The inscription (1935) is visible on the façade of the former library of the University of Genoa (Via Balbi). Originally, it opened within the deconsecrated Jesuit church of Saints Jerome and Francis Xavier, which was constructed in 1658 and shut down in 1773. In the early 1930s, the church was adapted and reorganized to house a library. The new library was inaugurated on 21 December 1935 (De Pasquale 2024: 36). The author of the inscription is unknown.

The inscription, carved in Roman square capitals, is located on the wall between the two entrance doors. It emphasizes the building’s new cultural and educational function, aligning it with the Fascist idea of a new golden age. The phrase excolenda humanitas evokes Cicero’s philosophy on human development through culture and learning. It is noteworthy that the author somewhat contemptuously highlights that the building was once a church with the phrase Haec olim precibus data aedes. The author suggests that the ‘new age’ (nova aetas) has replaced the building’s previous religious function, as if symbolizing Fascism’s triumph over the Church (compare the contrasting use of olim and nunc). The author also appears to contrast preces (prayers) with libri (books), as if juxtaposing ‘superstition’ with ‘knowledge’, and the phrase precibus data aedes seems intentionally inelegant. Together with the conspicuous omission of Domini from the common dating formula anno Domini, this may very well signal an anticlerical attitude.

The establishment of the new library was supported by librarian Pietro Nurra (1871–1951) and jurist Mattia Moresco (1877–1946). The latter served as the rector of the University of Genoa from 1925 to 1943 and was senator from 1933 to 1943. Both might have been involved in creating and crafting the inscription.

The library was moved to a new building, the former Hotel Columbia (Via Balbi 40), in July 2014.

Bibliography

De Pasquale, Andrea. 2024. Gli spazi del sapere. L’edilizia delle biblioteche governative durante il Ventennio. Rome: Gangemi.

Franco, Giovanna and Musso, Stefano Francesco. 2022. ‘I Santi Girolamo e Francesco Saverio: da ex chiesa dei Gesuiti a Biblioteca della Regia Università di Genova (1926-1935)’. In Il Tempio delle Arti. Scritti per Lauro Magnani, edited by Laura Stagno, Daniele Sanguineti, 240–49. Genoa: Sagep.

Nurra, Pietro. 1936. ‘La nuova biblioteca universitaria di Genova’. Accademie e biblioteche d’Italia 10: 155–58.

Antonino Nastasi