Description

Historians investigating the figure of Alcide De Gasperi rely on a huge amount of heterogeneous documents: political writings and public speeches, newspaper articles, memoirs, diaries, oral history sources and letters. Though his correspondence appears very promising, so far it has been underestimated. A certain number of documents have been published in studies and collections of letters aimed at investigating the figures of De Gasperi and his correspondents; however, there are many more letters unpublished and a part of them are still unknown to the historians. This huge documental heritage might be of utmost importance to understand the many facets of the private and public life of the main Italian statesman of the twentieth century. More than sixty years have passed since Alcide De Gasperi’s death and yet we lack a systematic bibliographical study aimed at reconstructing his epistolary network as well as a critical documental edition that collects and organizes the letters written and received by him according to chronological, thematic and geographical criteria. In order to achieve these goals, Fondazione Trentina Alcide De Gasperi, Fondazione Bruno Kessler and Istituto Luigi Sturzo, together with the statesman’s family represented by Mrs Maria Romana De Gasperi, created a partnership and developed a multi-year project for the collection, digitalization and publication of letters. The project’s final output will be a digital documental edition, i.e. a large, open access, interactive archive. Recognizing the scientific value and originality of the project, the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT) has actively supported the enterprise and promoted it to the status of National Edition with the decree 519 of 15 november 2016.