Resumen de Memoria e storia. Il ruolo degli egodocumenti
Starting from the debated issue of the relationship between memory and history, the essay seeks to better understand what is the contribution of the former to the elaboration of the latter,with particular reference to the function carried out within the process by the sense of identity, both collective and individual. On the one hand, by examining the foremost role assumed in historiographical research in the last thirty years by the varied category of egodocuments (personal texts in which the individual writes of himself), and considering them at a European level, the author emphasizes that through this type of writings it is possible to grasp aspects of both reality and consciences that are otherwise neglected by current historiography. On the other hand, the essay stresses the ways in which many egodocuments (diaries, family books, and private correspondences) have also been used in the elaboration of consciously historiographic texts (such as Guicciardini’s History of Italy). But beyond that, these texts show how the history-memory model remained the reference approach for individuals and groups in their relationship with their past until the end of the early modern age, and in some cases even beyond
