Raffaello Santarelli (1888–1966) was the most important compiler of Latin inscriptions during the ventennio fascista in Rome. He was a Latinist, poet and historian, member of Rome’s municipal advisory committee on toponymy (Commissione Consultiva di Toponomastica di Roma Capitale) and member of the editorial board of the journal Strenna dei Romanisti, which published essays, poems, stories, and images relating to Rome. Santarelli also contributed to the journal as an author and composed the Latin dedications of the numbers  2 to 5 (1941–1944) of the journal (see Digilio 2015: 226–32).

Santarelli composed almost every Latin text commissioned by the Governorate from 1925 to 1943. His commemorative inscriptions that date to the ventennio fascista all follow a similar pattern. Each of them opens with the mention, in absolute ablative, of the reign of king Victor Emmanuel III and Mussolini’s rule. These absolute ablatives precede the main proposition of the inscriptions, starting with the subject (usually the Municipality of Rome). Moreover, Santarelli called the governor of Rome, who was designed directly by Mussolini and replaced the mayor during the ventennio, praefectus Urbi(s) (on the title see the background information with the inscriptions in Palazzo Caffarelli and Villa Borghese). The text of Santarelli’s inscriptions in the Municipal Antiquarium on Caelian Hill (1929) and in the area of ancient Forum Boarium (nowadays Piazza della Bocca della Verità), which are no longer extant, are unknown (see Nastasi 686–87, 705).

Santarelli continued his activity as a Latin writer after the end of the Fascist regime for the democratic Comune di Roma. He composed, for instance, the inscriptions for the monuments in Rome and Paris that celebrate the twinning between the two cities; he also wrote the Latin dedication for the 25^th issue of the Strenna dei Romanisti in 1964.

Bibliography

Barberito, Manlio, Umberto Mariotti Bianchi, Antonio Martini, and Armando Ravaglioli. 2002. Romanisti di ieri. Sommario di notizie bio-bibliografiche dei Soci scomparsi fino al 2002. Palestrina: ITL, 125.

Digilio, Girolamo. 2015. ‘I Romanisti che ho conosciuto e le Strenne degli anni 1940-1944’. Strenna dei Romanisti 76: 217–35.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870-2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar.

Antonino Nastasi