Italo-Romanian Academic Relations in the Communist Period: the example of Rosa Del Conte

The purpose of this essay is to explore academic relations between Italy and Romania in the post-war period through the figure of Rosa Del Conte, professor of Romanian Language and Literature at Sapienza University in Rome (1958-1977), and internationally recognised scholar of the works of Mihai Eminescu. The study is conducted based on Del Conte’s correspondence during the period 1949-1989 with Romanian and Italian academic and governmental institutions, with particular attention to her exchanges with prominent Romanian cultural figures active both in Romania and abroad. We make use of documentary material held in Del Conte’s personal archive, which she donated to the Giuseppe Toniolo Institute of Higher Education, now available at the Library of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.