Niccolò Rodolico (14 March 1873 – 1969) was an Italian

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, a professor in the

University of Messina The University of Messina ( it, Università degli Studi di Messina; Latin: ''Studiorum Universitas Messanae''), known colloquially as UniME, is a state university located in Messina, Sicily, Italy. Founded in 1548 by Pope Paul III, it was the wor ...

and 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 ...

. Born at

Trapani Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an imp ...

, a fishing port in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, after attending the ''Liceo Ximenes'' in his home town, where he was a friend of

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 ...

, Rodolico went on to the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continu ...

. There, he was a student of

Giosuè Carducci Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci (; 27 July 1835 – 16 February 1907) was an Italian poet, writer, literary critic and teacher. He was very noticeably influential, and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906, h ...

, who directed him towards focussing on the study of

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

. At first his interests centred on the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

, with particular regard to the social history of

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

. Later, he turned his attention towards modern history and above all that of

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

and Southern Italy in the eighteenth century. He took a particular interest in the life and work of the 19th-century monarch Charles Albert of Sardinia.Arturo Carlo Jemolo, Maria Vismara Missiroli, ''Lettere a Mario Falco'' vol. 2 (2010), p. 66, note 177 (in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

) Rodolico was a close friend of the anti-fascist

Gaetano Salvemini Gaetano Salvemini (; 8 September 1873 – 6 September 1957) was an Italian Socialist and antifascist politician, historian and writer. Born in a family of modest means, he became an acclaimed historian both in Italy and abroad, particularly in ...

, who left the country during the 1920s.Gaetano Salvemini, Enzo Tagliacozzo, ''Carteggio'' (1984) p. 354 The former King Umberto II, while in exile, nominated Rodolico as a member of the Royal Council of Senators and awarded him the Civil Order of Savoy, the highest honour available to him. Rodolico died at

Fiesole Fiesole () is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a scenic height above Florence, 5 km (3 miles) northeast of that city. It has structures dating to Etruscan and Roman times. Sin ...

in 1969. A high school in Florence has been named after him.

Selected publications

*'' Siciliani nello Studio di Bologna nel Medio Evo'' (1895) *''Dal Comune alla Signoria'' (1898) *''Il popolo minuto - Note di storia fiorentina (1343-1376)'' (1899) *'' Cronaca fiorentina di Marchionne di Coppo Stefani'' (ed., 1903) *''La democrazia fiorentina nel suo tramonto (1378-1382)'' (1905) *''La reggenza lorenese in Toscana (1737-1765)'' (1908) *''Le condizioni morali della Toscana prima dei lorenesi'' (1908) *''Stato e Chiesa in Toscana durante la reggenza lorenese'' (1910) *''La storia d'Italia narrata ai soldati d'Italia del 1916'' (1916) *''Gli amici e i tempi di Scipione de' Ricci'' (1920) *''Il popolo agli inizi del Risorgimento nell'Italia meridionale'' (1926) *''Carlo Alberto principe di Carignano'' (1931) *''Carlo Alberto negli anni di regno 1831-1843'' (1936) *''Carlo Alberto negli anni 1843-1849'' (1943) *''Il popolo minuto in Firenze'' (1944) *''Lo studio fiorentino in Firenze'' (1944) *''I Ciompi'' (1945) *''Libro azzurro sul Referendum 1946'' (with V. Prunas-Tola) (1953) *''Storia degli italiani'' (1954) *''I palazzi del popolo nei comuni toscani del Medio Evo'' (1962) *''Il Risorgimento vive'' (1962)

Notes

1873 births 1969 deaths 20th-century Italian historians {{Italy-historian-stub