In praise of the ‘nevvéro’: on Chiara Faggiolani's Il problema del tempo umano

Abstract

This paper reflects on several of the many themes explored in Chiara Faggiolani’s Il problema del tempo umano. Faggiolani’s work is a significant study, animated by a diversity of voices and narratives. At its centre stands the figure of Adriano Olivetti. Around him, the book brings into view a range of cultures and forces for change. All revolve around the idea of knowledge as a foundational element of communities and of their social and civic well-being. It is also a story of “heretics” and “odd folk,” in Goffredo Fofi’s sense, to which he devoted important pages. The result is a reading of sources that is both engaging and complex. It encompasses those discussed extensively in the text as well those referenced in the notes. The book concludes (pp. 313–425) with an Appendix of thirteen entries covering the years 1949–1989. Each entry is a self-contained text. The sequence is thematic rather than chronological. The title establishes a correlation between the present - the time lived by women and men - and a horizon: the time of human development. Relating the problem of time to that of the country’s cultural infrastructure means framing it as a social necessity and as part of a political agenda for transformation. This is a research inquiry that follows traces and differences around a theme: the library as a space and, more broadly, reading within the humana civilitas. It connects Olivetti’s insights and experiences to contemporary questions. It advances an idea of the library as «a space of time regained, to be devoted to curiosity, in-depth study, cognitive and emotional development, and the unfolding of slow and fast thinking». One of the book’s most rewarding outcomes is the possibility of new discoveries opened up by its many avenues of inquiry and connections. As Marc Bloch wrote, «the deeper the research, the more the light of the evidence must converge from sources of many different kinds» (The Historian’s Craft).