Il patrimonio scientifico e storico di Giotto Dainelli e la sua collocazione. Elementi per la sua identificazione

The scientific and historical heritage of Giotto Dainelli and its location. Elements for its identification. Giotto Dainelli, geographer, geologist, explorer (as he called himself) among the most significant of the twentieth century, has left extensive traces of his scientific activity through the rich patrimony of publications, manuscripts, correspondences, scientific collections, etc. which are today preserved in some important Italian institutions and which allow us to reconstruct his scientific and human personality. Most of these materials can be found at the Italian Geographical Society of Rome and at the University of Florence (see Table); other institutions, such as the University of Naples, the Istituto Geografico Militare of Florence, the Società di Studi Geografici, etc. retain important contributions of his work in the fields mentioned above. A significant mark of his activity is represented by his 600 publications, most of which devoted to the scientific results of the research carried out in Karakorum, Western Tibet (1913-14, 1930), East Africa (1905-06, 1936-39) and in various localities of Italy (Friuli) and neighboring areas (Dalmatia). An evident trace of the naturalistic interests of Dainelli, represented by the collections of fossils, rocks, minerals, plants, etc. and by the ethnological and anthropogeographic observations, is available at the Natural History Museums of the University of Florence (where he taught from 1924 to 1944), as well as in the documents preserved at the Italian Geographical Society. The present work concludes with a note on the materials conserved in the “Fondo Dainelli” of the Vedovato Archive deposited at the National Library of Florence and on the contents of the University Libraries of Naples, his place of work from 1921 to 1924.