Simonetta Bernardi celebrated her 81st birthday on 23 January 2021. Unfortunately, she passed away a month later on 13 February. She was a member of the ICHRPI Italian Section since 1997, and she attended her first conference in Bilbao, where she was warmly received by our Basque colleagues, Joseba Agirreazkuenaga and Mikel Urquijo. Furthermore, Simonetta attended many other ICHRPI annual conferences, in Prague, Graz, Győr and Vienna.
With postgraduate qualifications in palaeography and diplomacy, Simonetta taught the history of the Middle Ages in the Education Faculty of the Sapienza University of Rome, which became the Humanities Faculty of Roma Tre University. In particular, Simonetta studied the conditions of Jewish people in the Papal States during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. She gave two papers on this subject at ICHRPI conferences. She also studied the history of Marche, the Italian region she loved because of her paternal ancestors and where she inherited an old stone mansion from her father with a beautiful view of the valley in the historical town of Cingoli, called the ‘balcony of Marche’ for its wonderful landscape. Simonetta was often there promoting the foundation of a cultural society for the organization of meetings, conferences and summer festivals in order to highlight the historical heritage of the Marche region. In this context, mention should be made of the important conference held in 1993 on Pope Pius VIII Castiglioni (1829–30), an eminent native of Cingoli.
During my travels with Simonetta to attend ICHRPI conferences, I had the privilege of deepening our friendship and of enjoying her vivid attitude. She was a joyful, optimistic and enthusiastic woman, always ready to enrich her soul by meeting new people and visiting new places. Simonetta often invited me to her house in Rome, on the marvellous terrace with a view of the Coliseum. Other local ICHRPI colleagues, Mario Di Napoli and Sandro Guerrieri, visited too, as did Joseba Agirreazkuenaga and Mikel Urquijo when they visited Rome.
The community of Cingoli paid tribute to Simonetta through the publication of an obituary in the Bologna daily newspaper, Il Resto del Carlino, and in a memorial service held in the town cemetery, where she now rests in her family tomb.