Centralità del diritto romano negli altri ‘saperi’: sulla metodologia e i contenuti di una recente opera

Comparison with other branches of knowledge - and not only those that have always been regarded as related or qualified as auxiliary sciences – allows to verify how important the contribution of Roman law still is, also in view of the widening horizons occupied by legal science. These horizons have become heavily obscured in recent decades due to normative choices aimed at meeting contingent needs, because of the surrender to the hermeneutical and historical foundations which constituted the best expression of that science. In a recent work by Luigi Garofalo, Echi del diritto romano nell’arte e nel pensiero, innovative analyses are carried out to grasp from different points of view the centrality of Roman law even within the other forms of knowledge. Considered the masterpieces of David, Rubens and Kandinsky, as well as the pages of Zolla, Sloterdijk, Agamben, Arendt and Gómez Dávila, the scholar proposes an original research methodology. It does not derive, in fact, the centrality of Roman law from (albeit meritorious) border investigations, which bring into contact different disciplines going to touch neighboring elements: on the other hand, starting from fields at first sight far removed from the Romanistic one, Garofalo brings out with remarkable accuracy ‘from within’ other knowledge the founding role of Roman law. In this way, he sheds light on the large space reserved for the latter in various contexts, thus expressing its own reasoned disappointment for the huge deplation of contemporary legal science, due to the weakening of the Romanistic contributions.