The entries Philology and Germanic philology by Vittorio Santoli appearing in the Enciclopedia Italiana (vol. XV, 1932) offer the occasion to re-visit the heated debate that developed in Italy during the first decades of the XX century regarding the value and the meaning of the term “philology”. The debate not only focussed on specific aspects and contents of the philological method, but questioned the legitimacy of philology itself: encouraged by the start of World War I, it acquired rough anti-German nationalistic trends in some scholars' thought (i.e. Fraccaroli and, with demagogical and coarser nuances, Romagnoli). Against the anti-philological positions of Fraccaroli and Romagnoli stood the philological school of Florence lead by Vitelli, who pointed out the dangers of rejecting the German philological tradition all together and the possible consequences of this on the Italian academic scientific process. While the entry Philology has strong ties with the Florentine school and considers philology as an all-round historical science, the entry Germanic philology – which indicates the first attempt of exploring this discipline comprehensively during a time when it was not even present in any Italian university – helped to set its tasks and boundaries and to claim its full scientific authonomy.
Le voci Filologia e Filologia germanica di Vittorio Santoli nell’Enciclopedia Italiana (vol. XV, 1932): riflessioni sulla storia degli studi di Filologia germanica in Italia,
SANTORO, Verio
2010-01-01
Abstract
The entries Philology and Germanic philology by Vittorio Santoli appearing in the Enciclopedia Italiana (vol. XV, 1932) offer the occasion to re-visit the heated debate that developed in Italy during the first decades of the XX century regarding the value and the meaning of the term “philology”. The debate not only focussed on specific aspects and contents of the philological method, but questioned the legitimacy of philology itself: encouraged by the start of World War I, it acquired rough anti-German nationalistic trends in some scholars' thought (i.e. Fraccaroli and, with demagogical and coarser nuances, Romagnoli). Against the anti-philological positions of Fraccaroli and Romagnoli stood the philological school of Florence lead by Vitelli, who pointed out the dangers of rejecting the German philological tradition all together and the possible consequences of this on the Italian academic scientific process. While the entry Philology has strong ties with the Florentine school and considers philology as an all-round historical science, the entry Germanic philology – which indicates the first attempt of exploring this discipline comprehensively during a time when it was not even present in any Italian university – helped to set its tasks and boundaries and to claim its full scientific authonomy.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
