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29 Chapter 2 Science and Faith The Istituto di Studi Romani, 1922–1929 In November 1922, in the days that followed the March on Rome and Mussolini’s accession to power, a group of local scholars established a new journal, titled simply Roma. The publication would be devoted to “illustrating our city . . . in every facet of its life,its history , its memories and its modern affairs.”1 In its first issue, of January 1923, the editors announced that Roma would transcend the confines of the ivory tower and speak to its audience “in a plain and simple manner.”2 The Eternal City would be studied in its totality,addressing historical and artistic subjects alongside contemporary concerns like sanitation and traffic. This holism in turn reinforced the journal’s didactic mission, since the legacy of the past “should not consist only of noble memories and marvelous decorations, but should enter into our daily lives,as part of productive activity,as leavening for our spiritual and material industry.”3 Roma would not just satisfy antiquarian curiosity but disseminate the spirit of romanità to a modern audience: Here, past and present truly stand alongside one another and are interwoven , and from this, [Roma] draws strength and courage. The immediate presence of ruins, of monuments from every era, of every civilization and every faith, this intimate cohabitation . . . should be . . . a spur keeping us awake, everywhere and always. Encircled by these walls, we must not be lethargic and somnolent custodians of 30 EXCAVATING MODERNITY trinkets and pretty things, but rather industrious workers in thought and deed, who rejoice in renewal and resurrection, surrounded by the ghosts of a past that should not oppress us,but comfort us with its voice and hearten us with its beauty.4 By March 1925, the Roma group had coalesced into the Istituto di Studi Romani (ISR,the Institute of Roman Studies),a permanent institution whose task was “to promote and support studies with romanità as their object, and to contribute projects and counsel that will assist in resolving the various problems concerning the Urbs.”5 Within a year, the ISR had been formally recognized by the Ministry of Public Instruction and given access to state funds. As enumerated in its founding constitution,the institute’s responsibilities included coordinating cultural, economic, and intellectual institutions in Rome, as well as facilitating exchange between Italian and foreign scholars (particularly those residing in the city’s many national academies). Its first major publication would be a definitive Enciclopedia Romana, and it would also produce a variety of periodicals and monographs.6 Like Roma, the ISR would not confine itself to scholarly research or a narrow audience of specialists , but instead “promote studies and research wherever there remain vestiges of Rome or romanità, in order to reconstruct, through organic study, the spiritual sense and august name of Rome.”7 To facilitate these initiatives, the institute was organized into eight sections, encompassing history, archaeology , religion, literature and philology, art history, building and architecture, natural sciences, and the Roman countryside. By 1941, it had opened nine regional centers across Italy, as well as a Swedish section at the University of Gothenburg, with affiliates slated for several other European countries.8 From its inception, the driving force behind the ISR was Carlo Galassi Paluzzi, the founder of Roma and the institute’s director from 1925.9 A Neapolitan and devout Catholic, Galassi Paluzzi moved to the capital to attend the faculty of letters at the University of Rome. Although he did not complete his university studies, by 1920 he was contributing articles on art and architecture to the conservative Catholic newspaper Il Corriere d’Italia. Beyond his journalistic efforts, Galassi Paluzzi does not appear to have been politically active as a young man, and his early work—principally on museum organization and historical preservation—suggests an affinity for cultural administration and bibliographic research. Indeed, his talents would always lie more in a managerial capacity—as a cataloger, coordinator, and promoter—than as a researcher in his own right. He often claimed that he “did not really feel the professorial spirit” and insisted that he be addressed as “pure and simple Galassi Paluzzi” without a formal title, in the spirit of SCIENCE AND FAITH 31 Fascist populism.10 While his lack of credentials and predilection for bureaucratic centralization were presented as Fascist virtues, they occasionally aroused the ire of more established scholars. His regular insistence that the “national organization” of Roman studies could only be directed from the...

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