Virgilio Paladini (1912–1971) was a classical philologist from Mantua. Paladini graduated in classics (Greek) from the University of Rome in 1933 (Paladini 1933); Nicola Festa and Vincenzo Ussani were his mentors (Mariotti 1971: 168). While his subsequent work chiefly focused on Sallust and Cicero, it covers Latinity from Augustan to late-antique literature. During the ventennio fascista, Paladini worked as a teacher of Latin in Jesi (Ancona). In the 1930s, he participated in the national prose competition of the Istituto di Studi Romani with an essay on Horace’s Carmen saeculare (Paladini 1934b; Paladini 1938). In the 1940s, he was also involved in the institute’s project to compile a Latin-Italian dictionary (Paladini 1942; Mariotti 1971: 167). The project was presided over by Ussani and later Gino Funaioli, while the dictionary entries were redacted by Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci. The project was aborted after 1943 but resumed by Paladini in the later 1960s (Piacente 2012). During the ventennio, Paladini also produced a well-known textbook for Latin composition for use in schools, entitled Μελετήματα (Meletemata); it was first published in the form of two separate fascicles in 1933 and 1936 and then again in a revised edition in 1952, which was often reprinted (Colonna 2012). Additionally, Paladini authored some Latin letters and poems, published in 1943 (repr. in Paladini 1973), as well as historical records of the University of Bari (Paladini 1967). He also composed Latin inscriptions for the same university, published in Paladini (2012a).

After the ventennio, Paladini held the chair of Latin at the Istituto Superiore di Magistero Maria Ss. Assunta, an educational institute for nuns (1952–1955), the University of Bari (1955–1967), and the University of Rome (1967–1971). His political orientation in these years has been summarized as Catholic antifascist (Canfora 2012: 27). Paladini remained an advocate of the active use of Latin. In 1966, he delivered a Latin speech on the study and use of Rome’s ancient language in which he mentioned some of the authors whose works are represented in FLT, including Francesco Sofia Alessio, Alfredo Bartoli, Vittorio Genovesi, Giovanni Battista Pighi, Ferdinando Maria Brignoli, Luigi Illuminati, Ettore Stampini, Vincenzo Ussani, Giunio Garavani, Luigi Taberini, and Domenico Tinozzi (Paladini 2012b: 79). In the same speech, he claimed that the success of Latin studies in Italy had always been dependent on the country’s political climate. Without mentioning Fascism explicitly, he observed: Quid autem et quantum rei publicae genera valeant ad Latini sermonis studiosos modo incitandos modo retardandos, ex Italorum rebus vel recentioribus, exempli gratia, facile erui potest. Apud nos enim Latinitatis studiis praecipue fautum est cum antiquae Romanae magnitudinis memoria atque cultu rei publicae rectores usi sunt ut in civium animis tum immodicam patriae caritatem tum, Romani imperii opes quasi exemplum imitandum proponentes, cupiditatem finium proferendorum excitarent. Qua tempestate opera Latine conscripta maxime viguerunt et in tertio Conventu Romae habito ut Romana studia proveherentur … multi docti existimatores de his operibus, amplissime laudatis, adprobantes et admirantes rettulerunt. … Sed subsequentibus temporibus novi Italicae rei publicae rectores acriter Latinitati repugnarunt, quippe cui culpa tribueretur cladis acceptae (“How, and to what degree, different types of government are capable of either encouraging or thwarting students of Latin can easily be elucidated, for example, from the recent history of the Italians. In our country, Latin studies were favoured particularly when our governors of state indulged in the commemoration and cult of the greatness of ancient Rome, so that they aroused in the minds of the citizens both an enormous love for the fatherland and a desire to extend its borders, as they imagined the power of the Roman empire as an example to imitate. In this time, works written in Latin were very much in vogue and, at the third Conference organized in Rome for the promotion of Latin studies [22–27 April 1933], many learned critics commented on these works, lavishly praised, in appreciative and admiring words. … But in the following times, the new governors of the Italian state vehemently rejected Latinity as they blamed it for the disaster that had befallen them”) (Paladini 2012b: 81-82).

Since 2011, Paladini’s personal library, consisting of ca. 6,000 items, has been preserved in the library of the University of Macerata (Fondo Paladini, Biblioteca di Filologia Classica “Carlo Tibiletti”). More research on his life and work is needed.

Bibliography

Latin texts

Paladini, Virgilio. 1933–1936. Μελετήματα. 2 fascicles. Jesi: Stab. Tip. Edit. Flori.

———. 1934a. ‘Polybius Graecorum primus intellexit totius orbis imperium in Romanos esse cessurum’. Roma Universa. Rivista mensile dei Comitati d’Azione per la Universalità di Roma 2: 211–12.

———. 1934b. ‘Quibus de causis Horatianum carmen saeculare ad aetatem quoque nostram pertinere videatur’. Roma Universa. Rivista mensile dei Comitati d’Azione per la Universalità di Roma 2: 144.

———. 1938. Per il IV Concorso Nazionale di prosa latina bandito dall’Istituto di Studi Romani. Quibus de causis Horatianum carmen saeculare ad aetatem quoque nostram pertinere videatur. Jesi: Stab. Tip. Edit. Flori.

———. 1943. Ad amicos carmina et epistulae. Naples: Typis Ernesti Della Torre.

———. 1967. Acta Barensis Universitatis ab a.d. MCMLII ad a.d. MCMLXVII. Bari: Adriatica editrice.

———. 2012a [1959]. [Three Latin epigraphs for the University of Bari.] In Virgilio Paladini nel centenario della nascita. A cura degli allievi, 69–71. Bari: Cacucci.

———. 2012b [1966]. ‘Quomodo Latinae lingae divulgandae ii faverint qui his septuaginta annis opera sua Latine conscripserunt’. In Virgilio Paladini nel centenario della nascita. A cura degli allievi, 73–82. Bari: Cacucci.

Other work (selection)

Paladini, Virgilio. 1933. ‘Di L. Anneo Cornuto e del suo Compendio di teologia greca’. Tesi di laurea. Rome: R. Università di Roma.

———. 1942. ‘Il dizionario latino-italiano’. Per lo studio e l’uso del latino. Bollettino internazionale di studi, ricerche, informazioni 4 (2): 84–87.

———. 1973. Scritti minori. Roma: Elia.

Secondary literature

Canfora, Luciano. 2012. ‘Didattica e politica’. In Virgilio Paladini nel centenario della nascita. A cura degli allievi, 27–28. Bari: Cacucci.

Colonna, Enza. 2012. ‘I Meletemata’. In Virgilio Paladini nel centenario della nascita. A cura degli allievi, 65–66. Bari: Cacucci.

Mariotti, Scevola. 1971. ‘Membri dell’Istituto scomparsi: Virgilio Paladini’. Studi Romani 19 (2): 167–68.

Piacente, Luigi. 2012. ‘Il progetto di un dizionario della lingua latina’. In Virgilio Paladini nel centenario della nascita. A cura degli allievi, 57–63. Bari: Cacucci.

Han Lamers