These inscriptions (1934) can be read in the entry hall of the “Carlo Forlanini” hospital, inaugurated by Benito Mussolini on 1 December 1934. Their author is unknown. The hospital was commissioned by the Fascist National Welfare Institute (Istituto Nazionale Fascista per la Previdenza Sociale, shortened INFPS, nowadays INPS) for the treatment of the tuberculosis. Before Mussolini decided to rename the hospital after the inventor of artificial pneumothorax, Carlo Forlanini (1847–1918), in 1935, it was called the “Benito Mussolini” hospital.

The text of the inscriptions is in relief sans-serif capitals. The inscriptions serve as captions for the six relief panels that are sculpted on the hall’s back wall. The panels are grouped in three rows of two panels each, divided by a rectangular pilaster. Inscription 1 refers to the first and second panel in the superior register; inscription 2 and inscription 3 refer to the middle register’s third and fourth panel respectively; inscription 4 refers to the fifth and sixth panel in the lower register of the relief.

The stone panels were sculpted by Arrigo Minerbi (1881–1960) and celebrate specific aspects of Fascist policy aimed at improving public health (pulmonary in particular). The first two panels in the upper register represent physical education. Each of these two panels follows a tripartite structure, with each section depicting a different sport: sprinting, javelin throwing, discus throwing (first panel), boxing, the shot put, and race running (second panel). The text of inscription 1 puts body and mind in opposition. In the middle register, the third (left) panel represents motherhood and childhood. The text of inscription 2 has the rhythm (not the quantities) of a dactylic hexameter and evokes the National Organization for Maternity and Child Welfare (Opera Nazionale Maternità e Infanzia, ONMI) which the regime created in 1925 with the purpose of increasing birth rates. The fourth (right) panel in the same register represents the regime-organized summer camps at the seaside (the colonie marittime), while the text of inscription 3 specifically refers to heliotherapy, then prescribed as a remedy against tuberculosis. The fifth and sixth panels in the lower register together represent works of reclamation and plowing. They refer to the Battle of Land, proclaimed by Mussolini in 1928 to promote the draining of marshes (and the Pontine Marshes in particular) in order to make them suitable for cultivation and to reduce national health risks. The text of inscription 4 puts the past (olim) and the Fascist present (nunc) in opposition to each other. Its phrasing resembles the inscription (1930) still in the residential building in Viale delle Provincie 11-21: Ubi erat silva et umbra nunc vita et amor (“Where there were forest and shadow, now there is life and love”; Nastasi 2019: 431–33).

In the central pilaster of the bas-relief, at the height of the upper and middle register, there was an Italian inscription, which has since been removed. It was followed by a relief of three fasces, also now removed, at the height of the middle and lower register. The texts of the inscription ran as follows: “Il fascista com/prende la vita / come dovere, e/levazione, con/quista: la vita / che deve esse/re alta e piena, / vissuta per sé / ma soprattutto / per gli altri, / vicini e lontani, / presenti e fu/turi. / Mussolini. / A(nno) XIII e(ra) f(ascista)” (“The fascist understands life as duty, elevation, conquest: life which must be high and full, lived for oneself but especially for others, near and far, present and future”) (an image of the relief showing the original Italian inscription is available in Anonymous 1940). The inscription cited from the essay ‘Dottrina del fascismo’ (‘Fascism’s Doctrine’), published in 1932 in the Enciclopedia Treccani as part of the entry ‘Fascismo’. The second section of this entry, entitled ‘Dottrina politica e sociale’ (‘Political and Social Doctrine’), was authored by Mussolini. While the Italian inscription and the fasces were deleted after WWII, traces of them can be still seen on the pilaster.

The hospital building was designed by the architect Ugo Giovannozzi (1876–1957). It was closed in 2015 and is currently being renovated and repurposed. In the near future, it is projected to host the European Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

Bibliography

Anonymous. 1940. ‘I.N.F.P.S. – Ospedale Sanatoriale e Istituto «C. Forlanini» - Roma. Aspetti della bonifica igienico-sociale in un bassorilievo dello scultore Minerbi nell’atrio dell’Istituto’. Difesa sociale 19 (3): tab between 262–63.

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

———. 2022. ‘Iscrizioni in latino postunitarie di Roma: un aggiornamento’. Rationes Rerum 19: 201–28.

Antonino Nastasi