Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Essays

Vol. 158 No. 3 (2025): Rendiconti. Class of Moral Sciences

Libero Lenti: a witness to and interpreter of a long period in Italy’s economic history

  • Giovanni Mottola
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/rndoa2025oa22291
Submitted
marzo 24, 2026
Published
2026-05-28

Abstract

University professors and journalists are very different in attitude and working method. Libero Lenti broke down borders between these categories, because he belonged to the first one, but he often worked for the second one. He didn’t mean to really dedicate himself to the press, even if he believed press an ideal training activity for every future work in political or economic areas. When he was twenty he began working as a journalist by accident and not by vocation, just because he thought that journalism was the best way to conserve intellectual freedom and to spread non-conformist ideas during fascism regime. The great majority of economists put themselves at the service of the political power; by contrast, Lenti and his friends Roberto Tremelloni and Ferdinando di Fenizio, under the aegis of Luigi Einaudi, founded a fortnightly called «Borsa», that was closed after a couple of years. It was just the first step. After the conclusion of the second world war, that group of friends created a newspaper, «24 Ore», to achieve the same purpose: spreading the knowledge of economics and giving a contribution to the public debate in Italy. In 1946, in addition to this early contribution to journalism, because of its reputation Lenti was called by the most important Italian newspaper, «Corriere della Sera», to write about economic questions for the widest possible audience. That collaboration lasted until 1973, when the editorial orientation of «Corriere della Sera» was changed and many longtime collaborators were replaced. At that moment Lenti ended his journalistic activity. For many years he has been able to explain a difficult subject, economics, even to unschooled readership. Many people wrote private letters to him to express their regret. This shows that Lenti was real, not just an amateur journalist. 

References

  1. La fonte primaria per la ricostruzione degli avvenimenti riportati nel testo è lo stesso Libero Lenti, sia attraverso la sua autobiografia, sia attraverso le sue carte personali, comprensive di lettere, copie di discorsi pubblici e documenti vari: Lenti L. (1983). Le radici nel tempo. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  2. Meritano inoltre di essere segnalati come fondamentali: l’Archivio personale Roberto Tremelloni, custodito presso il Centro Italiano di Ricerche e d’Informazione nell’Economia (CIRIEC), la Cartella personale di Libero Lenti, presso la Fondazione Corriere della Sera e i seguenti testi:
  3. Bairati P. e Carrubba S. (1990). La trasparenza difficile. Storia di due giornali economici: “Il Sole” e “24 Ore”. Palermo: Sellerio.
  4. Granata M. (2010). Roberto Tremelloni. Riformismo e sviluppo economico. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino.
  5. Ricossa S. (1995). Come si manda in rovina un Paese. Cinquant’anni di malaeconomia. Milano: Rizzoli.
  6. Romani M.A., a cura di (2012). Luigi Einaudi e il Corriere della Sera 1894-1925, Milano: Fondazione Corriere della Sera.
  7. Tremelloni R. (2012). Un progresso possibile. Scritti e discorsi (1945-1973), a cura di Granata M. Milano: Biblion.