The volume “Friendship and erudition – the scientific correspondence between Bartolomeo Borghesi and Luigi Nardi” was presented to the Regency
Discovering the themes, styles, ideas and sensitivities that characterized the cultural debate of the first half of the nineteenth century between Titano and Romagna, thanks to the publication and analysis of 130 letters exchanged between the epigraphist and numismatist Bartolomeo Borghesi, who lived part of his life in the republic, and Luigi Nardi, antiquarian and theologian.
This is the possibility offered by reading the latest book published by the University of the Republic of San Marino, edited by the San Marino Center for Historical Studies and entitled “Friendship and erudition”. The volume signed by Alfredo Sansone, research fellow at the Italian Institute for Ancient History and in the past student of the Higher School of Historical Studies of the University of San Marino, proposes and contextualises unpublished material from which "first of all emerges the civil commitment which, both even in different ways and forms", Borghesi and Nardi "have carried forward in the more or less large and important local communities in which they found themselves operating as men of culture, organizing academic assemblies, organizing libraries, archives and collections", as well as " taking a position in the intellectual and political debate of the time".
These words are reported in the preface entrusted to Silvia Orlandi, professor at the La Sapienza University of Rome: "The distinctly multidisciplinary character of the training and scientific production" of the two men of culture, we read again, ranges from numismatics to diplomacy, from 'epigraphy to philology. This "always keeping in mind the Vico ideal of history as a science, that is, as technical and structured knowledge that requires the use of a correct methodology. A lesson that is still valid today – continues Orlandi in the introduction to the book – especially at a time when the specialization and fragmentation of knowledge risks limiting, if not adequately supported by an authentic collaborative spirit, our horizons of study and research”.
The volume of the San Marino Center for Historical Studies, presented today to the Captains Regent Filippo Tamagnini and Gaetano Troina during an audience at Palazzo Pubblico, finally represents an opportunity for reflection on the work of tomorrow's scholars: “One wonders – concludes Orlandi – what will remain of modern-day intellectual exchanges, often involving emails, WhatsApp comments, social media posts and voice recordings. Contents entrusted to media that are much more volatile than paper, apparently fragile, yet still readable centuries later".
