Carlo Battisti (10 October 1882 – 6 March 1977) was an Italian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

, famed for his starring role in

Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...

's ''

Umberto D. ''Umberto D.'' () is a 1952 Cinema of Italy, Italian Italian neorealism, neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica. Most of the actors were non-professional, including Carlo Battisti who plays the title role of Umberto Domenico Ferrari, a poor ...

''.

Biography

Battisti was born in

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th centu ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

in 1882 (nowadays Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy). He studied linguistics at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

and founded, along with

Ettore Tolomei Ettore Tolomei (16 August 1865, in Rovereto – 25 May 1952, in Rome) was an Italian nationalist and fascist. He was designated a Member of the Italian Senate in 1923, and ennobled as Conte della Vetta in 1937. Pre-World War I activism Born int ...

, the nationalist journal ''Archivio per l'Alto Adige'' in 1906. In the early 1920s he became professor of glottology of the

University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first universi ...

. Throughout his life he published numerous books and articles on a wide gamut of linguistic topics, ranging from phonetics to Italian dialectology to toponomastics and Vulgar Latin. In recognition of his accomplishments and expertise, Battisti was elected to the Italian national language academy, ''Accademia della Crusca'', in 1925. A member of the

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The ...

himself, Battisti maintained always a sympathetic position towards the

Italianization Italianization ( it, italianizzazione; hr, talijanizacija; french: italianisation; sl, poitaljančevanje; german: Italianisierung; el, Ιταλοποίηση) is the spread of Italian culture, language and identity by way of integration or a ...

program which the

Fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

pursued towards the South Tyrolean populations and opposed strongly the return of the German-speaking people, who had to leave their region due to the

South Tyrol Option Agreement The South Tyrol Option Agreement (german: Option in Südtirol; it, Opzioni in Alto Adige) was an agreement in effect between 1939 and 1943, when the native German and Ladin-speaking people in South Tyrol and several other municipalities of northe ...

of 1939, to the Alto Adige after World War II.Paolo Marrassini (2004). "Una Facoltà improduttiva: Lettere fra cultura e politica." In ''L'Università degli Studi di Firenze, 1924–2004.'' Firenze, pp. 49–164 (p. 73); Hannes Obermair (2018). "Nation-Building facendo edizioni? Il «Tiroler Urkundenbuch», Richard Heuberger, Franz Huter e Otto Stolz." In Giuseppe Albertoni et al. (eds). ''La storia va alla guerra. Storici dell’area trentino-tirolese tra polemiche nazionali e primo conflitto mondiale'' (Studi e Ricerche, no. 18). Trento, Università degli Studi di Trento. , pp. 285–300 (p. 297). Battisti starred in

neorealist film Italian neorealism (art), neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed Location shooting, on location, frequently wit ...

'', his first and last as an actor. It was filmed in 1951 and released in 1952. In 1955 he directed the documentary ''Nozze fassane''. Battisti died in 1977 in

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battisti, Carlo 1882 births 1977 deaths Italian male actors Linguists from Italy 20th-century linguists