Augusto Campana

Augusto Campana (born May 22, 1906 in Santarcangelo di Romagna , † April 7, 1995 ibid) was an Italian librarian, philologist, historian and academic.

Career

At the age of 19 he was commissioned by the city administration of his hometown to reorganize the small city library, on which he published a short article in the same year (1925). In November 1932 Campana received his doctorate from the University of Bologna . His anti-fascist attitude initially prevented him from pursuing an academic career. And so after his doctorate he taught at a high school, where he had the young Tonino Guerra among his students.

In 1935 he was called to Rome to work in the Vatican Library . In 1938 he was appointed Librarian of the Vatican Apostolic Library. In a few years he established himself as a learned and versatile bibliographer. From 1951 he was appointed professor at the Scuola Normale di Pisa; from 1960 he was professor at the University of Urbino and from 1965 to 1976 at the University of La Sapienza in Rome. In 1955 he joined the National Board of the Italian Library Association (AIB). In 1987 he was appointed a corresponding member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei .

During his decades of activity he worked on the creation of important repertoires such as the Biographical Dictionary of Italians and the Italian Encyclopedia, as well as magazines such as "Medieval and Humanistic Italy", of which he was one of the founders.

A profound expert and authoritative scholar in the history of Romagna, he founded the Society for Romagna Studies in 1949 , of which he was president for the first five years. In this role he sponsored important conferences in which foreign scholars could participate and founded the journal Studi romagnoli , in which he worked regularly until 1955.

As an expert in medieval literature, he made important contributions to Latin palaeography , medieval epigraphy and humanistic philology.

Augusto Campana published important articles in the field of libraries, including articles on the Poliziano Library and the Library of the Cathedral of Benevento. His articles have been published in the main Italian library magazines.

estate

His library (approx. 25,000 volumes, 15,000 scientific journals and extensive correspondence), which was recognized for its value by ministerial decree, became the property of the Rimini Sparkasse Foundation after his death.