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Rome (IT), Sapienza, University of Rome, rectorate [deleted] - 1935

PEOPLE
Amatucci, Aurelio Giuseppe
THEMES/GENRES
Benito Mussolini Education City of Rome
Victorio Emmanuele III regnante / hanc novam amplissimamq(ue) universitatis sedem / Benitus Mussolini / anno p(ost) Ch(ristum) n(atum) MCMXXXII, a fasc(ibus) rest(itutis) X, / aedificandam decrevit, / Marcelli Piacentini archit(ecti) ingenio curaq(ue) extructam / pridie kal(endas) Nov(embris) a(nno) XIV a fasc(ibus) rest(itutis) / Petro De Francisci studiorum rectore / dedicavit.
Under the reign of Victor Emmanuel III, Benito Mussolini decreed that this new and very spacious seat of the university had to be built in the year 1932 after the birth of Christ, the 10th year of the Fascist era, and inaugurated it, once it was built thanks to the genius and care of the architect Marcello Piacentini, on 31 October in the 14th year of the Fascist era, when Pietro De Francisci was rector of the university.
 
 
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The inscription (1935) could be read in the entrance hall of the rectorate at the campus (‘Città Universitaria’) of ‘Sapienza’ University (then called ‘Università di Roma’). The author of the text was Aurelio Giuseppe Amatucci (Nastasi 2022: 214–16). The inscription was deleted in 1944 (Billi 2021: 276), but traces of the nail holes can be still seen.

The inscription was in Roman square capitals, made of bronze letters affixed to the marble plaque over the door to the Aula Magna, facing the entrance of the rectorate.

The text briefly summarized the construction history of the Città Universitaria, begun in 1932 and completed in 1935, emphasizing the role of Mussolini and mentioning both the architect Marcello Piacentini (1881–1960) and the rector Pietro De Francisci (1883–1971). The remarkable use of the dating formula post Christum natum reflects Amatucci’s chief academic expertise, which was in Christian literature (see also the explicit of the Codex Fori Mussolini). Furthermore, the university is indicated first by the term universitas, then by the plural studia, while Vincenzo Ussani in his inscriptions for the Città Universitaria consistently used the singular studium (see inscriptions no. 1 and 2 of Sapienza’s Città Universitaria).

The inscription was part of a bronze decoration including a medallion of the head of the goddess Minerva, representing knowledge (‘sapienza’ in Italian), by the sculptor Mirko Basaldella (1910–1969); this sculpture was set above the inscription and is still extant.

 

Bibliography

Billi, Eliana. 2021. ‘“Lavori urgenti” e restauri nella Città universitaria di Roma. Caronia, Toesca e il murale di Sironi’. In Storie nascoste. Studi per Paolo Simoncelli, edited by Stefano Dall’Aglio, Alessandro Guerra, and Michaela Valente, 273–87. Milan: Franco Angeli.

Mitrano, Ida. 2008. La Sapienza 1932-1935: arte architettura e storia. I documenti del Consorzio per l’assetto edilizio della Regia Università di Roma. Rome: Università La Sapienzia, 111.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870-2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 722–23.

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





Antonino Nastasi

 

Inscription in the entrance hall of the rectorate of Sapienza University (Mitrano 2008, fig. 35).


Present day wall with Minerva medallion and inscription removed © A. Nastasi (Rome).


Present day wall of inscription still showing traces of nail holes © A. Nastasi (Rome).