Gianfranco Contini (4 January 1912 – 1 February 1990) was an Italian academic and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

. He studied at the Collegio Mellerio Rosmini in

Domodossola Domodossola (; Lombard: Dòm) is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in the region of Piedmont, northern Italy. It was also known as Oscela, Oscella, Oscella dei Leponzi, Ossolo, Ossola Lepontiorum, and Domo d'Ossola ...

, then at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...

, where he graduated in 1933. Later, he studied also in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, where he met

Giulio Einaudi Giulio Einaudi (; 2 January 1912 – 5 April 1999) was an Italian book publisher. The eponymous company that he founded in 1933 became "a European wellspring of fine literature, intellectual thought and political theory"Saxon, Wolfgang ''The New ...

Massimo Mila Massimo Mila (14 August 1910 – 26 December 1988) was an Italian musicologist, music critic, intellectual and anti-fascist. Biography He studied at the Liceo classico Massimo d'Azeglio in Turin, where he was a pupil of Augusto Monti and where h ...

, and

Leone Ginzburg Leone Ginzburg (, , ; 4 April 1909 – 5 February 1944) was an Italian editor, writer, journalist and teacher, as well as an important anti-fascist political activist and a hero of the resistance movement. He was the husband of the renowned auth ...

, who shortly after started the Einaudi's publishing company. From 1934 to 1936, he lived in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, following

Joseph Bédier Joseph Bédier (28 January 1864 – 29 August 1938) was a French writer and scholar and historian of medieval France. Biography Bédier was born in Paris, France, to Adolphe Bédier, a lawyer of Breton origin, and spent his childhood in Réunion. ...

's lessons, then he was called to teach in

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

and

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 ...

, where he became a contributor to "Letteratura", a literary magazine where he shared his views, among others, with

Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale (; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature. Life and works Early years Montale was born in Genoa. His family were che ...

, and where he began to collaborate with the

Accademia della Crusca The Accademia della Crusca (; "Academy of the Bran"), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language ...

. In 1938, he was called to teach Romance Philology at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

, as a successor of Bruno Migliorini. Among his students, there have been the critics D'Arco Silvio Avalle and Dante Isella. After 20 years of brilliant academic activity, he was appointed at 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 ...

, and to the

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. It was founded in 1810 wi ...

. He was also associated to the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epig ...

. He directed the Centre of Philology Studies of the

, until March 1971. He belonged to the

Accademia 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 ...

, and was President of the

Società Dantesca Italiana ''Società'' (Italian: ''Society'') was an Italian communist cultural magazine published in Italy between 1945 and 1961. History and profile ''Società'' was founded as a quarterly magazine in Florence in 1945. The founders were Ranuccio Bianchi ...

. In 1987, he went back to his home-town where he died three years later.

Selected bibliography

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

,'' Rime'' (editor), 1939 *''Poeti del Duecento'' (editor), 1960 *''Letteratura dell'Italia unita 1861-1968'' (editor), 1968 * Francesco De Sanctis, ''Scelta di scritti critici e ricordi'' (editor), 1969 *''Varianti e altra linguistica'', 1970 (collection literary essays 1938-68) *''Un'idea di Dante'', 1970 *

Carlo Emilio Gadda Carlo Emilio Gadda (; November 14, 1893 – May 21, 1973) was an Italian writer and poet. He belongs to the tradition of the language innovators, writers that played with the somewhat stiff standard pre-war Italian language, and added elements o ...

, ''La cognizione del dolore'' (introduction), 1970 *''Altri esercizi'', 1972 (collection of literary essays, 1942–71) *

Roberto Longhi Roberto Longhi (28 December 1890 – 3 June 1970) was an Italian academic, art historian, and curator. The main subjects of his studies were the painters Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca. Early life and career Longhi was born in December 189 ...

, ''Da Cimabue a Morandi'' (editor), 1973 *''Esercizi di lettura sopra autori contemporanei con un’appendice su testi non contemporanei'', 1974 (partially published before as ''Un anno di letteratura'', 1942) *''Una lunga fedeltà. Scritti su Eugenio Montale'', 1974 *

Francesco Petrarca Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

, ''Canzoniere'' (introduction), 1975 *''Letteratura italiana del Quattrocento'' (editor), 1976 *''Letteratura italiana delle origini'' (editor), 1978 *

, ''L'opera in versi'' (editor), 1980 *''Letteratura italiana del Risorgimento 1789-1861'' (editor), 1986 *''Ultimi esercizî ed elzeviri'', 1987 (collection of literary essays, 1968–87) *''Antologia leopardiana'' (editor), 1988 *

, ''Lettere a Gianfranco Contini a cura del destinatario 1934-67'', 1988 (letters edited as addressee) *''Quarant'anni di amicizia: scritti su Carlo Emilio Gadda (1934-88)'', 1989 *''Breviario di ecdotica'', 1990 *''Poeti del Dolce stil novo'' (editor), 1991 *''Racconti della Scapigliatura piemontese'' (editor), 1992 *''La letteratura italiana Otto-Novecento'' (editor), 1998 *''Postremi esercizi ed elzeviri'', 1998 (latest collection of essays) *''Poesie'', Pietro Montorfani ed., 2010 * Massimo Colella, ''Gianfranco Contini e Francesco Orlando: un’idea di Dante, un’idea della letteratura'', in «Xenia. Trimestrale di Letteratura e Cultura» (Genova), IV, 3, 2019, pp. 20–32.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contini, Gianfranco 1912 births 1990 deaths Academic staff of the University of Freiburg Italian literary critics Italian male non-fiction writers Italian philologists Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Academic staff of the University of Florence University of Turin alumni Academic staff of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 20th-century philologists