Alcide De Gasperi's political life spanned the first half of the twentieth century. It went from his education in a small local environment, but within the multinational setting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to his period of enforced, yet intellectually very productive, public silence during the period of Fascist Italy, and then to his period in the limelight during the years of postwar reconstruction, the re-establishment of democracy and the construction of European unity. A group of scholars has documented the evolution of an outstanding leader by publishing a critical edition of De Gasperi's Scritti e discorsi politici, a collection of writings and speeches from the outset of his career until the end of his life. This article illustrates the research that has been carried out so far; the criteria behind the collection and editing of sources on De Gasperi; and the chronological periods and thematic issues around which the whole body of De Gasperi's political writings have been collated.
