The Man Who Didn't Change History

Enrico Caria
2016-09-07

6
76 min

The "man who didn't change history" was a university professor: Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, esteemed Italian scholar of Roman art and a founding father of modern archaeology. A figure that the Fascist regime could be proud of, in the 1930s, if it weren't for the fact that the professor was firmly anti-Fascist. Things came to a head over Hitler's famous journey to Italy in 1938, when Bandinelli was courteously invited to accompany Mussolini and the Führer, serving as tour guide and interpreter at the museums and archaeological sites. Now the dilemma arose: don the uniform and salute the two detested dictators, or compromise a lifetime of study, his career and even his personal safety? When the invitation turned into a peremptory order that Bandinelli couldn't refuse, he no longer had a choice.