Manlio Rossi-Doria, Social Sciences and Economics: Impressions from a Pre-liminary Sifting of His Papers

The Manlio Rossi-Doria Papers offer invaluable information about the nature and fruits of his cultural and scientific labours. This initial exploration of the Pa-pers focuses on two aspects of his work: on the one hand, how and when his pro-gress in work and study led him towards other fields in the social sciences, and on the other hand his view of Italy’s economic development and the specific role of Southern Italy – the ‘Mezzogiorno’. Significant material on the former aspect regards his relations with foreign scholars hosted in Portici in the immediate post-war period, his contribution to community and studies and the growth of the social sciences in Italy, and his own original approach to Southern Italian issues and the protagonists involved. As far as Italian economic development is con-cerned, and in particular that of Southern Italy, Rossi-Doria’s contribution is re-examined here concentrating on a particular aspect of the papers, namely his in-tellectual exchange with the economists of his time – including, notably, Pasquale Saraceno and Claudio Napoleoni – which revolved mainly about matters of agri-cultural and industrial development in the Mezzogiorno.