Chiara Frugoni (4 February 1940 – 9 April 2022) was an Italian historian and academic, specialising in the Middle Ages and church history. She was awarded the

Viareggio Prize The Viareggio Prize ( it, Premio Viareggio, italic=no or ) is an Italian literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Rèpaci, to rival the Milanese ...

in 1994 for her

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

, ''Francesco e l'invenzione delle stimmate''.

Biography

Chiara Frugoni was born in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

, 4 February 1940. Her father was the medievalist,

Arsenio Frugoni Arsenio Frugoni (1914–1970) was an Italian medieval historian particularly noted for his influential and innovative work on medieval biography and religious studies. Education and career Frugoni received his doctorate in 1938 from the elite Scuo ...

. She spent time during childhood and youth in a

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...

due to suffering from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. Frugoni graduated from Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza" in 1964 with a thesis entitled ''Il tema dei tre vivi e dei tre morti nella tradizione medievale italiana'' ('' the Three Living and the Three Dead in Italian medieval tradition''), published two years later in the "Atti della

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...

". In it, she searched for a working method that took equal account of both texts and images, a method she always considered important, in line with her conviction that "the image speaks". She married

Salvatore Settis Salvatore Settis (born 11 June 1941) is an Italian archaeologist and art historian. From 1994 to 1999 he was director of the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in Los Angeles and from 1999 to 2010 of the Scuola Normale Superio ...

in 1965, with whom she had three children.

Awards

* 1994,

Selected works

* ''Una lontana città. Sentimenti e immagini nel Medioevo' (Collana Saggi n.651).'' Torino: Einaudi. 1983. * * (

premio Viareggio The Viareggio Prize ( it, Premio Viareggio, italic=no or ) is an Italian literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Rèpaci, to rival the Milanese ...

1994 for essays) * ''Vita di un uomo: Francesco d'Assisi'', Einaudi, Torino 1995, con introduzione di

Jacques Le Goff Jacques Le Goff (1 January 1924 – 1 April 2014) was a French historian and prolific author specializing in the Middle Ages, particularly the 12th and 13th centuries. Le Goff championed the Annales School movement, which emphasizes long-term t ...

. * ''Due Papi per un giubileo. Celestino V, Bonifacio VIII e il primo Anno Santo'', Rizzoli, Milano 2000. * ''Medioevo sul naso. Occhiali, bottoni e altre invenzioni medievali'', Laterza, Roma-Bari 2001. * ''Da stelle a stelle. Memorie di un paese contadino'', Laterza, Roma-Bari 2003 edicated_to_Solto_Collina,_a_town_in_the_Bergamo.html" ;"title="Solto_Collina.html" ;"title="edicated to Solto Collina">edicated to Solto Collina, a town in the Bergamo">Solto_Collina.html" ;"title="edicated to Solto Collina">edicated to Solto Collina, a town in the Bergamo area] * ''Civiltà dei Castelli'', Ecra - Edizioni del Credito Cooperativo, Ecra, Roma 2011. * ''La cappella Scrovegni di Giotto a Padova con annesso DVD della Cappella'', Einaudi, Torino 2005. * ''Una solitudine abitata: Chiara d'Assisi'', Laterza, Roma-Bari 2006.Recensione
di ''Una solitudine abitata'' in mondimedievali.net. * ''Il Battistero di Parma, guida ad una lettura iconografica'' in ''La cattedrale e il battistero di Parma con DVD'', Einaudi, Torino 2007. * ''L'affare migliore di Enrico. Giotto e la cappella Scrovegni'', Einaudi, Torino 2008. * ''La voce delle immagini. Pillole iconografiche dal Medioevo'', Einaudi, Torino 2010. * ''Le storie di San Francesco. Guida agli affreschi della Basilica superiore di Assisi'', ET Saggi collana, Einaudi, 2010 * * * * ''Le conseguenze di una citazione fuori posto'', Edizioni Biblioteca Francescana, Milano, 2018, * *

Collaborations

* ''Dizionario del Medioevo'', with

Alessandro Barbero Alessandro Barbero (born April 30, 1959) is an Italian historian, novelist and essayist. Barbero was born in Turin. He attended the University of Turin, where he studied literature and Medieval history. He won the 1996 Strega Prize, Italy's mos ...

, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1994 * Bruno Zanardi, ''Il cantiere di Giotto. Le storie di san Francesco ad Assisi'', introduction by

Federico Zeri Federico Zeri (12 August 1921 – 5 October 1998) was an Italian art historian specialised in Italian Renaissance painting. He wrote for the Italian newspaper '' La Stampa'', and was a well known television-personality in Italy. Zeri was born i ...

, historic-iconographic notes by Chiara Frugoni, Skira, Milano 1996. * ''Storia di un giorno in una città medioevale'', with a commentary by Arsenio Frugoni, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1997. * ''Medioevo. Storia di voci, racconto di immagini'', with Alessandro Barbero, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1999. * ''Mille e non più mille. Viaggio fra le paure di fine millennio'', with

Georges Duby Georges Duby (7 October 1919 – 3 December 1996) was a French historian who specialised in the social and economic history of the Middle Ages. He ranks among the most influential medieval historians of the twentieth century and was one of Franc ...

, Rizzoli, Milano 1999. * ''Senza misericordia. Il Trionfo della Morte e la Danzamacabra a Clusone'', with Simone Facchinetti, Einaudi, Torino 2016,

Editor and contributor

* 'Lo sguardo dell'uomo. Il Medioevo', in G. Duby and M. Perrot, ''Storia delle donne'' (Laterza: Roma-Bari, 1992), pages 70-100 * 'La donna nelle immagini, la donna immaginata' in ''La storia delle donne. Il Medioevo'', edited by C. Klapisch Zuber (Laterza: Roma-Bari, 1990), pages 424-457 * * * * * 'Il Villani Illustrato. Firenze e L'Italia medievale nelle 253 immagini del ms. Chigiano L VIII 296 della Biblioteca Vaticana', in ''Biblioteca Vaticana. Firenze: Le Lettere.'' 2005. p. 7-12. ncluded the editing of most of the commentaries on the miniatures

Fiction

* ''Perfino le stelle devono separarsi'', Milano, Feltrinelli, 2013 . * ''San Francesco e il lupo'', illustrations by Felice Feltracco, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2013 * ''San Francesco e la notte di Natale'', illustrations by Felice Feltracco, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2014 * ''La storia della libellula coraggiosa'', illustrations by Felice Feltracco, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2015 * ''Quando il sole si arrabbia'', illustrations by Felice Feltracco, Lucca, Cinquesensi Editore, 2017

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Frugoni, Chiara 1940 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Italian historians 21st-century Italian historians Italian academics Italian medievalists University of Pisa faculty University of Rome Tor Vergata faculty Historians of the Catholic Church Sapienza University of Rome alumni Viareggio Prize winners Italian biographers People from Pisa