Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci (Sorbo Serpico 1867 – Rome 1960) was a classical philologist, specializing in Plautus and early Christian literature, as well as a teacher and school inspector. Before Amatucci embarked on his academic career, he taught Latin and Greek in several secondary schools in southern Italy. He took up a lectureship of Latin at the Royal University of Palermo (1911–1914) and thereafter taught as a freelance university teacher (libero docente) in Palermo, Naples, and Rome for approximately twenty years. Apart from his scholarly endeavours and teaching duties, Amatucci was also part of Italy’s educational administration in various capacities: he served as a school inspector (from 1910 onwards) and chaired the Inspectorate of the Palermo region (1917–1921). In 1913, he was awarded a knighthood in the Order of the Crown of Italy on the recommendation of the Minister of Education Luigi Credaro (1860–1939).

Under the Fascist regime, Amatucci continued his career in administration and academia. In 1925, he was appointed national inspector of secondary schools at the Ministry of National Education and moved to Rome, where he spent most of his subsequent life. In the capital city, he was an active member of the Institute for Roman Studies (Istituto di Studi Romani), founded by Carlo Galassi Paluzzi (1893–1972) in 1925 and operating under the honorary presidency of Benito Mussolini. Amatucci contributed, among other things, to the Institute’s promotion of Latin and sat on the steering committee that supervised the organisation of national competitions in Latin prose and conversation (for the details of his involvement, see Lamers and Reitz-Joosse 2017: 13–14). He also served as secretary of the Committee for the publication of the national editions of Greek and Latin classics, instigated by the Minister of Education, Pietro Fedele (1925–1929), and executed iussu Beniti Mussolini (Scotti and Cristiano 2002: 345–351). After he resigned his position of inspector in September 1935, Amatucci succeeded Gino Funaioli (1878–1958) as the chair of Latin at the University Sacro Cuore at Milan, a position which he maintained until his retirement in 1944. He remained active as a scholar until his death in Rome in April 1960 (for his biography, see Nazzaro 2009: 21–44 with Lamers and Reitz-Joosse 2017: 10–15 for his engagement with Fascism).

While Amatucci specialized in Roman comedy and early Christian literature, he published widely on Roman history and Latin literature in general. Additionally, he published several books for the wider audience and for use at schools, including a general handbook on classical archaeology (1898), a history of the ancient Mediterranean (1909–1910), and a handbook on imperial Latin literature (1947) (an extensive overview of his publications is offered in Nazzaro 2009: 131–147). Although Amatucci was not a prolific author of Latin, the Codex Fori Mussolini was not the only text he published in the language. In 1897, for example, he published a small volume of Latin elegies, dedicated to his wife Clotilde Malvano (Amatucci 1897). Amatucci was known for his outspoken ideas about the role of Latin literature in Italian education. He regarded the language as a fitting medium to glorify Italy’s ‘Roman’ revival under Mussolini and even presented laxity in Latin studies as an act of “true civil desertion” (Amatucci 1930: 49) (on his views on Fascist Latinity, see further Lamers and Reitz-Joosse 2017: 16–27).

Bibliography

Latin texts

Amatucci, Aurelio Giuseppe. 1907. Ruri. Naples: Typis Regiae studiorum Universitatis.

———. 1932. ‘Codex Fori Mussolini’. Bollettino dell’Opera Balilla 7 (2).

———. 1933a. Codex Fori Mussolini. Florence: Le Monnier.

———. 1933b. ‘Codex Fori Mussolini’. Scuola e cultura: Annali dell'istruzione media 9 (2): 153–58.

———. 1937. ‘[Codex Fori Mussolini]’. In Il Foro Mussolini, edited by Opera Nazionale Balilla, 103–4. Milan: Bompiani.

Selection of other relevant works

Amatucci, Aurelio Giuseppe. 1929. ‘Il Latino e la nostra rinascita nazionale’. Scuola e cultura: Annali dell'istruzione media 5: 12-25.

———. 1930. ‘Il tradurre in latino e lo spirito classico’. Scuola e cultura: Annali dell'istruzione media 6: 42–51.

———. 1942. ‘La preparazione degli insegnanti di latino’. Aevum: Rassegna di scienze storiche linguistiche e filologiche 16 (2): 191–97.

———. 1948. A che serve questo latino? Colloqui di un vecchio brontolone col pubblico colto. Città di Castello: Tipografia dell’Unione arti grafiche.

Secondary sources

Lamers, Han, and Bettina Reitz-Joosse. 2016a. ‘Lingua Lictoria: The Latin Literature of Italian Fascism’. Classical Receptions Journal 8 (2): 216–52.

———. 2016b. The Codex Fori Mussolini: A Latin Text of Italian Fascism. London [etc.]: Bloomsbury.

Nazzaro, Antonio V., ed. 2009. Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci: Avellino 2 settembre 1867-Roma 22 aprile 1960. Atti della Giornata di studi, Sorbo Serpico 26 maggio 2007. Avellino: Elio Sellino.

Scotti, Mario, and Flavia Cristiano. 2002. Storia e bibliografia delle edizioni nazionali. Milan: Bonnard.

Han Lamers & Bettina Reitz-Joosse