The Serena Professorship of Italian is the senior

professorship Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

in the study of Italian language, literature and culture at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

and

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

. At Cambridge, it was founded in 1917 by a donation of £10,000 from Arthur Serena (died 1922), a

shipbroker Shipbroking is a financial service, which forms part of the global shipping industry. Shipbrokers are specialist intermediaries/negotiators (i.e. brokers) between shipowners and charterers who use ships to transport cargo, or between buyers and ...

and son of the Venetian patriot Leone Serena. He also endowed the Serena Medal awarded annually by the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

for furtherance of the study of Italian history, philosophy, music, literature, art and economics.

Serena Professors at Birmingham

Linetta de Castelvecchio Richardson Linetta Palamidessi de Castelvecchio Richardson (13 October 1880 – 4 June 1975) was an Italian-British scholar. Career Having taught informally at the two women's colleges of the University of Cambridge, she was a lecturer and head of Italian ...

(1921–1946) * J. H. Whitfield (1946-1974) * Philip McNair (1974-1994) * Michael Caesar (1994-2008)

Serena Professors at Cambridge

Thomas Okey Thomas Okey (30 September 1852 – 4 May 1935) was an expert on basket weaving, a translator of Italian, and a writer on art and the topography of architecture and art works in Italy and France. Okey's first experience of the Italian language cam ...

(1919-1929) * Raffaello Piccoli (1929-1933) *

Edward Bullough Edward Bullough (28 March 1880 – 17 September 1934) was an English aesthetician and scholar of modern languages, who worked at the University of Cambridge. He did experimental work on the perception of colours, and in his theoretical work intr ...

(1933-1934) *

Eric Reginald Pearce Vincent The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

(1935-1962)''Italian Studies presented to E. R. Vincent on his retirement from the Chair of Italian at Cambridge''; edited by C. P. Brand, K. Foster, U. Limentani. Cambridge: Heffer, 1962 * Uberto Limentani (1962-1981) * Patrick Boyde (1982-2002) * Zygmunt Barański (2002-2012) *

Robert Gordon Robert Gordon may refer to: Entertainment * Robert Gordon (actor) (1895–1971), silent-film actor * Robert Gordon (director) (1913–1990), American director * Robert Gordon (singer) (1947–2022), American rockabilly singer * Robert Gordon (scr ...

(2012–present)

Serena Professors at Manchester

* E. G. Gardner (1920) * P. Rébora (1923) *

Mario Praz Mario Praz (; September 6, 1896, Rome – March 23, 1982, Rome) was an Italian-born critic of art and literature, and a scholar of English literature. His best-known book, ''The Romantic Agony'' (1933), was a comprehensive survey of the decadent ...

(1932–34) *

Walter Llewellyn Bullock Professor Walter Llewellyn Bullock (7 March 1890 – 19 February 1944) was a prominent member of the Bullock family, an English scholar, critic, teacher, lecturer and promoter of Italian Studies at the Universities of Chicago and Manchester where ...

(1935–1944) (The Chair was vacant between 1944 and 1961) * Giovanni Aquilecchia (1961–1970) *

Thomas Gwynfor ('Gwyn') Griffith Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

(1971–1988) *

David Robey David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

(1989–1998) *

Maggie Günsberg Maggie is a common short form of the name Magdalena, Magnolia, Margaret. Maggie may refer to: People Women * Maggie Adamson, Scottish musician * Maggie Aderin-Pocock (born 1968), British scientist * Maggie Alderson (born 1959), Aust ...

(2000–2004) * Stephen J. Milner (2006–present)

Serena Professors at Oxford

Cesare Foligno Cesare, the Italian version of the given name Caesar, may refer to: Given name * Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria (1738–1794), an Italian philosopher and politician * Cesare Airaghi (1840–1896), Italian colonel * Cesare Arzelà (1847–1912), I ...

(1919–40) *

Alessandro Passerin d'Entrèves Alessandro Passerin d'Entrèves (also known in French as Alexandre and in English as Alexander; and sometimes referred to as Passerin d'Entrèves et Courmayeur; and known professionally in English as A. P. D'Entreves) (Turin, 26 April 1902 – 15 D ...

(1946–57) *

Cecil Grayson Cecil Grayson, CBE, FBA (5 February 1920 – 29 April 1998) was an English Italian studies scholar. He was the Serena Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Oxford from 1958 to 1987. Life Career Born on 5 February 1920, Grayson ca ...

(1957–87) * ''unfilled'' (1987–90) *

John Woodhouse John Walker Woodhouse (28 January 188413 March 1955) was an Anglican suffragan bishop from 1945 until 1953. He was born on 28 January 1884 and educated at Charterhouse and University College, Oxford before embarking on an ecclesiastical career ...

(1990–2001) *

Martin McLaughlin Martin L. McLaughlin is Professor of Italian and Agnelli-Serena Professor of Italian Studies in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford where he is a Fellow of Magdalen College.

(2001–2017) *

Simon Gilson Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

(2018–date) When after Grayson’s retirement the Serena Chair was ‘frozen’, because of government funding cuts, Gianni Agnelli, head of Fiat, agreed a contribution of £750,000 to ‘unfreeze’ the Oxford Chair. In recognition of this benefaction, the name of the Chair at Oxford became the Fiat-Serena Chair of Italian Studies. In the summer of 2009 there was a further modification in nomenclature when the name changed to the Agnelli-Serena Chair of Italian Studies, a change which reflects more directly the role of the two great benefactors at the beginning and end of the twentieth century.

References

*Charlton, H. B. (1951) ''Portrait of a University''. Manchester U. P.; p. 173 *Uberto Limentani, ‘Leone and Arthur Serena and the Cambridge Chair of Italian 1919-1934’, in Martin McLaughlin (ed.), ''Britain and Italy from Romanticism to Modernism. A Festschrift for Peter Brand'' (Oxford: Legenda, 2000), pp. 154–77. {{DEFAULTSORT:Professor of Italian, Serena Italian, Serena School of Arts and Humanities, University of Cambridge Italian, Serena Magdalen College, Oxford Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester Academics of the University of Manchester Language education in the United Kingdom Italian, Serena Italian-language education Geographical distribution of the Italian language Lists of people associated with the University of Oxford