Enzo Giudici

Giudici died in Rome on 4 October 1985. Following his death, his collection of over 20,000 books was passed on to the university of Salento.

In the late 1970s, Giudici contributed in the Secolo d'Italia, the newspaper of the MSI, to an ongoing debate on the culture of the fascist period. He questioned whether "fascism was only respectful of culture or itself productive of culture" and underlined the link between "fascist culture and the tradition of Risorgimento and ancient Rome". These considerations are developed in Ricerche sulla cultura dell'era fascista (Research on culture of the fascist era), a book published in 1982. and in Riflessioni sulla cultura del periodo fascista – published posthumously by Gaetano Rasi's Istituto di studi corporativi, a "reference point of studies and strategy for MSI's economical policy" – where Giudici refers to Robert Michels' analysis on Mussolini's syncretism.

In L' avvento dell'asinocrazia (The Upcoming Donkeycracy) and Contestatori alla sbarra (Protesters at the Bar) he criticizes the student movement, which had started in Italy in 1967. His point of view has been considered by the historian Carlo Vallauri as "the clearer and most organic expression of the wholesome refusal to understand" this movement. The expression avvento dell'asinocrazia was first used in 1968 by Giovanni Sartori in an article published by the Corriere della Sera to characterize the student movement as a "triumph of the donkeys". In La scuola inutile (The ineffective school), initially entitled Asini allo spiedo per il pasto del barone (Jackass on the spit for big shots convenience), Giudici critics not only the "protestive" students, but also the "faint-hearted" political class.

His "prolific" academic interest centered on a French literary movement of the Renaissance called École de Lyon particularly Louise Labé and Maurice Scève, the possible discoverer of Laura de Noves' possible tomb, highlighting, maybe exaggeratedly, Petrarch's influence. In 1958 he published a critical edition of Scève's minor works and in 1976, "the first proper critical edition" - though considered today partial and dated - of Microcosme, Scève's last work. In 1981, he published an erudite edition of Louise Labé works, considered "solid" and "luxuriant", though it has been since deemed incomplete. His sometimes "exceedingly footnotish" editor work and search for documents have been more appreciated by some specialists, who praise his "density of information", than his literary analyses. In recognition of his contribution the renewal of interest in these poets, he was awarded for this work a prix d'honneur by the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Lyon.

In 1947, he collaborated with Il Pensiero nazionale a magazine directed by Stanis Ruinas with an aim to gather "ex fascists leaning to the left".

In 1946, he was the vice president of the executive board (vicepresidente dell consiglio direttivo) of the newly founded Movimento Italiano di Unità Sociale, which gathered the fascist elit and preceded the MSI.

In 1944, during the Italian Social Republic, he debated with Roberto Farinacci on reforms in the magazine Repubblica fascista. He wrote an article in the Repubblica Sociale - a monthly review directed by Manlio Sargenti - on "socialized and corporative economy." The same year, Giudici also wrote a book on the socialization of corporations.

In an article of December 1943, Giudici claimed that fascism was the negation of classes and individuals, and was characterized by totalitarism and corporatism. Giudici also collaborated to "Libro e moschetto," the newspaper of the Gruppo Universitario Fascista. In April 1943, Giudici wrote an article in Universalità e nazionalità delle guerre (Universality and nationality of the wars), published by Libro e moschetto. In this article, Giudici wrote: "The present war is together a universal and national war, in which the values and the fate of the world are being determined - through our Italian national conscience. This fight is clearly between two centuries and two ideas, but though it is a fight between peoples, peoples do implement and represent ideas."

Enzo Giudici (24 September 1920 – 4 October 1985) was an Italian academic who specialized in French Renaissance literature, particularly Louise Labé and Maurice Scève. Giudici was also a publicist often compared with fascism.