Giovanni Vailati Archive

Donated in March 1959 to what was then the Institute of the History of Philosophy of the University of Milan by the philosopher’s nephew, Enzo Vailati, the archive was fully reorganised and catalogued during the 1996/97 academic year by Lucia Ronchetti. An updated inventory, enhanced with high-resolution digitised images, is now available online on the La Statale Archivi portal.

The archive reflects the richness of the philosopher’s interests and the process behind the writing of his works. It comprises three main parts: the first is a large correspondence collection. The letters were either written by the philosopher or, more often, sent to him by family members, friends, and figures from Italian and international culture (Benedetto Croce, Ernst Mach, Giovanni Papini, Vilfredo Pareto, Giuseppe Peano, Orazio Premoli, Giuseppe Prezzolini, Giovanni Vacca, Victoria Welby). The second section contains outlines and materials intended for an unpublished work on the “spirit”. The third section includes notebooks and notes.

Archive Contents

(by Luisa Ronchetti)

The archive is structured under four headings, each with further sub-series:

1. Correspondence

• Correspondence organised by correspondent (files 1–224)
• Postcard fragments (file 225)
• Addresses (file 226)
• Invitations to conferences (file 227)
• Advertisements, communications from cultural institutions (file 228)
• Invoices and bank receipts (file 229)
• Empty envelopes (file 230)
• Transcriptions (files 231–237)

2. Manuscripts

• School notebooks (files 238–247)
• Notebooks (files 248–276)
• Personal filing system (files 277–330)
• Teaching materials (files 331–341)
• Documents relating to the Royal Commission on the Reform of Secondary Education (files 342–348)

3. Material for publication (files 349–431)
4. Offprints (files 432–1655)

The correspondence is primarily arranged alphabetically by correspondent. Individual files have been created for each correspondent, with letters filed chronologically within each folder. Each file is described using the following criteria:

• an identifying number is assigned and referenced in the index;
• each file is labelled with the standard string “Carteggio” (Correspondence), followed by the surname and forename of the correspondent;
• the date range of the correspondence is indicated;
• letters sent to Vailati and those written by Vailati are described in separate subfolders. Additional subfolders may contain letters to the correspondent from third parties or photocopies of published correspondence;
• each item is described with the indication of the chronological date and place of writing, type of medium (postcard, letter, telegram, etc.), and of the form of writing when not handwritten (e.g. typewritten, printed); letterhead if present; the addressee, where possible, in the abbreviated form of initials followed by the city; quantity if more than one item; language; condition; the Roman numeral assigned to most letters at the time of donation; and any additional reference numbers from later publications.

Notes provide brief information about the sender to help interpret the correspondence, a short summary of the content, and indicate whether the material is a photocopy.

The notes also list any published items.

Each file description includes the archival reference number (box and file) for locating the documents.

After the alphabetical correspondence files, six additional files are included: (file 225) unidentified postcard fragments; (file 226) addresses and name lists in Vailati’s handwriting; (file 227) invitations to conferences, banquets, inaugurations; (file 228) advertisements, institutional communications; (file 229) invoices and bank receipts; and (file 230) empty envelopes.

Next comes the description of the second documentary series: the manuscripts. First are the school notebooks belonging to Vailati and others from his relatives and acquaintances, arranged alphabetically by author.

Then come the so-called “notes”: small diaries used from 1880 onwards by the philosopher from Crema. They contain shorthand entries with quotations, addresses, expenses, correspondence sent and received, etc. The first pages usually show the date when use of the notebook began. These are essential sources for reconstructing Vailati’s biography. Next is the “teaching material” series, which includes lecture notes, student work, exercises, and documents relating to the Royal Commission on secondary school reform, which Vailati joined in 1905.

The third series includes publication material: notes and manuscripts intended for publication. Multiple stages of writing are often preserved – from preliminary notes to handwritten drafts, typed versions, print proofs and offprints.

The same cataloguing rules used for the correspondence have been applied to the manuscripts and publication material:

• each file has a progressive number continuing from the correspondence series;
• original file titles appear in quotation marks;
• where possible, the date range is given;
• where necessary, the content is summarised;
• medium type and number of items are noted;
• each entry includes the box and file reference.

Then comes the catalogue of offprints, bound in thirty volumes labelled “Misc. G.V.”. There are around 1,000 offprints, each catalogued individually and searchable in the OPAC with the following information:

• progressive number;
• date;
• author, if known;
• title of the offprint;
• name of the journal, if known;
• location.

Lastly, a name index has been compiled, where each entry refers to the progressive number assigned to each file or offprint.

Close collaboration was maintained with the organising committee of the Vailati conference scheduled for May 1998 in Crema.

Two degree theses on Vailati were discussed during the 1996/97 academic year, and copies were requested to be added to the archive.

Biography of Giovanni Vailati

1863: Giovanni Vailati is born in Crema to Vincenzo Vailati and Teresa Albergoni.

1874: He enters the Collegio di San Francesco in Lodi, which was run by the Barnabite Fathers, as a boarder.

1880: He enrols in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Turin, graduating in engineering and pure mathematics.

1888: He returns to Crema and dedicates himself to studying modern languages while cultivating various cultural interests, particularly music, with a preference for Bach and Wagner.

1892: At the invitation of the mathematician Giuseppe Peano, he becomes assistant in infinitesimal calculus at the University of Turin.

1895: He is appointed assistant in projective geometry and later honorary assistant to Prof. Vito Volterra.

1896: He turns his attention to research in the history of science.

1896–1899: He delivers three free courses on the history of mechanics; the programmes and three inaugural lectures remain.

1899: He voluntarily leaves university teaching and requests to work in secondary education. He teaches mathematics at the private high school in Pinerolo, then at the high school in Siracusa. During his time in Sicily, he meets the philosopher Franz Brentano.

1900: At the beginning of the school year, he is transferred to the Technical Institute in Bari. In the summer, he attends the International Congresses of Philosophy and Psychology in Paris.

1901: In October, he is transferred to Como.

1902: He travels to Austria to stay with Franz Brentano’s family for a period.

1903: He takes part in the International Historical Congress in Rome and spends the summer in London and Cambridge.

1904: Alongside Mario Calderoni and Giovanni Papini, he participates in the International Congress of Philosophy in Geneva. He is appointed to teach at the Galileo Technical Institute in Florence and is commissioned by the Accademia dei Lincei to edit the national edition of E. Torricelli’s works.

1905: In November, he is appointed to the Royal Commission for the reform of secondary schools and moves to Rome.

1906: He travels to Paris with Calderoni and Papini.

1908: He attends the International Congresses of Philosophy in Heidelberg and of Mathematics in Rome. In December, he falls ill while in Florence.

1909: Hoping to recover, he moves to Rome, but his condition worsens. He dies on the evening of 14 May.

Bibliography by Giovanni Vailati

• Scritti di G. Vailati, 1863-1909, Leipzig, J. A. Barth, Firenze, Successori B. Seeber, 1911.
• con M. Calderoni; Il pragmatismo; a cura di Giovanni Papini, Lanciano, R. Carabba, 1920.
• Il metodo della filosofia; saggi scelti a cura di F. Rossi-Landi, Bari, Laterza, 1957.
• Scritti di metodologia scientifica e di analisi del linguaggio; introduzione e note di Michele F. Sciacca, Milano, Principato, 1959.
• Epistolario, 1891-1909; a cura di Giorgio Lanaro; introduzione di Mario Dal Pra; con un Ricordo di Giovanni Vailati di Luigi Einaudi, Torino, Einaudi, 1971.
• Scritti filosofici; a cura di Giorgio Lanaro, Napoli, Rossi, 1972.
• Antonio Gramsci; testi di Vailati ... [et al.] Scritti 1915-1921. Inediti dal Grido del popolo e dall'Avanti con una antologia dal Grido del Popolo; a cura di Sergio Caprioglio, Milano, Moizzi, 1976.
• Scritti, a cura di Mario Quaranta, Sala Bolognese, A. Forni, 1987 (3 volumi).
• G. Vailati, G. Amato Pojero, Epistolario, 1898-1908; a cura di Antonio Brancaforte, Milano, Franco Angeli, 1993.
• Il metodo della filosofia. Saggi di critica del linguaggio; a cura di Ferruccio Rossi Landi, Bari, Graphis, 2000.
• Gli strumenti della ragione; a cura di Mario Quaranta, Padova, Il poligrafo, 2003.
• Logic and pragmatism. Selected essays, Claudia Arrighi ... [et al.] (a cura di); Claudia Arrighi (tradotto da), Stanford, CSLI, 2010.
• Benedetto Croce, Giovanni Vailati, Carteggio (1899-1905); a cura di Cinzia Rizza, Roma, Bonanno, 2006.
• Scritti dal Leonardo; a cura di Luca Natali, Napoli, Bibliopolis, 2024.

Bibliography on Giovanni Vailati

• Giuseppe Peano, In Memoriam di Giovanni Vailati, in “Bollettino di matematica”, 8 (1909), pp. 206-7.
• Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, Nota introduttiva a Giovanni Vailati, Il metodo della filosofia. Saggi di critica del linguaggio, Bari, Laterza 1957.
• Eugenio Garin, Giovanni Vailati nella cultura italiana del suo tempo, in “Rivista critica di storia della filosofia”, n. 3, 1963, pp. 275-293.
• Antonio Santucci, Il pragmatismo in Italia, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1963.
• Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, Giovanni Vailati, in P. Edwards (editor), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Collier Macmillan, 1967.
• Giorgio Lanaro, Introduzione a Giovanni Vailati, Scritti filosofici, Napoli, Fulvio Rossi, 1972.
• Mario Dal Pra, Studi sul pragmatismo italiano, Napoli, Bibliopolis, 1984.
• E. Bianco, Il problema morale nella coscienza filosofica di Giovanni Vailati, in “Filosofia oggi”, 1985, pp. 655-692.
• Mario Quaranta (a cura di), Giovanni Vailati nella cultura del '900, Sala Bolognese, A. Forni, 1989.
• Maria Assunta Del Torre, Mauro M. De Zan, Luisa Ronchetti, Su Giovanni Vailati, in “Rivista di storia della filosofia”, 2000, pp. 105-111.
• Ivor Grattan-Guinness, The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940, Princeton University Press, 2000.
• Roberto Spirito, Giovanni Vailati. Il senso della scienza, Roma, SEAM, 2000.
• Mauro De Zan (a cura di), I mondi di carta di Giovanni Vailati, Milano, F. Angeli, 2000.
• Fabio Minazzi (a cura di), Giovanni Vailati intellettuale europeo, Atti del Convegno di Spongano (Lecce), 12 aprile 2003, in appendice il carteggio inedito di Giovanni Vailati con Vito Volterra, Milano, Thélema, 2006.
• Massimo Ferrari, Non solo idealismo. Filosofi e filosofie in Italia tra Ottocento e Novecento, Firenze, Le Lettere, 2006, pp. 141-204.
• Mauro De Zan, 1909-2009 : cent'anni di edizioni di studi vailatiani, in “Annuario del Centro studi Giovanni Vailati”, 2008-2009, pp. 75-93.
• Ivan Pozzoni (a cura di), Cent'anni di Giovanni Vailati, Villasanta, Liminamentis, 2009.
• Mauro De Zan, La formazione di Giovanni Vailati, Galatina, Congedo, 2009.
• Massimo Ferrari, Heidelberg 1908. Giovanni Vailati, Wilhem Jerusalem e il pragmatismo americano, in “Giornale critico della filosofia italiana”, 2010, pp. 9-31.
• C. Arrighi, P. Cantù, M. De Zan, P. Suppes (a cura di), Logic and Pragmatism. Selected Essays by Giovanni Vailati, CSLI, Stanford, California, 2010.
• Gabriella Sava, La psicologia tra Vailati e Brentano, in “Il Veltro”, n. 1-2, gennaio-aprile 2010 (LIV), pp. 41-59.
• Martina Del Castello, Giulio. A. Lucchetta (a cura di), Papini, Vailati e la Cultura dell'anima: Atti dei convegni di studio, Chieti, maggio 2009 e gennaio 2010, Lanciano, Carabba, 2011.
• Fabio Minazzi, Giovanni Vailati epistemologo e maestro, Milano, Mimesis, 2011.
• Massimo Mugnai, VAILATI, Giovanni, in «Treccani. Il Contributo italiano alla storia del Pensiero: Filosofia», Roma, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2012.
• Giovanni Maddalena, Giovanni Tuzet, Giovanni Vailati and the Art of Reasoning in Giovanni Maddalena and Giovanni Tuzet, (a cura di), The Italian Pragmatists. Between Allies and Enemies, Brill, 2020, pp. 1-16.