Tra amministrazione e scienza. Carlo Conti Rossini durante e dopo la dominazione coloniale

Carlo Conti Rossini’s work is still now considered an essential lens to approach the Horn of Africa, especially today Eritrea. In fact, the contribution to knowledge given by the abovementioned scholar, who also was the founder of the Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, is immeasurable and covers different scientific fields, from ethnogra-phy to philology and history. Despite the international reputation of Conti Rossini and the acknowledged esteem for his scientific legacy, a critical review of his schol-arship has been until now only touched upon. This article aims at addressing this gap and shed a new light on the author of Principi di diritto consuetudinario dell’Eritrea. On the one hand, it retraces the life Conti Rossini spent between sci-ence and administration; and, on the other hand, it highlights the influence of his work in postcolonial Eritrea. The article stands as an incitement to a postcolonial intellectual biography of Carlo Conti Rossini.