This is the first of the multi-volume editorial work Carlo Smuraglia: Scritti, discorsi e atti istituzionali, published in fifteen volumes, which aims to make Carlo Smuraglia's work again accessible to the public once it is nowadays scarcely known for many reasons and published mostly in journals and volumes out-of-commerce or no longer available. In this volume, his autobiography “Con la Costituzione nel cuore. Conversazioni su storia, memoria e politica”, written with Francesco Campobello, is presented and republished. Its title best summarises the beacon whose radiance brightened his long scientific and political career and lifetime, which is the defence and implementation of the Constitution. Through its reading, readers have the gate opened to many relevant facts that have dramatically characterised the history of our country, which can be retraced and decoded, always taking into account the author's will to safeguard democratic institutions. The volume also collects a series of recollections and essays by scholars of “different genres and generations” that illustrate the topical profiles of Carlo Smuraglia's thought.

The volume collects contributions by: Amos Andreoni, Gaetano Azzariti, Marzia Barbera, Alessandro Bellavista, Olivia Bonardi, Franca Borgogelli, Piera Campanella, Giancarlo Caselli, Nando dalla Chiesa, Pietro Ichino, Lucio Motta, Gianfranco Pagliarulo, Corrado Stajano, Paolo Tomassetti and Ettore Zanoni and the Declaration of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella on the occasion of Carlo Smuraglia's death.