At a time when common attitudes ― especially among younger generations ― seem increasingly marked by a kind of historical amnesia, reconstructing the past becomes, for a university, not only a scholarly task but also a civic responsibility. This is true not simply because of the familiar historians’ adage that “the past helps us understand the present,” but above all because a community’s civic identity is formed through an awareness of its own history. This book is the product of a collaboration between experienced historians and younger researchers trained at the University of San Marino’s Advanced School of Historical Studies. The exchange between different generations and sensibilities has proved especially valuable in bringing into focus the many dimensions of so distinctive a reality as the Republic of San Marino.