DA ‘CHIARISSIMO SIGNORE ED AMICO’ A ‘PIÙ GRAN VILLANO DEI TEMPI NOSTRI’: SUI RAPPORTI TRA DOMENICO COMPARETTI E THEODOR MOMMSEN A PARTIRE DA ALCUNE LETTERE INEDITE

Abstract

In the aftermath of Unification, while Italy looked to Germany as a model for the renewal and reorganization of classical studies, the well-known controversy between Domenico Comparetti and Theodor Mommsen regarding the Herculaneum Villa of the Papyri took place. Starting from some unpublished letters, kept in the Nachlass Mommsen at Berlin, this paper aims to shed light on a new chapter of the relationship between these two major figures of the Italian and German classical scholarship in the Nineteenth Century.