These inscriptions are located in the New Courtyard (formerly known as Cortile Littorio) of Palazzo Bo, the main seat of the University of Padua (Via VIII Febbraio 2). The New Courtyard was designed by architect Ettore Fagiuoli (1884–1961) as part of the renovations promoted by the University’s rector, Carlo Anti (1889–1961).

The first inscription is placed beneath the imposing high relief sculpture created in 1939 by Attilio Selva (1888–1970), depicting the military commitment of students from the University of Padua (Semenzato 1979: 36). The author of the text is Concetto Marchesi, professor of Latin language and literature at the University of Padua (Franceschini 1978: 352), who certainly composed it at the request of rector Anti.

The first inscription is carved in capital letters from marble and fixed to the wall of the portico beneath Selva’s relief. The text’s content aligns with the relief’s iconography and commemorates the students and professors fallen in wars, particularly the wars of the Risorgimento, the First World War, and the African campaigns, while a new World War had just begun (Mantovani 1979: no. 22). The text consists of a hexameter (Hic vivunt, hic vigent, hic renovantur in aevum) followed by the first half of a hexameter with a caesura penthemimeres or hemiepes (tot bellorum animae). The latter is taken from Juvenal 2.156. The division between the two verses is graphically indicated in the inscription by the space in the second line separating the words aevum and tot. From a rhetorical perspective, it is interesting to note the anaphora of hic in the first verse and the alliteration of v(i-).

The author of the second inscription is unknown; however, it is plausible that it was also composed by Marchesi. The inscription is divided into two parts and positioned on the left and right of the façade facing the courtyard of the building that now houses the Faculty of Law (Mantovani 1979: nos. 24–25). The text should be read as a single unit. It is inscribed in Roman capitals, with the names and titles of King Victor Emmanuel (on the left) and Benito Mussolini (on the right) rendered in significantly bigger lettering than the rest of the text. Mussolini’s name has been chiseled away; however, over time, the plaster has eroded due to weathering, and today, it is fully legible. Instead, the Fascist dating has been erased.

The text of the second inscription commemorates the restoration and expansion efforts at the University of Padua that took place during Anti’s rectorship (1938–1942), specifically highlighting the completion of the Cortile Littorio in 1941.

Additional inscriptions from this period also remain at Palazzo Bo, celebrating the restoration works, including one on the façade (Mantovani 1979: no. 3), which is particularly notable for its distinctive dating: Gymnasii cognom(inis) Bovis / frontem vetustam / studiorum oppido / nunc demum terminato / ad magnificentiam Urbis / ad omnium artium / et disciplinarum sedem / amplius exorandam / Carolus Anti rector / aere publico collato / restituit / anno Sal(utis) MCMXXXVIII, a recup(eratis) fascibus [XVI] (‘The rector Carlo Anti, bearing the costs with public money, in 1938, during the Fascist era, having finally completed the stronghold of studies, restored the ancient façade of the University known as “Bo”, for the splendour of the city and to further adorn the seat of all arts and disciplines’). The ablative absolute used to indicate the year of the Fascist era is an alternative to the more common fascibus restitutis or restitutis fascibus. Also noteworthy is the use of the expression artium et disciplinarum sedes to refer to the University, a phrasing reminiscent of that found in the inscription in the New Courtyard. The façade of Palazzo Bo moreover features another Latin inscription from 1942 that celebrates the renovation works (Mantovani 1979: no. 10): Haec Studii pars / a(nno) D(omini) MDCCCLXXXIX / a solo exstructa / anno MCMXLII / tabernis remotis / aptior et pulchrior / perfecta est (‘This part of the University building, erected in 1889, was completed and embellished with the removal of the shops [below] in 1942’).

 Bibliography

Del Negro, Piero. 2011. ‘Gli studenti dell'Università di Padova caduti nelle due guerre mondiali’. In Università e le guerre dal Medioevo alla seconda guerra mondiale. Bologna: Clueb, 113

Franceschini, Ezio. 1978. ‘Marchesi epigrafista’. In Concetto Marchesi. Linee per l’interpretazione di un uomo inquieto, 352–66. Padova: Antenore.

Mantovani, Gilda. 1979. ‘Epigrafi e iscrizioni’. In Il Palazzo del Bo. Arte e storia, 175–211. Trieste: Lint.

Semenzato, Camillo. 1979. Il Palazzo del Bo. Arte e storia, 175–211. Trieste: Lint.

Lorenzo Di Simone