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Università degli Studi di Padova

PHAIDRA – Digital collections



Girolamo Li Causi in Venice. 1913–1922

Poster for the conference Girolamo Li Causi, a student at Ca' Foscari. From the fight for work and democracy to anti-Mafia commitment, Venice, 22 April 2022.

This digital collection stems from the public and digital history project Girolamo Li Causi in Venice. 1913–1922 financed thanks to the public call of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers for cultural initiatives related to the Centenary of the foundation of the Italian Communist Party.

Girolamo Li Causi (Termini Imerese, 1896 – Roma, 1977) was one of the national leaders of the Italian Communist Party. He clashed with rising fascism, suffered imprisonment and confinement, participated in the Resistance and then in the peasant struggles in Sicily. He led the Sicilian PCI, fighting separatism, banditry and the Mafia, and was the target of a serious assassination attempt. He was one of the most popular communist leaders of the post-World War II period, elected to the Constituent Assembly and then to the Parliament, promoter and vice-president of the first Anti-Mafia Parliamentary Commission.

The collection includes two products:

- a digital gallery of documents relating to the Venetian period of Li Causi's life and the social and political context in which he acted, including his memoirs entitled Il lungo cammino. Autobiografia 1906–1944, the student file and degree thesis kept in the historical archive of Ca' Foscari, his student notebooks, the articles published in the Venetian socialist weekly “Il Secolo Nuovo”, his speeches to the Venice City Council, some letters to persons he knew in Venice, other documents relating to the time when Li Causi was secretary of the Treviso Chamber of Labour, Gaetano Vianello's unpublished memoirs entitled L'organizzazione dei portuali veneziani dalle origini all'usurpazione fascista and Michele Mauroner's degree thesis, Il Siculo. Girolamo Li Causi and Socialism in Veneto (1913–1922). A gallery of audio documents follows, including interviews with Girolamo Li Causi's daughter and son, Renata and Luciano, the recording of the conference Girolamo Li Causi studente a Ca' Foscari. From the fight for work and democracy to anti-Mafia commitment, the digitalisation of a speech by Li Causi published in 1948 on a 78 rpm record and testimonies by Li Causi found in various sound and audiovisual archives;

- an audio essayGirolamo Li Causi: il fantasma di una voce – that places this event in the context of Li Causi's entire biography.

The project was directed by Alessandro Casellato and Gilda Zazzara, professors of Contemporary History at the Department of Humanities at Ca' Foscari. Participating as research fellows were Michele Mauroner for the creation of the digital document gallery and the writing of the presentation texts, and Irene Dani for the collection and metadata of the sound documents. Antonio Tripodi – a former employee of Ca' Foscari now retired – provided the inspiration for the conference and also accompanied the production of the audio essay, which was edited by Renato Rinaldi.

Bibliographic references:

G. Li Causi, Il lungo cammino. Autobiografia 1906–1944, Editori Riuniti, Roma 1974;
M. Asta, Girolamo Li Causi, un rivoluzionario del Novecento 1896–1977, Carocci, Roma 2018.

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