Doing the honors and moderating the meeting was the President of the Italian Geographic Society, Prof. Claudio Cerreti, who immediately recalled how Fr. De Agostini was at home at the Italian Geographic Society, which acknowledged his high scientific merits.
Dr. Daniela Berta, Director of Cai - Turin 'Duca degli Abruzzi' National Mountain Museum, then illustrated the value of Fr. De Agostini's vast documentation housed and made known worldwide by the same museum, with special volumes and exhibitions.
Two authoritative geographers from the Geographic Society then spoke: Prof. Massimo De Marchi, from the University of Padua; and Prof. Andrea Riggio, from the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio. Both emphasized the contribution the volume makes to our knowledge of De Agostini's character and also its methodological novelty: thanks to the careful preparatory work of the scientific committee, the volume responds not only to the necessary multidisciplinary approach, but also to its trans-disciplinary nature.
Finally, Professor Fr. Motto summarized the rationale behind the conference, the exhibition and the volume of the proceedings. He also thanked the authors of the contributions, some twenty of them present in the hall, for their sincere and passionate cooperation. Two of them, Prof. Nicola Bottiglieri and Dr. Aldo Audisio, also commented on their participation in the proceedings, as did Dr. Francesco Botto Poala, on behalf of the Municipality of Pollone di Biella, Father De Agostini's native town, which is justifiably proud to have been the birthplace of an internationally appreciated figure such as the Salesian missionary and scientist don Alberto Maria De Agostini.
The audience in the hall was numerous, as was the one connected online from Latin America.
Sandro Bonino
