Franco Bonetti, Antonio Morsiani, Mario Perricones and Claudio Bussadori, was held.

Ten Cane Corsi were presented and despite the scarcity of dogs, the ENCI was highly interested, so that on the 3rd of November, 1985, an official delegation was sent to Mantova, to the ‘Raduno di Razza’ organized by the SACC. Judges Barbati, Mentasti, Morsiani, Pinturas, Perricone, Vandoni, and Ventura attended as representatives. After this ENCI meeting, the possibility of an official recognition of the breed started being considered; undoubtedly, because of the constant interest shown by Antonio Morsiani and Mario Perricone, expert and renown judges and breeders of Molosoides.

In 1986, Casolino, Malavasi, and Sereni Gandolfi go to the south several times in search of new specimens to be introduced within the bloodline they had selected. Within a year and a half, thanks to the collaboration of the new enthusiast cynophiles living in areas of La Puglia, Umbria, and Sicily, they manage to acquire almost 30 new specimens, belonging to eleven different bloodlines. During this year and a half, thanks to these new members, a delegation of the SACC was created in La Puglia and Sicily, thus starting a fruitful collaboration between the enthusiasts of the original areas of the Cane Corso and the centre of selection and rebirth of the breed, which was in Mantova, at the Malavasi brothers’ kennel.

The main responsible of this collaboration, the link between the south and the selection centre in Mantova, was the enthusiast Vito Indivieri. He was a friend of Morsiani, resident in La Puglia, and he strove to catalogue and find the most commendable specimens while he travelled as a peddler. In Sicily, the same commitment and passion were carried out by Giovanni Tumminello who offered enough historical information and photographic documents to take a census in this area, the Cane Corso still present and typical.

Thanks to this unity of spirit the task of recovery that had started at the end of 1979 was carried out; this enabled Dr. Morsiani to start the biometric measurements that would rapidly lead to the drafting of the official standard of the Italian Cane Corso. Dr. Morsiani, who was within the ENCI Judges Committee, the SACC Committee, companion and assistant in the several meetings between the North and the South of Gandolfi, Malavasi, Indiveri, and Tuminello, started carrying out the cynotechnic measurements, choosing BASIR as the breed prototype and selecting 50 specimens amongst the 90 dogs that were judged.

The recognition of the breed After long journeys, successes and disappointments, doubts and certainties, after the cynotechnic measurements, the cynometric studies and character assessments, after more than seven years of hard work and passion, finally arrives the first official recognition for the Italian Cane Corso: on November, 1987, The ENCI Executive Board approves the standard established by Dr. Antonio Morsiani. In 1988, during the canine exhibition of Milan, Florence, and Bari, the judges Morsiani, Perricone, and Vandoni carried out assessments of another 50 dogs and the results of the measurements to which were added almost 60 specimens registered and censed by Vito Indivieri on the south of Italy, including photographs and detailed information about the different bloodlines.

At the end of 1988 the topographic map of the known and registered specimens was complete. A last general exam was carried out in Foggi in October with the presence of Morsiani for all the necessary assessments. This last successful exam finally convinced the ENCI experts on taking the last necessary steps for the final and official recognition of the breed. On the occasion of the European Exhibition at Verona on the 25th of November, 1990, fifteen Cane Corsi paraded in the ring of honour.

This was the first official presentation to the international Cynophilia; at that moment, an Open Book was created and given to Professor Vittorio Dagradi where all the adult specimens were registered; after having undergone the cynometric result and the recognition tattoo, these would be considered in accordance to the standard elaborated by Antonio Morsiani based on the morphological prototype of BASIR.

“In Seveso, at the end of September, 1993, the Cane Corso passes the test that establishes its title with the presence of judges Bernini, Bonetti, and Vandoni – almost a hundred Cane Corsi under the sky of Lombardy! The ENCI ( Ente Nacionale della Cinofilia Italiana. ) Executive Board consulted the other filed registers and after hearing the favourable opinion of the Judges Committee, the Italian Breed Committee, and the Breeding Committee, welcomed the recognition on the 20th of January, 1994: the Cane Corso rightfully became the Italian number 14.