Corrado Gini at the University of Rome

Corrado Gini made significant contributions to statistics as a scientific discipline studied at the university as well as to public statistics as an activity of the State. He was very appreciated abroad, but in Italy his career and the public perception of it were affected by the two world wars and the two decades of Fascist government. Nevertheless, he created statistical schools, a Faculty of Statistical, Demographic and Actuarial Sciences, while actively participating to many national and international meetings, committees and scientific societies. From a human point of view, Gini had a difficult personality and, for long time, opinions about him have been partly tainted by this trait. In this paper, light will be thrown not so much on Gini's biography, which is well-known, but rather on the complex personality that can be grasped by reading the documents, both official and personal, preserved in the Historical Archive of the University of Rome.