Lucio Villari, great scholar of the contemporary age who was 91 years old died

Born on August 26, 1933 in Bagnara Calabra, in the province of Reggio Calabria, Lucio Villari He was a professor of contemporary history at the University of Roma Tre. He has written numerous essays on history from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century, in particular on ideas and social life. He collaborated with Rai history with some newspapers, especially with ‘La Repubblica’. Among his numerous books ‘The roulette of capitalism’; ‘Romanticism and time of industry’; ‘Niccolò Machiavelli’; ‘The insomnia of the twentieth century’ is bitter America. Stories and myths with stars and stripes’.

He was the brother of Rosario Villari (1925-2017), also an illustrious historian of the modern age, known for the history manual for high schools and technical institutes published by Laterza in the 70s and reprinted for two decades. For his dedication to popular writing, his older brother associated Lucio to one of his works, “The company in history”, a history of history for the lower middle school published by Sansoni between 1977 and 1980.

Studies and career

Scholar specialized in the period between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, He had concentrated his work especially on Europe and the United States, investigating the French Revolution in particularthe birth and affirmation of capitalism and Italy of the Risorgimento, at the same time dedicating a specific attention to the influence of Niccolò Machiavelli’s political thought: the historian Lucio Villari, one of the last great masters of his generation, died on the evening of Sunday 16 March at the Gemelli hospital in Rome at the age of 91.

Lucio Villari graduated from the University of Messina to specialize in the eighteenth century at the Institute of Historical Studies of Naples under the guidance of Federico Chabod. At that time of Neapolitan studies, in the forge created by Benedetto Croce, Villari prepared his first eighteenth -century themed essay, “The economic thought of Antonio Genovesi” (Le Monnier, 1958).

Lucio Villari He was a professor of contemporary history at the University of Roma Trewhere he has carried out all his academic career. In university research, he has always combined a brilliant dissemination capacity for both printed paper (He collaborated for a long time with the newspaper ‘La Repubblica’, since the foundation in 1976called by the friend of the director Eugenio Scalfari) who for television: he was a member of the scientific committee of the Rai television programs’ Time and history ‘has passed and present’, where he also appeared as a guest. Until last week he recorded episodes of ‘past and present’ with the conduct of Paolo Mieli.

From historian who He loved “to bring history out of the Academy”as he loved himself, since the beginning of the 70s he wanted to engage in the field of dissemination, as evidenced by his first essays from effective writing written for the “Illustrated Universal History”, a popular Encyclopedia of Fabbri Editore published since 1971. In 1989, on the occasion of the 200 years of the French Revolution, he cared “1789-1799. published with Cla Repubblica ‘who came to sell 700 thousand copies each. He later wrote ‘The French Revolution told by Lucio Villari’ (Laterza, 1997), which represented another sales success. On the same popular line, the Risorgimento also created. History, documents, testimonies’, eight volumes published by the editorial group L’Espresso in 2007, is Italian. History and stories of a people from 1861 to today (with Corrado Augias, La Repubblica-Espresso-Aeri, 2010).

Lucio Villari He has written numerous essays on history from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century, in particular on ideas and social life. Among them appear: ‘Italian capitalism of the twentieth century’ (Laterza, 1972), ‘Weimar. Social struggles and democratic system in Germany of the 1920s (Il Mulino, 1978), ‘seven hundred Adieu. Culture and politics in the Europe of Lumi ‘(Bompiani, 1985), with which he won the Rhegium Julii National Prize for the nonfiction; ‘La Roulette of capitalism’ (Einaudi, 1995). ‘The slavery of modern. Enlightenment and colonialism: Raynal and Diderot ‘(Edizioni Associate, 1996),’ Romanticism and time of industry. Literature, freedom and machines in nineteenth century Italy (Donzelli, 1999), ‘The insomnia of the 1900s. The meteors of a century ‘(Paravia Scriptorium, 2000; Bruno Mondadori, 2002),’ Beautiful and lost. The Italy of the Risorgimento ‘(Laterza, 2009), which earned him the Benedetto Croce prize for the non -fiction and which has just been reprinted; Italian night. The restless debut of the twentieth century ‘(Laterza, 2011),’ Bitter America. Stories and myths with stars and stripes ‘(Salerno Editrice, 2013),’ The Fiume Moon. 1919: The conspiracy ‘(Guanda, 2019).

Among the great frescoes by Lucio Villari stands out the volume ‘The adventures of an industry captain’, published in the first edition by Einaudi in 1991: it is the story of the Italy of the first thirty years of the twentieth century, a country of captains of unscrupulous industry, of D’Annunziani ‘Venturirieri without venture’ between war and peace, where the events that have had among the protagonists, visible and invisible are presented. Businessmen such as the founder of the Italian steelurgery Oscar Sinigaglia and the founder of Fiat Giovanni Agnelli. The book then widens at the birth of Ilva, IRI, the crisis of 1929, and to the projects and plans of a ‘different’ capitalism.

To the author of the Renaissance political treaty ‘The Prince’, Lucio Villari dedicated two successful books: ‘Niccolò Machiavelli’ (Piemme, 2000) with which he won the Estense prize in 2001, and ‘Machiavelli. An Italian of the Renaissance ‘(Mondadori, 2013). Among the other positions, Villari was part of the Committee for national anniversaries, taking into particular in 2011 of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. On April 25, 2015, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Liberation, Lucio Villari held the celebratory speech at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano in the presence of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.

The protagonist of the academic and cultural life, Lucio Villari was a passionate lover of the shows of the show, a love fed by many important friendships such as those with Eduardo De Filippo, Ettore Scola and Marcello Mastroianni. This explains, for example, his affable participation in 1980 in the film ‘The terrace’ of Scola, in which he played the role of the ‘landlord’ which hosts a group of intellectuals and progressive artists. Not only did he love music, in particular jazz (he was a great friend of Lino Patruno), but he played it very well on the piano. Also to remember his theatrical experience: in 1986 he curated the reduction, adaptation and direction of a classic of the French Literature of Enlightenment. The ‘Persian letters’ of Montesquieu, played by Pino Micol (in the role of the protagonist), produced by the Teatro Stabile of Rome and staged at the Ridotto di Venice on the occasion of the Carnival.

Condolence messages

“I am grieved for the disappearance of Lucio Villari, an insigne scholar and intellectual end, reference for generations of historians, a man of great culture, capable of combining scientific rigor and passion for democracy and justice. To his family I address feelings of closeness and condolence”, reads the message sent by the President of the Republic, Sergio Row.

“Lucio Villari was one of the major Italian historians. A refined scholar who has been able to analyze in depth the main joints of national history and international economic dynamics, always with the utmost intellectual freedom. Entire generations of students have trained on its history manuals. In my name and the Ministry of Culture I express my closeness to his family and all his loved ones “, declares the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Returned.

“Lucio Villari was a historian of the southern school who read the events with commitment. And his commitment was a defense – he who was Calabrian – of the unification of Italy and the value that that company, carried out by Garibaldi in 1860, had for our coexistence. There he gave the best of his science and his passion”, said Corrado Augia All’adnkronos.