Vito Volterra and the making of research institution in Italy and abroad

The following pages, however, will not go into these aspects of his work, which are cited here mainly to point out the scientific standing of the scholar, but will describe other, no less important contributions that the distinguished mathematician made to research policies in Italy, as well as his dose ties with the international milieu before and after the Great War. After all, abroad, he was called Mister Italian Science, a nickname coined especially for him in 1918 by the famous American astronomer George Ellery Hale, who considered him "the leading spirit-Mr. Italiàn Science, if you will-of his embattled nation." This part of Volterra's activity was for a long time suppressed in our coun­ try due to the very effective operation of "damnatio memoriae " undertaken to his detriment by the Pascist regime which he strenuously opposed; it is indeed not an overstatement to affirm that Volterra's role in organizing the research system in Italy is of an importance comparable to his contribution to the progress of the scientific disciplines he tackled as a researcher.