Treasures of the smaTs: a letter from Svevo to the Magnificent Chancellor
Thanks to the research work conducted by the Trieste scholar Lorenzo Ielen, PhD of UniTS, on the occasion of the conference "From the Real to the Virtual: Museum Systems in Comparison a letter by Italo Svevo preserved in the University's Historical Archives and of which Prof. Anna Maria Vinci had already given an account in the volume "History of the University of Trieste: Myth, Projects, Reality" (Lint, 1997) was republished in extensive form.
It is a letter written by Ettore Schmitz (the author's real name) on April 9, 1927, in response to Rector Giulio Morpurgo, who wished to recall in a yearbook the teaching staff of the Superior School of Commerce, an embryo of what would become the University of Trieste.
Svevo recalls, in these lines, which seem to compose a sort of curriculum vitae, his service as a lecturer from 1893 to 1901 and says he is "pleased to be remembered for the most honorable activity that I have performed during my long life."
The writer also informs in the letter-among his major activities-that he published the three novels, "A Life”, “Senility" and "Conscience", works now recognized as among the most significant in contemporary Italian and European literature.
The archival research work for the construction of the museum itineraries for the smaTs - which enabled dott. Ielen to present the document in its entirety - is being carried out under the scientific supervision of Prof. Tullia Catalan, professor of Contemporary History at UniTS, and has benefited from the support of Dr. Sonia Bertorelle, head of the University's Document System Management Office. The letter will be displayed in the virtual exhibition that tells the main stages of the University's history on the occasion of its Centennial.
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