Il genio secondo Mantegazza. Indagine nell’«Archivio per l’Antropologia e la Etnologia»

Abstract

Aim of this essay is to focus the position on “genius” in the review directed by Paolo Mantegazza, «Archivio per l’Antropologia e la Etnologia» (1871-1910). First of all is put in evidence the difficult relationship between Mantegazza and Cesare Lombroso about craniology, then are considered articles published by Mantegazza on the journal, particularly those about the “genius”. This section updates the bibliographical index by Ehrenfreund (1927) and underlines a series of reviews that offer also a sight about the contemporary debate about the “genius”, generally divided in two parts, the ones who believed in Lombroso’s thoughts, and the sceptical, that, otherwise, never promote a different theory. Mantegazza, collected between the latters, never restitutes a new theory, in my opinion, because he believed «empirical» the first lombrosian assumption about the “genius” and, above all, he considered disciplines like craniology restrictive: as he said in a unpublished letter sent to De Gubernatis (transcribed here for the first time) he prefer to substain an amphibious position between arts and science.