Professor of Italian Literature University of Naples “L'Orientale”
(Italy), Faculty of Languages and Literatures. Graduated in 1982 at
Catholic University (Milan) with a dissertation on Iacopo Sannazaro
and cultural relationships between Italy and Europe in the
Renaissance, directed by the famous Petrarch’s scholar Giuseppe
Billanovich. His researchs focused on Renaissance Literature:
tradition of classical texts, history of intellectual workshops in
the dawn of Modern Age (printing and manuscript notebooks), visual
culture and arts. Secretary of the Commissione Nazionale Vinciana,
and the author of a Leonardo Biography translated in other
languages, he was appointed to prepare the critical edition of
Leonardo da Vinci’s manuscripts, under the direction of Carlo
Pedretti (the Book on painting in the Vatican Library, published in
1995, and the Codex Arundel 263 in the British Library, published
in 1998). Another main collaboration was in the organization of the
important exhibitions on Leonardo in 2003 (New York, Metropolitan
Museum, and Paris, Louvre). Other studies are also dedicated to
authors of modern italian literature: Parini, Leopardi, Campana.
Former fellow at the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies (Villa
I Tatti), teacher in the universities of Pavia, Macerata, Chieti
and Paris-Sorbonne, he is currently professor of Italian Literature
at the university of Naples “L'Orientale”, where he leads the PhD
School in Italian Studies.