Thus he passed away, in the silence of his fifty-year intellectual effort, one of the giants of Italian Slavic studies, remembered only by Rest of the Carlino and by little news that can be found about him on the net.

From the height of a century of life, perhaps Professor Sante Graciotti would have preferred it this way, indulging in the simple and Franciscan nature that characterized his entire life.

The same one with which thirty years ago he opened the doors of the Institute of Slavic Philology at Sapienza University in Rome to me.

I was the last of the young students who – without even attending his courses – sought enlightenment for my research and Professor Graciotti not only gave me all the necessary support, he showed me all the paths to take, but – I remember it perfectly – every time I left his department, it was he himself with his collaborators – coming out of their office – who greeted me and accompanied me with their gaze out of the corridor of the Faculty.

He and his students, with all their knowledge, had a regard for me that I found difficult to find throughout my different degree course.

It was an image that struck me and that – while I was living it – I did not think I deserved, but that I learned to understand over the years, especially – for example – when I read his introduction to “Dalmatia and the Adriatic”, an intellectual effort to realize which would require knowing the entire academic path of Professor Sante Graciotti.

And for this reason I believe that Professor Tolomeo or Professor Capaldo have academic elements and experiences that are much more solid than my personal memories which are limited to occasional, but for me invaluable opportunities for knowledge relating to my historical research.

I resumed contact with Professor Graciotti when – at the end of his university career – he had become a member of the Accademia dei Lincei.

On a hot summer day he honored me by receiving me inside the Academy building: with his simplicity - the same as in his university days - he waited for me at the door and when the staff of the Villa Farnesina - recognizing him - tried to facilitate his path, Prof. Graciotti, continued to be interested in my research with the frescoes of Raphael that flowed above us.

While I was there with him, I had difficulty concentrating and speaking, overwhelmed by the simplicity and intellectual greatness of Professor Graciotti, when then our conversations were developing in one of the most important places for Italian culture.

In part of the introduction to “Dalmatia and the Adriatic”, Sante Graciotti defines his work as a «further contribution to the knowledge of the topic», trusting that others will follow the directions of study of future research.

This simplicity, with which he was able to present and make available his knowledge, makes me reflect on the thrills of the future, of research and of the method that Giovanni Maver of Curzola transmitted to Professor Sante Graciotti who – in turn – transmitted them not only to his students and future professors, but also to simple university students, many of whom were foreigners from European university exchange programs.

His studies and teachings perhaps represent one of the best examples of the construction of the common roots of the future European identity. They are rooted in fifty years of philological research, historical production and intellectual elaboration that ranges from the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville to the work of San Colombano and that of San Bonifacio, through which Graciotti focuses on the geopolitical and geocultural concept of periphery, developing the interactions between Eastern and Western Europe through the various historical periods of the last millennium.

Even if in our country – apart from Wikipedia and “Il Resto del Carlino” – few others remember it.

Piero Cordignano