Rodolfo Mondolfo Archive

The archive is one of two collections belonging to the philosopher from the Marche region. The other is held at the Turati Foundation in Florence. The full inventory of the collection, compiled by Stefano Vitali and Piero Giordanetti, is freely accessible in digital format.

The two parts are arranged in chronological order: the one held in Florence covers the period from 1900 to 1939, while the materials from 1939 until Mondolfo’s death are preserved in Milan.

The largest part of the archive housed in the library comprises documents produced during Mondolfo’s exile in South America and come from the Dante Alighieri Foundation in Buenos Aires. The collection is further enriched by documentation of his university lectures—first in Turin, then Bologna—dating back to 1910, which integrates the core materials held in Florence.

Archive Contents

The Rodolfo Mondolfo archival collection comprises 927 folders, organised into five series, some of which are further subdivided:

• Biography (folders 1–5)
• Correspondence (folders 6–446)
• Writings by Rodolfo Mondolfo (folders 447–689)
• Writings about Rodolfo Mondolfo (folders 690–925)
• Newspaper clippings of articles by and about Mondolfo (folders 926–927)

The Biography series contains documents relating both to Mondolfo’s academic career and his military service.

The Correspondence series has been divided into several sections: firstly, family correspondence (folders 6–20), followed by a folder (21) containing original letters by Rodolfo Mondolfo addressed to both correspondents within the collection and those who do not appear in the general correspondence. The general correspondence (folders 22–413) is organised alphabetically by correspondent and, within each correspondent, in chronological order. Of note are two folders for unidentified correspondents (folders 412–413) and one containing miscellaneous sheets and notes. Finally, the series includes correspondence with publishing houses (folders 414–446).

The third series comprises two types of documents: Writings by Mondolfo (folders 447–596) and handwritten notes and manuscripts by Mondolfo (folders 447–595). These are followed by reading notes derived from philosophical and critical texts consulted by Mondolfo (folders 596–600). These reading notes are grouped into five folders: the first four retain their original format, while the last one collects notes that were originally dispersed throughout the archive. The contents of each folder are arranged alphabetically by author. Also included are manuscript and/or typewritten drafts of entries prepared for various encyclopaedias, both Italian and international (folders 601–625). In addition, there are notes prepared by Mondolfo for university lectures (folders 626–655), as well as typewritten handouts prepared by students from his lectures (folders 656–674). The series concludes with printed writings by Mondolfo held in the archive (folders 675–689). Where available, original folder titles have been preserved. If the original title is missing, the title—neither in quotation marks nor in italics—was assigned by the curator. Each document is accompanied by an indication of whether it is a manuscript, typescript or set of notes, along with the number of sheets. Where possible, explanatory notes are provided, including cross-references to the bibliography compiled by Sergio Anselmi. Items with known dates were catalogued first, followed by undated documents, which are arranged alphabetically by title.

The Writings about Mondolfo series (folders 690–925) is subdivided into: writings about Mondolfo (folders 690–871); writings about Mondolfo signed with initials (folder 872); anonymous writings about Mondolfo (folders 873–918); undated and unsigned writings about Mondolfo (folder 919); and an appendix (folders 920–925) containing materials not related to Mondolfo but found in the collection. The documents about Mondolfo are arranged alphabetically by author and, within each folder, in chronological order. Incomplete titles have been supplemented.

The fifth series, Newspaper clippings (folders 926–927), gathers articles written by Mondolfo for daily, weekly or monthly newspapers, as well as clippings from similar publications in which Mondolfo is mentioned. These are arranged in chronological order by date of publication and have not been catalogued in detail.

An inventory of the two parts of the Mondolfo Collection—one held in Florence at the Filippo Turati Foundation for Historical Studies and the other, described above, acquired by the Department of Philosophy and held in Milan—was compiled by S. Vitali and P. Giordanetti and published in 1996 in the Pubblicazioni degli Archivi di Stato series (Strumenti 26) by the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, Central Office for Archival Heritage.

As part of the reorganisation, photocopies of Mondolfo’s letters to his correspondents were acquired from the archives of Vittore Enzo Alfieri, Margherita Isnardi Parente and Mario Untersteiner.

Bibliography on Rodolfo Mondolfo

• Giuseppe Riconda, Mondolfo e Barth, Torino, 1965.
• Luciano Vernetti, Rodolfo Mondolfo e la filosofia della prassi, Napoli, 1966.
• «Critica sociale», 20 dic. 1967 (numero monografico dedicato a Mondolfo).
• D. F. Prò, Rodolfo Mondolfo, 2 voll., Buenos Aires, 1967-68.
• Enrico Bassi, Rodolfo Mondolfo nella vita e nel pensiero socialista, Bologna, 1968.
• Giacomo Marramao, Marxismo e revisionismo in Italia (dalla «Critica sociale» al dibattito sul leninismo), Bari, 1971.
• Norberto Bobbio, Luciano Pellicani, Renato Treves, L'umanesimo socialista di Rodolfo Mondolfo, Milano, 1977.
• Eugenio Garin, Filosofia e marxismo nell'opera di Rodolfo Mondolfo, Firenze, 1979.
• Andrea Santucci (a cura di), Pensiero antico e pensiero moderno in Rodolfo Mondolfo, Bologna, 1979.
• M.P. Falcone, Individuo e società. L'itinerario filosofico del primo Mondolfo, in "Trimestre", XIV (1981), pp. 271-281.
• Eugenio Garin, “Rodolfo Mondolfo”, in Id., Tra due secoli. Socialismo e filosofia in Italia dopo l'Unità, Bari, 1983, pp. 204-234.
• Rita Medici, “Rodolfo Mondolfo: forza e violenza nella storia (1915-1923)”, in Filosofia e scienza a Bologna tra il 1860 e il 1920, a cura di G. Oldrini, W. Tega, Bologna 1990, pp. 225-244.
• Rita Medici, Mondolfo, Gramsci e la filosofia della prassi, in «Dianoia», 2 (1997), pp. 173-193.
• Massimo Pasquini, Del Vecchio, Il kantismo giuridico e la sua incidenza nell'elaborazione di Rodolfo Mondolfo, Città di Castello, 1999.
• Rita Medici, “Tra storia della filosofia e filosofia della cultura: l'esempio di Rodolfo Mondolfo”, in Le nuove frontiere della storiografia filosofica, Atti del 1° Convegno nazionale della Società italiana di Storia della filosofia, Messina (13-15 giugno 2002), Soveria Mannelli, 2003, pp. 127-45.
• Galliano Crinella (a cura di), Rodolfo Mondolfo, 1877-1976, Fabriano, 2006.
• Carmelo Calabrò, Il socialismo mite. Rodolfo Mondolfo tra marxismo e democrazia, Firenze, 2007.
• Paolo Favilli, MONDOLFO, Rodolfo, in «Treccani. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani», Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2011.
• Elisabetta Amalfitano, Dalla parte dell'essere umano. Il socialismo di Rodolfo Mondolfo, L'asino d'oro, Roma, 2012.
• Fabio Frosini, Mondolfo, Rodolfo in «Treccani. Il Contributo italiano alla storia del Pensiero: Filosofia», Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2012.