Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals
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The Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, written by Benedetto Croce in response to the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals by Giovanni Gentile, sanctioned the irreconcilable split between the philosopher and the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini, to which he had previously given a vote of confidence on 31 October 1922.[1] The idea of an anti-Fascist manifesto came to Giovanni Amendola, who wrote to Croce, a proclaimed anti-Fascist, for his opinions on 20 April 1925:
Dear Croce, have you read the Fascist manifesto to foreign intellectuals? ... today, I have met several people who feel that, following the publication of the Fascists' document, we have the right to speak and the duty to respond. What is your opinion? Would you be willing to sign such a document, or even write it yourself?
Croce replied a day later, saying that he would be more than willing to, but that the document ought to be short, "so as not to alienate the common folk."
The manifesto was published by the liberal newspaper Il Mondo and by the Catholic newspaper Il Popolo[2] on 1 May 1925, which was Workers' Day, symbolically responding to the publication of the Fascist manifesto on the Natale di Roma, the founding of Rome (celebrated on 21 April). The Fascist press claimed that the Crocian manifesto was "more authoritarian" than its Fascist counterpart.[3]
The Manifesto was signed in total by hundreds of intellectuals, of whose signatures only 270 were published, divided into 3 lists published by il Mondo, and a few other newspapers, on Friday, May 1, Sunday, May 10, and Friday, May 22, 1925, respectively.[4]
Il Mondo published three lists of prominent signatories of the manifesto, first on 1 May and then longer lists on 10 May and 22 May. Among the supporters were:
- Luigi Albertini
- Sibilla Aleramo
- Giulio Alessio
- Corrado Alvaro
- Giovanni Amendola
- Giovanni Ansaldo
- Vincenzo Arangio-Ruiz
- Antonio Banfi
- Sem Benelli
- Costantino Bresciani Turroni
- Piero Calamandrei
- Guido Castelnuovo
- Emilio Cecchi
- Cesare de Lollis
- Floriano del Secolo
- Guido de Ruggiero
- Gaetano de Sanctis
- Francesco de Sarlo
- Luigi Einaudi
- Giorgio Errera
- Giustino Fortunato
- Eustachio Paolo Lamanna
- Beppo Levi
- Giorgio Levi della Vida
- Tullio Levi-Civita
- Carlo Linati
- Attilio Momigliano
- Rodolfo Mondolfo
- Eugenio Montale
- Marino Moretti
- Gaetano Mosca
- Ugo Enrico Paoli
- Giorgio Pasquali
- Giuseppe Rensi
- Francesco Ruffini
- Gaetano Salvemini
- Michele Saponaro
- Matilde Serao
- Adriano Tilgher
- Umberto Zanotti Bianco
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Noether, Emiliana P. (1971). "Italian Intellectuals under Fascism". The Journal of Modern History. 43 (4): 630–648. doi:10.1086/240685. ISSN 0022-2801. JSTOR 1881234. S2CID 144377549.
- ^ Bruscino, Felicia (2017-11-25). "Il Popolo del 1925 col manifesto antifascista: ritrovata l'unica copia". Ultima Voce (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-03-23.
- ^ Brown, W. Edward; Papa, Emilio R. (1959). "Storia di due manifesti. Il fascismo e la cultura italiana". Books Abroad. 33 (4): 458. doi:10.2307/40096911. ISSN 0006-7431. JSTOR 40096911.
- ^ Giovanni Gentile, Benedetto Croce, I Manifesti degli intellettuali fascisti e antifascisti, preface by A. Cazzullo, Passigli, Florence 2024, pp. 59-75
External links
[edit]- (in Italian) Manifesto degli intellettuali antifascisti. This article in the Italian Wikipedia contains the text.