Francesco Benozzo (born 22 February 1969) is an Italian poet, musician and philologist. He works as a Research Fellow in Philology at 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 ...

, Italy.

Biographical notes

*''Poetry'' Author of long epic poems about natural landscapes, Benozzo usually composes them orally and then performs them with his harp (the last two published are ''Felci in rivolta / Ferns in revolt'' 015 and ''La capanna del naufrago / The Castaway's Shack'' 017 Since 2015 he has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetry in defence of natural places and for his use of techniques belonging to the ancient tradition of oral poetry. In 2016, on the official webpage of the Swedish Academy, he was consecrated by the international readers' jury as the most worthy author for the prize itself. *''Philology and Linguistics'' In his revolutionary book ''Speaking Australopithecus'' (written together with the archaeologist Marcel Otte) he argues for a much greater antiquity of human language than has usually been presumed in recent research (according to which it was born with

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

at the end of Middle Paleolithic – 50.000 years ago – or at the most with some

Neandertal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While the ...

, 200.000 years ago), providing linguistic and archaeological evidence for seeing the appearance of human language with

Australopithecus ''Australopithecus'' (, ; ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genus ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans) emerged within ''Australopithecus'', as sister to e.g. ''Austral ...

, between 4 and 3 million years ago. He is the author of more than 700 publications, including academic works on oral poetry, shamanism, anarchism, ethnophilology, the Paleolithic continuity theory, and the problem of landscape in literature. He is the general editor of the international journals "Philology" (Peter Lang publisher, Bern-Oxford-New York), "Quaderni di Semantica" (Edizioni dell'Orso, Alessandria, Italy) and "Quaderni di Filologia Romanza" (Pàtron editore, Bologna, Italy). *''Music'' As a songwriter and harpist, he released 11 CDs, produced in Italy, Denmark and UK (the last published is ''Ytiddo BPB - Benozzo Performs Bowie'' 017, reaching an international wide appeal (two special mentions at the Edinburgh Folk Awards, one prize as "Best album of the month" assigned by the magazine "RootsWorld", and for two times the National Italian Musical Prize "Giovanna Daffini"). He represented Italian poetry and music in different international happenings, including the Rich Text Literature Festival in Cardiff (Wales), the Tradicionarius Festival in Barcelona (Spain), the Stanza Poetry Festival in St. Andrews (Scotland), the Festival Literario de Madeira (Portugal), and the Printemps des poètes (France) He performed in Rome together with the Nobel Prize Wislawa Szymborska.

Discography

*''In'tla piola'' (Sain records, Wales/UK, 2000) *''Carte di mare'' (MusicOn, ITA, 2001) (with Matteo Meschiari) *''Il libro di Taliesin'' (Frame Events, ITA, 2004) *''Arpa celtica'' (Concerto Live, Centro Campostrini, ITA, 2005) *''Terracqueo'' (Tutl Records, DK, 2009) *''Libertà l'è morta'' (Tutl Records, DK, 2013) (with Fabio Bonvicini) *''Ponte del diavolo'' (RadiciMusic, ITA, 2014) (with Fabio Bonvicini) *''L'inverno necessario / The Necessary Winter'' (Tutl Records, DK, 2016) *''Un Requiem Laico'' (ARCI RE, ITA, 2016) (with Fabio Bonvicini & Fratelli Mancuso) *''Ytiddo. BPB- Benozzo Performs Bowie'' (Universalia, ITA, 2017)

Main Poetry Books

*''Onirico geologico'', Ferrara, Edizioni Kolibris, 2014 *''Felci in rivolta / Ferns in Revolt'', with a translation by G. Sutherland, Ferrara, Kolibris, 2016 *''La capanna del naufrago / The Castaway's Shack'', Ferrara, Kolibris, 2017

Main Philological books

*''Landscape perception in early celtic literature'', Aberystwyth, Celtic studies, 2004 *''La tradizione smarrita: le origini non scritte delle letterature romanze'', Roma, Viella, 2007 *''Cartografie occitaniche: approssimazione alla poesia dei trovatori'', Napoli, Liguori, 2008 *''Etnofilologia: un'introduzione'', Napoli, Liguori, 2010 *''Breviario di etnofilologia'', Lecce-Rovato, Pensa Multimedia, 2012 *''Anarchia e quarto umanesimo: un'intervista su irriverenza, scienza e dissidenza'', Bologna, Clueb, 2012 *''Appello all'UNESCO per liberare Dante dai dantisti'', Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2013 *''DESLI: dizionario etimologico-semantico della lingua italiana'' (con Mario Alinei), Bologna, Pendragon, 2015 *''The Shamanic Origins of European Culture'', Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2015 *''Carducci'', Milano, Rizzoli-Corriere della sera, 2016 *''Il giro del mondo in ottanta saggi'', Roma, Aracne, 2016 *''Speaking Australopithecus. A New Theory on the Origins of Human Language'' (with Marcel Otte), Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2017 *''DESCI. Dizionario etimologico semantico dei cognomi italiani'' (with Mario Alinei), Savona, PM edizioni *''Falsi germanismi nelle lingue romanze'', Alessandria, Edizioni dell’Orso, 2018 *''Perspectives in Semantics'', Edizioni dell’Orso, 2018 *''Liguri, Etruschi e Celti'', Modena, Deputazione di Storia Patria, 2017

References

External links

Benozzo's website at the University of Bologna Website of the Paleolithic Continuity Paradigm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benozzo, Francesco 1969 births Living people 21st-century Italian poets 20th-century Italian poets Italian musicians Italian philologists Italian harpists Italian essayists Male essayists 20th-century essayists 21st-century essayists Italian male non-fiction writers 20th-century Italian male writers