Melencolia II. I rapporti tra Gershom Scholem e l'Istituto Warburg. Un'indagine di storia delle fonti e dei tipi

The failed attempt by Walter Benjamin to enter the exclusive circle of the Warburg Institute in the Twenties has been the object of much scholarly attention. The fact that his friend Gershom Scholem also attempted to cultivate a fruitful collaboration with the Institute was less known and has not been studied systematically. At the end of his long life Scholem was quite dismissive concerning the Warburg, which he even called “a Jewish sect”, stating at the same time that the degree of “Jewish intensity” of its adepts ranged from a moderate sympathy to nil and even less. On the basis of a vast documentation, both published and unpublished, the article presents and evaluates the evidence of a long, at times frustrating, and often tormented relationship, which lasted well beyond the entre-deuxguerres period. Scholems attempts to belong to the group were frustrated by the resolute anti-Zionist attitude shown by Warburg. The poles around which this noteworthy intellectual confrontation are crystallized as “melancholy” and “Nachleben” and the complex intertwining of the desire of being included and the hard task of surviving.