The Portici Specialization and Research Centre. Report on the first twenty years. November 1959-1979

In the summer of 1979, with the twentieth anniversary of the Portici Specialization and Research Centre approaching, Manlio Rossi-Doria began to draw up a report illustrating the aims of the Centre with an overview of the activities already performed. As his health deteriorated he found himself unable to revise and complete the text. QA has now decided to publish the manuscript in view of the interest the text still holds for reconstruction of the origins and early history of the Centre, seen through the eyes of the founder. The report deals with the conditions that had opened the way to prompt constitution of the Centre, the criteria for selection of staff, and the rationale behind the structure of the specialization courses, to conclude with a frank assessment of the period of student protest, from which the Centre was actually able to draw «considerable advantages and final consolidation».