Antonello Gerbi, distinguished Italian historian of ideas, best known to students of Latin American history for his work, La disputa del Nuovo Mondo, died at Civenna (Como) on July 26, 1976. Born in Florence on May 15, 1904, Gerbi attended the law school of the University of Rome and in 1925 obtained the degree of Doctor of Law with a doctoral dissertation which evolved into his first book, La politica del Settecento (1928), highly praised by Benedetto Croce. From 1929 to 1931 Gerbi studied history, economics, and political science in Berlin and London with the aid of a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. This research resulted in the publication of La politica del Romanticismo (1932), which studied the origins of nineteenth-century romantic political ideology. On his return to Italy Gerbi became head of the economic research department of the Banca Commerciale Italiana of Milan, editing its Rassegna Trimestrale and other publications of the bank. From 1935 to 1937 he combined this post with that of Lecturer at the University of Milan, teaching courses on the history of political ideas.
The anti-semitic legislation enacted by the Italian fascist government in the fall of 1938 threatened to end Gerbi’s professional career. To avoid his dismissal, the Banca Commerciale transferred him to one of its branches, the Banco Italiano of Lima, Peru; in 1940, he joined the Banco de Crédito del Perú, the leading Peruvian bank, as head of its economic research department. The direction of Gerbi’s scholarly interests now underwent a radical change. He turned with enthusiasm to study various aspects of Peruvian life and history. The first fruit of Gerbi’s new Americanist phase was an important essay, El Perú en marcha, ensayo de geografía económica (1941), favorably received by reviewers. But he returned to his first love, the history of ideas, with Viejas polémicas sobre el Nuevo Mundo (1943), a preliminary study of the theme of his monumental La disputa del Nuovo Mondo, published in 1955 after his return to Italy. In this work Gerbi traces with learning, clarity, and wit the history of the great eighteenth-century dispute over the value of the New World and the capacity of its inhabitants, with some attention to its antecedents and later ramifications. A Spanish edition appeared in 1960, and an English translation in 1973.
On his return to Italy in 1948, Gerbi resumed work at the Banca Commerciale, but the impact of the New World on European minds continued to absorb him. He now retraced his historical steps and began an intensive study of the earliest European reactions to America; the result was another massive work, La nature delle Indie Nove (1975). The book surveys the impressions of Columbus, Vespucci, and other early explorers, but focuses on the complex, controversial figure of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo. This, it may be said, is the first thorough study of Oviedo’s intellectual formation, his historical theories, his vision of the New World and its inhabitants, and his relations with Italian humanists and Italian Renaissance culture. Like La disputa del Nuovo Mondo, it richly merits an English translation. Despite his failing health, Gerbi was able to attend and present a paper at the UCLA conference on “First Images of America” in March 1975, after which he lectured at a number of American universities. Dr. Gerbi was an unusual combination of man of affairs and productive scholar. His death is a personal blow to those of us who knew him and recall his gracious hospitality and quiet sense of humor; and a heavy loss to Americanist studies.
