Dal Pra, Nardi e l’insegnamento della filosofia medievale nelle università italiane

Drawing on previously unpublished material, the article offers a reconstruction of the early stages of Mario Dal Pra's academic career; shows how it was initially intertwined with that of another great medievalist, Bruno Nardi; analyses the context - marked by the crisis of neo-idealism and by strong ideological conflicts - in which the teaching of medieval philosophy was introduced in Italian universities; and traces the evolution of Dal Pra's conception of the relationship between philosophy and the history of philosophy. The appendices offer the edition of three unpublished texts: a letter from Nardi to Dal Pra and two speeches in which Dal Pra clarifies the aims and methods of the study of medieval thought.