Report on the lecture “Bernardo Benussi between Rovinj, Koper and Trieste”

On Tuesday 20 January 2026, at the Antico Caffè San Marco in Trieste, the first event of the year took place in the conference series promoted by the Manlio Cecovini International Society for Historical, Social and Ethical Studies. The meeting, introduced by Luca G. Manenti, featured Kristjan Knez as the speaker. Knez is Director of the Italian Centre “Carlo Combi” in Koper and President of the Society for Historical and Geographical Studies of Piran, and he offered a broad and articulated reflection on Bernardo Benussi (Rovinj 1846 – Trieste 1929), one of the foremost scholars of Istria between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Opening the evening, Manenti recalled the now well-established trajectory of the “third Tuesday of the month” lecture cycle, which has reached its third year, and highlighted the growing public participation and the constant attention devoted to themes of historical and humanistic culture.

The native city of Rovinj was the starting point of Benussi’s personal story, which developed between Koper, where he attended the upper secondary grammar school and began his teaching career, and Trieste, the city in which he achieved full professional maturity. Knez emphasised the solid university education of the scholar from Rovinj, developed between Vienna and Graz. It was there that he abandoned legal studies to devote himself to history and geography, assimilating a rigorous philological and critical method based on the direct analysis of documents.

Considerable attention was devoted to Benussi as a historian. One of the central tenets of his thought was the conviction that it was impossible to write a history of Istria without a preliminary, systematic collection and verification of sources. From this approach stemmed both his early research on ancient and medieval Istria and his substantial scholarly output, which includes fundamental works such as Storia documentata di Rovigno (1888), studies devoted to the municipal institutions of Pula, and finally L’Istria nei suoi due millenni di storia (1924), the first comprehensive synthesis of Istrian history from its origins to 1918, hailed by the contemporary press as a publishing event of great significance.

Knez also highlighted the central role of schooling in Benussi’s experience, a true “civil and national mission”, to use the words of Camillo De Franceschi. In Trieste he taught at the Municipal Upper Grammar School and subsequently served as Head of the Municipal Girls’ Lyceum, a post he held until 1909, although he continued teaching thereafter. He also edited geography and history textbooks for school use, which are now regarded as valuable sources.

Finally, the speaker addressed the issue of Benussi’s civic engagement, explaining that, although he cannot be rigidly labelled as an irredentist, he firmly defended the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Italians of Austria. This commitment was expressed through his support for the Lega Nazionale, his participation in cultural and educational life, and the essential role he played at the Università del Popolo of Trieste, where he first served as Vice-President and later as President. In this context, historiography was conceived as an instrument of cultural protection and political engagement, in line with a vision widely shared in the late nineteenth century.

In the concluding discussion, Manenti thanked Knez for having made complex issues accessible and engaging, emphasising how the figure of Benussi represents an emblematic example of a scholar and educator of the north-eastern Adriatic. The meeting conveyed the image of a tireless intellectual, capable of combining scholarly rigour, civic commitment and attention to the education of new generations, leaving a cultural legacy from which scholars and readers continue to benefit today.

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