The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' ( en, Biographical Dictionary of the Italians) is a
biographical dictionary
A biographical dictionary is a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, in ''Who's Who'', or deceased people onl ...
published in 100 volumes by the
Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1960 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biographies of distinguished
Italians
, flag =
, flag_caption = Flag of Italy, The national flag of Italy
, population =
, regions = Italy 55,551,000
, region1 = Brazil
, pop1 = 25–33 million
, ref1 =
, ...
.
The entries are signed by their authors and provide a rich bibliography.
History
The work was conceived in 1925, to follow the model of similar works such as the German ''
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (1912, 56 volumes) or the British ''
Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'' (from 2004 the ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
''; 60 volumes).
It is planned to include biographical entries on Italians who deserve to be preserved in history and who lived at any time during the long period from the fall of the
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...
to the present. As director of the
Treccani
The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' ( Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language ...
,
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile (; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian neo- Hegelian idealist philosopher, educator, and fascist politician. The self-styled "philosopher of Fascism", he was influential in providing an intellectual foundation for ...
entrusted the task of coordinating the work of drafting to
Fortunato Pintor, who was soon joined by
Arsenio Frugoni. In 1959 the direction was taken up by
Alberto Maria Ghisalberti.
The first volume was published in 1960 to mark the 100th
anniversary of the unification of Italy.
It had taken about 15 years to organize a huge index of historical figures from which 40,000 were selected as Italians deserving to be remembered by a separate entry. In December 2020, the 100th and last volume appeared. Meanwhile updates were occasionally issued: for example, in 1990 a supplement was issued for the letters A-C containing entries of people who had died before 1985.
In October 2009, following the threatened closure of the work, or reduction to a simplified version that would only be maintained online, the publisher launched an appeal to ensure the continuation according to the strict scholarly criteria that had hitherto characterized the paper version.
In 2010 the list of planned items from the letters M to Z was published, for the purpose of their inclusion in the planned future volumes.
Currently the director of the work is Raffaele Romanelli.
In March 2011 a new portal was designed to access the dictionary, in conjunction with the online version of the Treccani Encyclopaedia.
This was formally launched on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Italy.
Volumes
* 1: Aaron-Albertucci
* 2: Albicante-Ammannati
* 3: Ammirato-Arcoleo
* 4: Arconati-Bacaredda
* 5: Bacca-Baratta
* 6: Baratteri-Bartolozzi
* 7: Bartolucci-Bellotto
* 8: Bellucci-Beregan
* 9: Berengario-Biagini
* 10: Biagio-Boccaccio
* 11: Boccadibue-Bonetti
* 12: Bonfadini-Borrello
* 13: Borremans-Brancazolo
* 14: Branchi-Buffetti
* 15: Buffoli-Caccianemici
* 16: Caccianiga-Caluso
* 17: Calvart-Canefri
* 18: Canella-Cappello
* 19: Cappi-Cardona
* 20: Carducci-Carusi
* 21: Caruso-Castelnuovo
* 22: Castelvetro-Cavallotti
* 23: Cavallucci-Cerretesi
* 24: Cerreto-Chini
* 25: Chinzer-Cirni
* 26: Cironi-Collegno
* 27: Collenuccio-Confortini
* 28: Conforto-Cordero
* 29: Cordier-Corvo
* 30: Cosattini-Crispolto
* 31: Cristaldi-Dalla Nave
* 32: Dall'Anconata-Da Ronco
* 33: D'Asaro-De Foresta
* 34: Primo supplemento A-C
* 35: Indice A-C
* 36: De Fornari-Della Fonte
* 37: Della Fratta-Della Volpaia
* 38: Della Volpe-Denza
* 39: Deodato-Di Falco
* 40: Di Fausto-Donadoni
* 41: Donaggio-Dugnani
* 42: Dugoni-Enza
* 43: Enzo-Fabrizi
* 44: Fabron-Farina
* 45: Farinacci-Fedrigo
* 46: Feducci-Ferrerio
* 47: Ferrero-Filonardi
* 48: Filoni-Forghieri
* 49: Forino-Francesco da Serino
* 50: Francesco 1. Sforza-Gabbi
* 51: Gabbiani-Gamba
* 52: Gambacorta-Gelasio 2
* 53: Gelati-Ghisalberti
* 54: Ghiselli-Gimma
* 55: Ginammi-Giovanni da Crema
* 56: Giovanni Di Crescenzio-Giulietti
* 57: Giulini-Gonzaga
* 58: Gonzales-Graziani
* 59: Graziano-Grossi Gondi
* 60: Grosso-Guglielmo da Forli
* 61: Guglielmo Gonzaga-Jacobini
* 62: Iacobiti-Labriola
* 63: Labroca-Laterza
* 64: Latilla-Levi Montalcini
* 65: Levis-Lorenzetti
* 66: Lorenzetto-Macchetti
* 67: Macchi-Malaspina
* 68: Malatacca-Mangelli
* 69: Mangiabotti-Marconi
* 70: Marcora-Marsilio
* 71: Marsilli-Massimino da Salerno
* 72: Massimo-Mechetti
* 73: Meda-Messadaglia
* 74: Messi-Miraglia
* 75: Miranda-Montano
* 76: Montauti-Morlaiter
* 77: Morlini-Natolini
* 78: Natta-Nurra
* 79: Nursio-Ottolini Visconti
* 80: Ottone-Pansa
* 81: Pansini-Pazienza
* 82: Pazzi-Pia
* 83: Piacentini-Pio V
* 84: Piovene-Ponzo
* 85: Ponzone-Quercia
* 86: Querenghi-Rensi
* 87: Renzi-Robortello (2016)
* 88: Robusti-Roverella (2017)
* 89: Rovereto-Salvemini (2017)
* 90: Salvestrini-Saviozzo da Siena (2017)
* 91: Savoia-Semeria (2018)
* 92: Semino-Sisto IV (2018)
* 93: Sisto V-Stammati (2019)
* 94: Stampa-Tarantelli (2019)
* 95: Taranto-Togni (2019)
* 96: Toja-Trivelli(2019)
* 97: Trivulzio-Valeri (2020)
* 98: Valeriani-Verra (2020)
* 99: Verrazzano-Vittorio Amedeo (2020)
*100:Vittorio Emanuele I-Zurlo (2020)
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Italian-language encyclopedias
Italian encyclopedias
Biographical dictionaries
20th-century encyclopedias
21st-century encyclopedias
Book series introduced in 1960