"Le fondazioni di una nuova supremazia spirituale"

The inauguration cerimony for the new campus designed by Marcello Piacentini, held on October 31st 1935, in coincidence with the start of Italy’s war against Ethiopia, represented a crucial turning point, after a period of crisis during which the University of Rome had played only a secondary role in the Italian cultural system. This essay reconstructs how the Academic Senate and the Heads of the University experienced this event. The decision to build the largest university in the Mediterranean area was strictly connected, in Mussolini’s intent, with the idea of the imperial and civilizing mission of fascist Italy. Hence the Studium Urbis was built in a single location, in a unified architectural style, and was given a strong military imprint, which replaced the previous political and collegiate tradition. The cultural heart of the Empire would now exalt the youth educated in fascist doctrine, believing in its values and its myths; a generation obedient to hierarchy, authority, and discipline and ready for war under the Duce’s leadership. The inauguration cerimony, which took place in the presence of Mussolini and the King of Italy, over two separate days, reflects this climate of material and spiritual mobilization for the imperial destiny of fascist Italy.

L'articolo ricostruisce la storia della decisione di creare a Roma una Università degna della Capitale. Ne precisa le motivazioni politiche e culturali. Racconta gli eventi dei due giorni dell'inaugurazione della Sapienza piacentiniana, alla presenza di Mussolini e del Re e la loro connessione con la guerra d'Etiopia, iniziata da meno di un mese.