Il carteggio inedito Mussafia-Novati (1886-1902) tra erudizione e filologia

Between the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Dalmatian philologist Adolfo Mussafia represented an essential bridge between the new German Wissenschaft movement and the Italian cultural and academic spheres. This article publishes and contextualizes for the first time the ten letters and three postcards that he sent to Francesco Novati, cofounder of the Giornale storico della letteratura italiana (Milan, Biblioteca nazionale Braidense, Novati correspondence; Milan, Biblioteca della Società Storica Lombarda, Novati file) and Novati’s replies (nine letters and one postcard) (Florence, Biblioteca Umanistica dell’Università degli Studi, Mussafia file). An analysis of this unpublished correspondence makes it possible to add further (and at times surprising) details to the biographies of these two scholars and their scholarly endeavours, as well as to shed further light on European political and intellectual life at the turn of the century.