The University Library of Sassari houses the wills of 31 great Italians
From Manzoni to De Gasperi, from Pascoli to Gramsci: an unprecedented journey into the last wishes of writers, politicians and artists
Alessandro Manzoni also left 100 lire (“a small sum”) to his servant Clemente Vismara. The hero of two worlds Giuseppe Garibaldi penned a normal will and a political one in which he hoped for a transitory dictatorship which would then give way to "regular republican government". Emilio Lussu left the copyright on all his writings to his wife Joyce Salvadori. The University Library of Sassari exhibits until 4 June "I hereby undersigned. Testaments of great Italians" , an exhibition which collects the last wills of 31 great personalities of the 19th and 20th centuries .
The exhibition, which arrived in Sardinia for the first time, was created by the National Council of Notaries and the Italian Foundation of Notaries in 2012 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. It arrived in Sassari thanks to the synergy between the University Library and the Notarial Council of Sassari, Nuoro and Tempio Pausania enriched by the writings of great Sardinians such as Grazia Deledda, Emilio Lussu, Antonio Segni, Maria Lai and Antonio Gramsci and Francesco Cossiga.
In all there are 31 wills . Not only writers like Pascoli, Verga and D'Annunzio, but also men of the theater like Pirandello and Edoardo Scarpetta.
The exhibition presents the last wishes of the tenor Caruso and those of Ettore Petrolini , author and actor who has profoundly influenced the Italian comic theatre. There are also the wills of Enzo Ferrari and Giovanni Agnelli senior and even those of Pope Paul VI and Pope John XXIII .
