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In his "Sonetti Romaneschi", Giuseppe Gioachino Belli speaks, not in person, but through a series of anonymous, lower-class characters. Critics have tried to identify those sonnets in which the wily poet hides behind the mask of the speaker to whom he often lends details of his biography and ideas. This paper examines the use of the poet's two names (Giuseppe and Gioachino), their familiar form (Peppe) and his initials (ggb, encrypted in the number 996). The author analyses the texts, showing that on one hand the poet aimed to represent objectively the life of the common people, while on the other remaining aware of his own poetic personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]