Abstract

The paper analyzes the relationship between Marc Bloch and the Ital¬ian culture starting from the Italian readings that inspired "La Société féodale" (1939-1940). Acontribution by Edoardo Ruffini Avondo, "Il feudalesimo giapponese visto da un giurista europeo" (1930), played a role of intermediation at the beginning of this relationship. In Ruffini's method Bloch identified the mark left by a common master - Henry Sumner Maine - and an international opening to the historical-juridical problem of feudalism. Since then, Marc Bloch definitely addressed his Italian readings towards the historians of law operating in Italy. He read and included into the bibliography of "La Société féodale", Pier Silverio Leicht, Pietro Vaccari and Arrigo Solmi, coming into contact with a small world of often highly qualified professors and politicians. Bloch exploited them to widen perspectives and contacts of freshly published "Annales", reviewing positively those (Gian Piero Bognetti and Enrico Besta) who seemed to share with Vaccari, Solmi and Leicht, a method for not being influenced by political contingencies. The "Studi di storia e diritto in onore di Enrico Besta" (1939), together with the bibliography of "La Société féodale", was the last chance of collaboration between Bloch and Italian scientists. The war resulted as the sole method, after 1940.